Monaco and it's luxurious lifestyle We headed into Monte Carlo after dinner to visit the Grand Casino and to see how the rich people lived. Knowing by now that Ali, our tour director enjoyed playing practical jokes on us (she told us the white cliffs of dover were painted every 7 years!), the majority of the bus still managed to fall for the trick she played on us that night. After explaining how difficult it was to get residency for Monaco, she proceeded to...

Welcome to Barcelona: flamenco, paella, sangria After a very long day's drive from the Beaujolis wine region with the stop off at the Pont Du Gard, we arrived in Barcelona around 6pm, utterly exhausted from the day on the bus. Dinner was true Spanish style with nachos for an entrée and my first introduction with sangria, that wonderful Spanish drink make of red wine, fruit and I'm not sure what else! After dinner, took a walk around our campsite and end...

Pont Du Gard in Provence Enroute to Barcelona, we stopped at Provence, home of the ancient Roman aqueduct. The Pont du Gard was built shortly before the Christian era to allow the aqueduct of Nîmes (which is almost 50 km long) to cross the Gard river. The Roman architects and hydraulic engineers who designed this bridge, which stands almost 50 m high and is on three levels - the longest measuring 275 m - created a technical as well as an artistic masterp...

Wineing it up in the Beaujolis Wine Region On leaving Paris, we headed out to the Beaujolis wine region for 2 nights at a lovely French chateau. After dinner and a party on our first night, we woke the following morning to a gloriously sunny day. We grabbed picnic baskets and hiked up to what was called "The top of the world". This is a scenic place that has spectacular views over the region. The walk up took nearly an hour but on the way, I passed some...

My Second Visit to Paris We left London on the contiki trip at 7am, boarding the ferry at Dover and then continuing over into France by late morning. It was 5pm by the time we reached our contiki sight in Paris, and made me realise how much better it was to travel by Eurostar! The first night we had dinner and then re-boarded the bus for a night time tour of Paris, with our guide, Ali pointing out the famous landmarks. I really enjoyed it as I'd seen at l...