Bonjour Madames de Monsieurs,

Zilla and I have made it to France. We're in Avignon, in Provence towards the South East of the country. Time to forget the little bit of Spannish that we'd managed to pick up, and start all over again with the French. Luckilly Zilla did some French at school, so she'll be heavily relied upon to lead the way.

Avignon is a pretty old place, and has seen it's fair share of action, as suggested by the city wall around the old town. The pope had to flee Rome in the 13th century, and he chose this place to set up camp. He built himself a nice big palace, then some other blokes decided they'd build a bit of a cathedral next door.
Avignon is on the banks of the Rhone River, which was once traversed by a bridge that was 900m long. Only 4 spans are left now, so it just looks unfinished really.

We've had a pretty good look around the town, sampled some provincial cuisine, tucked into some french pastries, and had a baguette or two. The weather has been amazing since we've been here, reaching above 30 degrees today.

Tomorrow we're heading to Nice, on the south coast for a few days. Hope to do day trips to Monaco and Cannes while we're there. We got a little organised and planned some more of the next few weeks too: We're meeting up with Brad Turner in Chambery, and touring around for a few days, then we'll spend a week or so in Switzerland, then fly to Rome to start the Italian leg of our trip. Can't wait.

Au revoir,

Paul & Zilla.

p.s. Zilla said she only did one year of French at school.

p.p.s. Paul said that's a whole year more of talking like frog than he has under his belt�