Mona Lisa Fuveau

... pour people out onto the streets, drinks in hand. Music comes from all corners; heavy bass from the discos mixes with the melodies of guitars in the streets. Teenagers on motorized scooters whip through the crowd, doing catwalks, honking horns, screeching tires, and narrowly missing pedestrians.

A group of people walks past me, and as they do, one of them smashes a liquor bottle on the ground not so far from where I'm sitting. The response is quick as ...

... a village called Le Tholonet, not far outside of Aix, one of the villages around the Sainte-Victoire mountain. The landscape was incredible, completely different to what we have on Exmoor of course, and views
were stunning. We walked up to the Barrage (dam) Zola, built by Emile Zola’s (a French writer living in the latter half of the 19th Century) father. The water was a turquoise colour, and it was there that I chose my spot to yodel and sing The Sound of ...

... English in the entire town. We found our hostel super late at night (and they don't make hostels in France like they did in Spain... no more free internet!). The next morning, we walked into town not really knowing what to see or do. But as we were looking for a quick Petit Dejuner (breakfast) we stumbled upon the Saturday market. We sat at a cafe on the square and had the most amazing breakfast 5 euro can buy if you ...

... 8230;

First of all, we had a deadline. Something neither of us are accustomed to dealing with right now. Ferry departs Marseille at 7pm. Brian was concerned about covering the 100 km distance and finding the port in time. So, up extra early and on the road withour even eating breakfast! After all of the worry and fussing, and snaps of the whip to go ‘faster’, we arrived at the port at ...

... present was some cereal and kidney beans from Amy...we're waiting to experience her famous chilli con carne (hint hint). However, the French don't really 'do' birthday cakes in the same way that we do, so, instead of spending 15€ on an admitttedly beautiful patisserie cake, we've been sticking candles in madeleines and such like, so not all of our birthday traditions are lost!

As well as some of this quite blatant indulgement, we've also been immersing ...

Bonjour avec Aix-en-Provence Cherie
Since the last news we have visited the Cote D'Azur spending time at Monte Carlo and Antibes. We stayed near Antibes at a place called Biot and at night you could hear the seals at nearby Marineland - very strange. It was still quite hot and stickey with more mozzies. Monte Carlo was wall to wall money with billions of dollars in boats and cars. Antibes was similar but it had a lovely old town as well.
We arrived ...

... from the band. At how many places can you do that? The band plays an extended one-hour jam with dancers and self-styled gymnasts taking turns on the floor to scattered applause. Everybody’s dressed casual, white black and Arab. Some people are even wearing hiking boots, just like me! It could be Seattle… or Boulder… or Flagstaff. I’m home… for a couple more days, little blue ball and all.

It was quite a study in contrasts moving from the bright, festive colors of Roussillon to the severely plain, unadorned walls of this medieval Cistercian Abbey. We originally sought out the Abbey, in part, because in most of the pictures of it, it is surrounded by lavender fields which the monks tend to support their order. Alas, it is too late for lavender! Still, the building is very majestic and sits alone in the bottom ...

... do in Italy, that deciding where to go initially was difficult. I wanted to go to Rome, but Rome has always been a dream of mine and I wanted to see more than one destination because I was in Europe for a short time and I only had 10 days, and I would have wanted to spend all my time in Rome and not go anywhere else, so I decided to drop Rome for this trip (sad, huh). Also, I wanted to go Milan, but everything looked very ...

The 17-mile road over the green coastal mountains is charming. This is a typical French byway with the traditional plane and poplar trees planted on either side making a shady avenue. For tourists, they are part of the fabric of France - tree-lined avenues throwing dappled shade on to country lanes. For local authorities, they are a menace. Over the past 30 years they have felled thousands of maples, planes and ...