Deltour Hotel Millau

... view from the drivers side as I was looking right into the gorge (don't worry mum I drove very slowly and was very careful not to drive too close to the edge). Luckily there were many parking areas to stop at so both of us could get out and really appreciate how beautiful it was. On the downside it was still a little wet so hiking was off the cards...next time.

... such a huge amount of confidence to travel around Asia. I know that Spain is a little more tame than Asia, but I know that now I can be alone and I will be okay. I had never been truly on my own and I was really scared about it, but now, I embrace the opportunity. I believe everyone should travel alone, male or female, just to see what it's like. This just may be the most liberating experience of my life...so far.

So I'm going to nix Portugal from my plans. I started getting a bad feeling when I called them the other day in order to confirm my arrival and they had no idea who I was. Maybe I spoke too fast, but they seemed really confused by my arrival. I sent an email to the guy and he seemed really mad that my dates kept changing and he told me it wasn't worth their time if I came less ...

So here I am, I finally arrived in France. After a difficult goodbye at the airport, I was on my way to the great unknown. But before I started that, I had to go to the bathroom…and brush my teeth; one
thing at a time here. My flights all went really well and I never had to wait more than one hour during my connecting flights. I had a wonderful delicious airplane meal ...

... apparently it is still left over from December snow storms. Even Telus repairs lines faster! One thing that absolutely blew me away were thousands of wild daffodils amongst the scrubby alpine trees. Mixed in with the odd patch of snow I took way too many pictures. The gite we chose was in a small village right on the edge of the park. The owner's English was good which gave me an opportunity to ask lots of questions. She is ...

... have no lighting in them. You have to sound your horn as you enter the tunnel and hope you don't meet a car coming the other way. We did meet a car head on in one of the tunnels, and we had to back out of the tunnel about 250 feet (the other car was further into the tunnel than we were) in order to let them through. Kudos to John for his good backwards driving skills while under pressure!! From here we will head back toward the border of Spain and into the Cathars castle country.

... nearly all of its own electricity without using oil! The wind turbines are very large but do not make any noise (we were standing directly beneath some) and do not damage the appearance of the countryside. Having seen them up close and in so many places we think they are a good option for generating electricity back home. From Millau we are making our way to Brousse le Chateau- yet another of the specially designated "prettiest villages" of France.

We are still staying in Florac tonight, but we took a beautiful drive to this village today. The Cevennes national park countryside is gorgeous with big, green hills and hardly any homes or buildings...just countryside! We went on a 5km hike to the Chateau Roquedhouil, a nice old home built in the 1500's. There was a very tall sequoia tree that was planed in 1887 and was about 25 feet in circumference.

... I began this little journal. And I borrowed the road atlas. Now the thing is sitting beside me on the passenger seat of my car. It slides when I turn bends and that kind of irritates me so I put one hand out to stop it sliding and that endangers everybody. Kirsti began this journey with me. I told her no sunglasses, keys or mobile phones on the dashboard please, that kind of irritates me too. When the car moves and they slide around, I feel chaos. I feel ...

... in a separate dish, were a regional specialty of potatoes, onions and herbs. They could not give Yoong an a-la-carte meal, so, after sampling the first few of my courses, she went for a walk and found a Vietnamese restaurant nearby where she could get a rice meal. I had wanted to go to the Provencal, recommended in the Lonely Planet, but it was closed for the evening. We caught up with it for lunch the next day, where we had another "take it or leave it" menu for 55F. Good value ...