Woke this morning to a clear cold day (about 1C). Went into The city area to find somewhere for a spot of breakfast. No such luck. City was dead as a dodo. Everything was closed. The only people who were about were morning joggers. It looked like we would have to go back to the hotel for breakfast. On the way back we happened upon a bakery that was open. Bought a couple of croissants and sweet pastries and coffee and sat outside the shop to partake. Beautiful pas...

Arrived in Clermont late yesterday afternoon amid pouring rain. As we got off the freeway to go through the toll exit there was a huge back up of cars at the gates. As we got through the reason became apparent - there were police and army personnel aplenty, and they were pulling cars off to the Side to search them. Part of the ongoing security measures. We weren't pulled over though so we were soon on our way into the city. Seems like an interesting place, a lot ...

Made our way across Paris to pick up the car about 10am. Wouldn't you know it, its raining. Not the best conditions to try and drive in Paris. But as long as our route back to the hotel (where we left our bags) keeps us clear of the Arc de Triomphe we should be OK. Took us ages to get out of Paris, about 1 hour. Traffic was awful, and that was on the freeway, not suburban streets, weather was awful, BBC weather says a number of unstable weather fronts are moving...