Hi everyone

Currently sitting having a gourmet french picnic and swimming in lake borget, the biggest fresh water lake in France next to the town of aix-les-baines, where we arrived yesterday and are staying for the next 5 days. Ok so how did we get here from our last post.

We have just come from spending three wonderful days in Lyon, a beautiful French city south east of Paris and known to be the gastronomic capital of france. Also much quieter and cleaner than paris with two large rivers running through it, least to say that we quickly fell in love with it.

First day we explored the old town. A small but beautiful stretch of local restaurants, bars, roman ruins, a famous cathedral and secret passage ways. At night we walked along the famous Rhone river to the city's massive park. The next morning marked the reunion with shannon (Nats friend from school who we are currently staying with). She came in for the day to show us around the city and encouraged us to drink as much red wine as possible. After misjudging pervious wine buys and always for our needs we decided on buying one bottle more than the general estimate. So after a day of exploring, we utilized the local bike hire system and rode to the park where a simple picnic turned into a session of downing 7 bottles of red. Waking up the next morning very seedy and having somehow ridden our bikes home without a scratch we met up with Anouk, Fred's sister, and a Lyon local for another tour of the sites including a 3 course lunch of local cuisine and an epic walk up the hill to Lyons famous and breathtaking cathedral for a view of the entire city. That night we went to a free summer concert in a park of world music where Nat tried some French beer in prep for Oktoberfest.

After 3 crazy days on foot it was time to pick up our hire car and test out our manual skills, ants for now anyway. The French call it what translates to 'yoghurt box' for its tiny size. So we drove and hour east of Lyon to Shannon's current home town of aix-les-baines. A very scenic town at the beginning of the alps and situated next to a 30 km crystal clear blue lake. Fred's family are great hosts and welcomed us with a dinner and many courses of alcohol. Per pre dinner sweet wine, per dinner martinis ( different to home) and dinner reds. So our second day here we sit by the lake after a glutinous picnic that has followed our morning hike up the adjacent mountain to of the town. The 360 views at the top were incredible and photos just won't do it justice but we can try. So tonight we head out for premature Bastille day (national french day) celebrations and have some amazing plans for the coming days ahead.

Hope everyone is well, hope this wasn't too long but we had to do justice to all the things we have seen and done.