We arrived into Grenoble airport safely, which is always a relief when flying the budget European airlines, and in a timely manner. Dad (the Kelly dad that is) picked us up at the airport and taxied us to our temporary home for the next few weeks in the south of France.

Now, just before you get a picture of some granduous chateau in the south of France, let me briefly describe the home that we were set up in. It was a 1970's masterpiece, lino abound. The carpets were on the walls instead of the floor and where there weren't carpets we had an array of texturous wallpaper, add to this all the oranges and browns you could squeeze in and you have an idea of our abode.

Despite, the 1970's get up, the house was just great. We had the top floor of an elderly french couples house, they lived on the lower floor - Aline and her husband Selestine are quintessentially french, and both were just so so lovely to Em and I during our stay. The house also had a balcony that was the setting of many afternoon-into-late-night discussions of all things great and small in this world - of course all done with some fine french vino in hand with fromage at the ready. As you can tell, when Em and I were given the opportunity to put our feet up for a while and get off the road we jumped at it and made ourselves truly at home.

The time at Chambery, was spent mostly visiting the numerous lakes in the surrounding French Alps regions. After a while I started to get a little tired of the landscape - vineyards rolling down the slopes of an impressive mountain range leading into, through and around a quiet french village, meeting a lake of brilliant turqouise blue water. I started to get an idea of why there are so many francophiles peppered throughout life (such as my mother), it really is a beautiful country with an amazing lifestyle to suit their surrounds. Some of the lakes we visited included Lac Saint Andre (the local lake), Lac Bourget, Lac Annecy and Lac Geneva.

Em's birthday was celebrated by a rare visit to a french restaurant that was situated at the shores of Lac Saint Andre. We enjoying a dinner of fine french cuisine and classic local white wine whilst the rain pattered down in the lake outside, another great memory of our time overseas.

We were lucky enough also to land in Savoie, the state that is home to Chambery, in their summer festival season. The local councils, in all their wisdom had organised a comprehensive itinerary of performers and musicians showcasing their particular skills every couple of nights for the towns' people to enjoy. The highlight of the four or five shows we saw was probably the Savoie Symphony Orchestra, the sound of the 50 or so piece band coupled with the impressive surroundings of the Chateau's courtyard in the late fading sunlight of a french summer evening made this experience a truly memorable one - all this put on for the benefit of the whole community, more of this sort of thing needs to be done at home, it was just so enthralling.

Emily's idea of a good relaxing day tended to include a run and walk in the morning for two or three hours or so, whilst Lexy rested his precious head. Following this we would usually have a coffee on the balcony with Dad, whilst mum worked fevourisly at University learning her beloved French (language). If nothing was planned of the afternoon, such as a walk or day trip to some of the places around Em and I would usually grab the french ladies bikes with baskets and rounded handlebars and peddle our way to the Lac Saint Andre for an afternoon of cheap good wine, a baguette or two and some afternoon swimming.

One of the other great things about being in France at this time of year was the greatest sporting event known to man - Le Tour de France. Dad and I would often watch the day's shocks and dramas of the race unfold infront of us on french TV, but we were even lucky enough to catch a day in the flesh. It was the stage that went through a small french town of Tullins, and our great Aussie hope for the yellow jersey was still in contention (Cadel Evans), although ultimately he retained the mantle of Tour de France runner-up after falling just shy in the penultimate time trial stage. Sad for Cadel, but great experience for us all the same. I'll try and upload a video I got of the race passing us by onto our flickr account - sorry no promises with the internet connections though.

Em and I had a great time with my folks just enjoying all things french and they spoilt us rotten much of the time. Especially, the last night when the four of us went to the neighbouring village's chateau in Challes les Eaux. Which was a truly granduous way to part company. The dinner and wine here was superb, but ultimately just complimented the setting which was so incredible. It was a Chateau on a hill overlooking the town, as they tend to be, and had the geraniums flowering in windows with ivy climbing the two storey stone walls, the high ceilings and courtyard and unfolding gardens were just all a little fairytalish.

Big thanks again to my folks for the invitation and hosting us, also to Aline and Selestine for putting up with our late night banter after too many bottles of wine.