Monaco is a 20 minute train ride from Nice. With Andy's senior discount, our return tickets were €13.60. The train was packed, but there were seats for most people, unlike on a train trip from Reading to London. The Grand Prix is on 23-25 May, and the stands, pit lanes and catch fencing were being set up. The Grand Prix takes a month before and a month after, so the residents can only enjoy their city for 10 months without the disruption it brings. We walked m...

We're staying in a lovely old villa which is now a hostel/hotel. It's a 15 min stroll to the beaches and it's been a lovely sunny day here, although windy, perfect for wandering around the old part of the town. I'll post more details later.

In this photo, Andy is trying to work out how he can take the copper cylinder home! Outside the Galimard perfume factory, there were several copper/brass stills and retorts. We were surprised to see they're not bolted down, and the factory guide was amazed when we told her they would be stolen for scrap in England. We went on the factory tour, choosing Galimard as there were no coaches parked outside. Fragonard is the other big manufacturer. It was interesting ...

We stayed at Frejus and drove down the coast road to Sainte Maxime, from where we took the ferry across to San Tropez, with a tourist trip past the villas of the rich and once-famous. The bay really is stunning, and now I understand why artists (Matisse was the only one I'd heard of) lived here. There is a luminous quality to the air which enhances colour. The buildings are painted in ice-cream colours, it's all very picturesque but you'll be glad to note that I ...

Driving through the Tarn gorges in the rain doesn't make for good photos. It reminded me of Somerset and Cheddar, with limestone outcrops and adverts for farm produce. The roads were a bit more extreme though, winding round steep hills with a sheer drop on one side and nothing to stop the car from sliding off the road. The photos would look so much better with a blue sky, but we didn't have one...it was windy, wet and only 8 degrees. We arrived in Avignon and f...