Monaco and Italy!

Saturday afternoon we reconvened with Rhonda and Wendy at their suite at the Majestic Hotel, in Cannes, right on la Croisette, overlooking the sea.  We sipped champagne, nibbled on cheese, and watched the locals, Bentley’s, Mazarattis’s and tourists walk this famous thoroughfare. 

Then, on to MONACO!  We dined famously at the Hermatage Hotel.  What a night!

Sunday, Don and I decided to take a short road trip.  San Remo, Italy was our destination.  A short hour by car and we were there.  The town was mostly closed since it was a Sunday, but we found a little pizzeria and then drove home.  A really, nice day and drive.

Two more countries to add to our list this trip.  All in one 24-hour period!

Long Lunches and Hanging at the Pool – French Riviera

Friday is market day in Valbonne… so guess where we went?  After getting our “exercise” shopping, what did we do?  We collect another 2 Michelin stars and dined at Lou Cigalon.

Great food, great conversation, and a GREAT CHEF.  Here we are with the master himself!

We retired to our villa a soaked up the Mediterranean sun poolside.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Making Perfume in Grasse, Cote d’Azur

The village of Grasse, France has long been known as the “perfume capital of the world.”  The village is surrounded by fields of lavender, jasmine, roses, etc.  The history of the town is pretty cool.   Ever the fashion trend-setter, Catherine de Medici (16th Century Fashionista) grew tired of the “smells” emanating from the streets and the common-folk, and decided to scent her gloves.  The Italian and French aristocracy followed her lead, and voila,  scented gloves were all the rage.  The town of Grasse, known for producing gloves, jumped on the bandwagon and over time (and the eventual decline of the glove industry) it earned it’s nickname as the “Perfume Capital of the World.”

OK, so we’re off to visit Grasse, and guess what we find?  A perfumerie that will teach us how to make our own perfume!  How cool is that?  We learned all about the three levels of perfume.  The base notes, the mid-notes and the high notes.  We smelled, sampled, chose, debated for a couple of hours, finally coming up with individual perfumes that we completely tailored to each of us.

Bonjour From Our New Digs on the Cote d’Azur!

Our House on the French Riviera

Life is good.  We’ve landed on our latest stop on the “Don and Karla World Tour.”  We’ll be hanging out in Southern France until we leave for Puerto Rico in early October. 

Watch for updates soon.

HOLA From Barcelona, Baby!

Walking La Rambla

Jumped on a plane yesterday popped over to Barcelona! This is our first time here, and we’re looking forward to checking out this city. We arrived this morning, picked up our car and drove down the Catalan coast for lunch. We’re now hangin’ out at the Hilton Diagonal Mar in a beautiful room overlooking the Mediterranean.

August – Southern California

We’ve been exploring our temporary home in Southern California. Gotta say it… we’re just loving the Southern California lifestyle. The days are endlessly sunny, the evenings are cool, and there are a TON of things to do here.

We’re lucky, we know quite a few people in the LA area, so we’ve had lots to do on the social scene. We’ve explored much of the LA basin – Hollywood, Downtown, Venice Beach (of course), Santa Monica, etc. We’ve been to many, many wonderful restaurants, dinner parties, the theater, and all the great shopping of Montana Avenue, Abbot Kinney and Beverly Hills.

As we wind down our stay here, we’re gearing up for a fabulous Fall. Barcelona for a weekend in early September and then off to the Cote d’Azur, the French Riviera for the rest of September/October.

Life is good!

Having FUN With The Top Performers on our Team

Make a Smilebox postcard