We managed to get the caravan packed and our next stop sorted out and left the caravan park at noon, 12 July and arrived in Perpignan, France late afternoon. The following day we had a lovely morning catching up with family on Skype before heading off for a drive up the Pyrenees in the afternoon. An English couple in our last caravan park had told us of a lovely drive they had done through the Pyrenees and showed us where it was on the map. As we started to climb up the mountains, the road got narrower, the drops got steeper and my fear got worse!! There weren't many cars on the road but the ones that were on it were going a bit too quick for me and when you met them on a corner and you're on the cliff side, with a couple of hundred metre drop, it's a little nerve wracking! We made it to the top without incident and as I didn't want to go back down the same road, I found an alternate route on the GPS, which was only slightly better.

The following day we were up early to visit the old walled city of Carcasonne. It was about an hours drive and it was Bastille Day in France so the traffic was quite heavy and in the town surrounding Carcassone they were setting up for the festival happening later in the day. It was lovely to see it on a busy day, full of life and a great atmosphere. Within the walled city there are a lot of lovely shops and restaurants to explore and we had a wander around and then stopped for some lunch (Loche's worst pizza on the trip so far and some of the worst service) before heading back to the car. By this stage Cara was getting very tired. Her sleeping has changed a lot because of the lifestyle over here. The sun doesn't set before 10pm and quite often we are out doing things until late. She is not in bed before 11pm usually and then waking up between 8 or 9 o'clock. If she has a day sleep it is usually only for half an hour or 40 minutes.

Millau Viaduct & Ponte Du Gard

The next day we packed up the van again and headed inland from Montpellier to a little place called Arles. We had originally planned to stop at an Allen Rogers caravan park , but due to the small site and only one nights availability we looked elsewhere. At 50 euros/ night and a five minute walk to the amenities, the next site was crossed out very quickly. The third stop was the one - a family run business and at 24 euros / night and a warm welcoming from the owners it was to be our next stop.

The next morning we were up early to travel an hour and a half to see the Millau Viaduct. Many of you would have received the numerous emails going around about this very high bridge through the Midi Pyrenees. The email made this bridge look like it was high up in the clouds, which it probably is on an overcast day. There were no clouds in sight for us and it wasn't nearly as high as we were expecting. It is still an impressive bridge, but I think the long drive to get there wasn't really worth it in the end.

After a whole twenty mintues at the Millau Viaduct , it was decided to head back to visit the Pont de Gard, now this was an impressive site. A water canal built by the Romans, well many, many years ago to supply water from a spring at Uzes to the Roman colony of Nimes. It was designed to carry twenty thousand cubic meters of water daily. We got there about 5pm, which was a lovely time as the crowds weren't as bad, and we were able to walk across the bridge free of charge. The following day we packed up and headed to the coast toward Cannes - yes, the French Riviera here we come!!

Phone problems:

We bought new sim cards in Seville and were told they would work throughout Europe and the rates were quite reasonable. However as soon as we got into France, we couldn't use them and quickly worked out they didn't have global roaming on (after being told they did). There wasn't much we could do about trying to get it switched on as it was all in Spanish and we were in France. After a bit of research we ended up buying another sim in France and upon checking, yes it did work…I made 2 phone calls to Italy looking for a new caravan park to stay in, rang Loche (on his Spanish sim) and it dropped out after about a minute - 20 Euros worth of calls! So we are a bit stuck as to what to do about our phone situation.

A trip to Carrefour (a major supermarket chain) and Loche has come back with a Skype headset, back up plan as he has told me " into Macdonalds and call using Skype". A subscription to skype for $16 AUD gets you calls for around 2c / minute to landlines in most countries around the globe. This is a cheap call if you have free internet access. Some caravan parks have free WIFI zones and some you have to pay, but only around 5 to 8 Euros for 24 hours.