It has been a busy few days. We have made our way from Nice to the Cinque Terre to Venice to Florence. Our stay in Vernazza in the Cinque Terre was amazing. After we climbed the 300+ steps to our accommodation, we were greeted with the most incredible ocean and town views and a north wind that just blew and blew. The town is the size of a postage stamp but was filled with great eating and drinking establishments. The this was one of those quaint little Italian vi...

Well we spent the morning cruising the French Riveria ending up in Monte Carlo, tasty bevs and a beautiful lunch by the marina. It is amazing the money the small country draws and yet it is put to good use in beautiful clean parks and green spaces and a policeman on almost every corner.

Well we've traded Marseille for Nice. This is definitely our kind of city. The photograph is from our balcony on rue Paradis just up from Promenade Des Anglais. We arrived mid-afternoon to beautiful sunshine. Heading down to the waterfront we were exposed to a classic pebbly French beach with a very small sandy section for those people who are too soft. We took a ride in one of those petit trains that do tours and were truly amazed to heat of the cities origin an...

We sadly departed Carcassonne this morning after enjoying some amazing gastronomic delights last night for dinner. I am a huge fan of the local cassoulet and have done Heidi a favour and found the recipe so that we can try it back home. This morning saw us try to leave during a local TGV train strike which made the heart race a little as we tried to find out what we were supposed to do. We jumped onto the first outward train we could, making our way to Narbonne ...

We have discovered the newest WOW! on our journey. We arrived in Carcassonne late last night and were immediately in awe of the amazing walled citè before us. The spectacle is truly something to behold. I have wanted to come here for about 6 years and to finally be here is incredible. To walk the walls and ramparts of a 13th century city is amazing and to here of its heritage and transformation and restoration in the 19th century is truly a marvel. We are also s...