My 10 day trip to Club Med Opio en Provence didn't get off to a good start as I wasn't picked up at the airport, as promised. Instead I had to take a cab to get to the resort. Luckily, the resort is about a 40 minute cab ride from the airport and the charge was a flat rate of 95 Euros.
I was greeted at the resort by Eugene who apologized for the problem and promised to look into it and find out what happened. He then gave me a tour and showed me to my room.
I have to give a special shout out to Stefano at Front Desk who assisted with my transfer to and from the airport issue, as he is the only one who kept me informed of what was happening. He also let me know that FD had been calling my Vancouver, Canada cell phone number and leaving messages. I don't think many, if any, Canadian would keep the cell phone on roaming when travelling to another continent.
After lunch and unpacking, I decided to join the afternoon tennis tournament. Unfortunately, my day got a whole lot worse as I collided with my doubles partner and fell to the artificial turf and sand tennis court holding my racquet. The result was that I scraped both of my knees (one pretty badly) and the last two fingers of my racquet hand was gouged (not a pretty sight). I went to the infirmary and was assisted by a very professional Syrine who called the doctor to come see my wounds to determine if I needed to go to the hospital. Fortunately, there was no nerve damage and all I needed was special bandages to help stop infection and speed healing. I had to change the bandages on my fingers, every day and could not get them wet for my entire stay. Therefore, no swimming or sauna and had to have gloves for showering or baths.
When Syrine was not working was I tended to by Salome in the infirmary. Both of them gave me great care!
Against the advice of the doctor, I started playing tennis again (but not doubles) after a couple days of rest. My fingers ached but thanks to the tennis coaches Benoit and Vincent, my stay improved. I can't say enough how good these coaches were and they definitely helped to improve my game. Mikca and Giles of the tennis team were also very friendly.
The quality and freshness of the food being served in the main restaurant was excellent as there were cooking and prep stations throughout. The pastries were superb. The fresh fruit was very basic but fresh and there were no exotic fruits (I may have been spoiled by the fruits available the Southeast Asia Club Med resorts). Servers Mary and Francisco were very friendly and helpful.
I did not try the a la carte restaurant because it is a bit out of the way and the menu wasn't for me.
The resort was very busy with many families and locals as well as conventions. There were also a lot of smokers. I don't speak French but got along okay as there were enough staff that could speak English. Plus Google translate helped when needed.
I have to leave my best complement to Lydia of Secrets de Provence gift shop (next to FD) at the resort. She is very knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with. She even bought some medical supplies for me from a pharmacy (outside of the village). Her shop had quite an eclectic array of products from olive oil (pressed from the olives in the resort by her) to foot balm to shaving soap to friendship bracelets!
Be prepared to do some walking as the village is a bit spread out if you want to do some sports (lots of stairs for tennis, archery, ping pong or trapeze) or use the Zen pool. Also note that you have to walk up 2 flights of stairs to get to the main restaurant.
I also did the excursion to Antibes to see a beach and the Mediterranean. I was told by the excursion desk that the taxi would take credit card for the 65 Euro ride to and from the resort. Well, it turned out that because it was near the end of the season, I had to pay cash because the cab driver only pays for his CC machine for 6 months of the year.
I did enjoy by stay at this resort but it was mainly because of a very few G.O.'s that I mentioned above and this is the first Club Med resort that I didn't meet the CDV. Also different in this resort is that G.O.'s sit amongst themselves when having meals.
