Saturday 28 July - Aix-en-Provence to Paris - 23C. This morning we finished packing and went to the TGV station to catch the fast train to Paris. The train was full and 3 hours later we arrived in Paris. We took the Metro to our hotel which proved a little challenging as we needed to change trains and there were no lifts at the crossover. Google GPS on the phone once again proved useful and quickly led us to our hotel. We are staying at the Hotel Petit Belloy...

Friday 27 July - Aix-en-Provence - 34C We had a leisurely morning before setting off for Marseille. This city is not far away (about 40 minutes) but as always the journey seems to take longer than the distance travelled, or perhaps it's vice versa. We have perfected getting lost, missing turnoffs, etc on the Aix one-way system although we (all 4 of us) are all experts on deciding on the (usually all different) direction to be taken. Today is no different as we...

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...