Dreary wet and misty start to the day, but the weather cleared as we got down onto lower ground. Countryside has certainly change since we entered Provence. Now very dry and scrubby with olive trees, lots of grapes but, unfortunately, none of the much touted fields of lavender! Skirting Montpellier, we stopped at a McDonald's for breakfast and booked a hotel on-line, at Avignon, for the night. Then went touring around and called in at the village of Chateauneuf d...

Following a tip, we're off to Rocamadour before we head off to Italy and Switzerland. Perched high on a cliff-top above a dry river valley, they place was a bit like Carcassonne, but more pleasant and less commercial. Sweltering hot day again so we used their little train, lift and cable car to get up to the Chateau. Had a good look around - stunning views. Decided we could walk down and took lunch in the shade in the town square. John had mentioned that we sh...

Tom stayed with John to "help" with hedge trimming, while Ian & Sally headed into Poitiers to avail themselves of the free WiFi access to upload the photos and send some emails. Ian cooked dinner and we all watched an episode of Top Gear - coincidentaly, they were journeying through the Swiss Alps, where we're heading next.

Back to St. Benoit this morning for groceries at the now reopened Super-U....unfortunately, so was the rest of the area! Obviously a popular tourist spot too, judging by the amount of English being spoken. Left Tom with John doing some repair work on the house windows, so Sally and Ian had a 'restful' (not) 2 hours at the supermarket. Spent the afternoon in the garden at John's pulling weeds and cutting the deadwood from a tree in the backyard. Sally cooked a de...

Took the 'luxury' of a sleep-in and a hotel breakfast before leaving Cognac and a few more photo's of landmarks in the town. A quick detour to Jarnac and the Courvorsier factory, a lengthy wrong-turn in the hillside town of Angouleme...and 45 roundabouts later we were on our way back to Lignac! Then disaster ...... low on fuel we stopped at Magnac Laval, just 40k from Lignac only to find that our debit-card won't work in the petrol pump...no worry we'll use cash...