Day 29 Thursday 26 July 34C Today we visited the Vaucluse region, just north of where we are staying. We headed first for a town called Bonnieceux, in the hill about 70 km away Aix. Very narrow and winding roads, we survived to arrive and indulge in a café. From there, we headed further north towards the town hilltop town of Gordes (more about that later) and onto an Abbey called Abbay de Senanque which is a Cistercian monastery that has beautiful fields of...

Wednesday 25 July - Aix-en-Provence - 34C Today we set off for Cassis a small town on the coast south-east of Marseille with limestone hills around the coastline. It was market day and parking in the town was at a premium and so we ended up parking about 1km out of and above the town with a long downhill walk back to the town centre. We browsed through the markets first, There were stalls selling the usual clothes and drapery but they also had beautiful food sta...

Tuesday 24 July - Aix-en-Provence - 34C An early start today with a 170km drive east to the towns of Grasse and Cannes on the Cote d'Azur. Our first stop was Grasse, a few kilometres back in the hills above Cannes. Grasse is the centre of France's perfume industry and although very few of the ingredients are grown in the area these days, there are still a number of perfume factories in the town itself. We visited two factories/studios, Fragonard and Galimard an...

Monday 23 July - Provence - 30C. We set off this morning in our hire car along the Tollway to Arles following a recommendation from the owner of our accommodation. Unfortunately we came to a traffic-jam induced standstill some 13km short of Arles. After 15 mins and moving nowhere we reversed back up the emergency lane to a service exit (following the example set by many other French drivers) and made a quick getaway. Our car is a convertible Renault, so once ...

Sunday 22 July - Aix-en-Provence - 29C. We woke to a beautiful sunny day that promised to reach 29 and it did not disappoint. We set off to tour the Gorges du Verdon which is a fabulous gorge with spectacular views about 120km north-east of our base here at Aix-en-Provence. Driving was at times something of a hair-raising experience - Driving along the walls halfway up the canyon on a two-way road wide enough for 1 and a half cars, the car in front would sudden...