Last Sunday we woke up in Lourdes in southern France.We had spent the night in a hotel room for the first time in eight days and enjoyed all the luxuries of clean sheets, a decent shower, a TV with English news and wifi access.After a delicious breakfast of camembert omelette we sat down to upload some photos and update the blog.Moments before we finished uploading an hours worth of writing the computer crashed and we lost the lot.This was followed by a lot of cursing and kicking of the computer... it has taken us a few days to finally get the motivation to write this entry for the second time - so here goes.

Friday May 15 saw us land in London at that ridiculous hour of the morning that all international flights seem to arrive at.We thought that the easiest way of getting us and our mountain of baggage to our friends place in central London would be to hire a car.A quote of 88 pounds (around AU$180) for the day left us laughing and wandering around Heathrow in search of a hot breakfast and a plan B.A tube and a bus ride later saw us collapse on Graham and Jackie's lounge room floor for a long nap.

We spent the next week in London recovering from life on the road through the USA.Most days passed in a blur of munching in Turkish cafes, walks around parks and endless streets of Victorian terraces and long naps.There was a memorable moment when Graham taught Rabbit how to drink pints of bitter at 'the local', a feat which Rabbit took to with gusto and sadly Graham is never likely to hear the end of.We did squeeze in a few of the more famous tourist attractions including Tower Bridge, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and Harrods food hall.We thought of stopping there for lunch but seeing the $1000 price tag on 50gm of Beluga caviar we realised we were out of our depth and wandered away.

After the week under grey and drizzily London skies we decided it was high time to head for France.Having gotten seriously lost in London's twisting back streets one too many times saw us invest in a Garmin GPS from a 'just like new' electrical goods store on Tottenham Court Road.We were assured it was all genuine and above board by the smiling, winking Polish bloke behind the counter.We left ourselves 4 hours to find our way to Dover and with the help of the GPS we were kicking back with 2 quid roast pork dinners in front of us in a little old pub in Dover in a little over an hour.

We had been warned by many to high tail it out of Calais.So we headed south for Boulogne sur Mer where we munched through our first French feast of mussels and chips by the beach.The first night in any country it always seems easier to bed down in a hotel then search out a camping site.The hotel we ended up in had clearly been designed by a prison architect and a one night stay in our cell of a room was enough motivation for us to hunt down a spot for our tent from then on.

We headed south through the unusual and very pretty Le Treport, where I got my first look at a French beach.Grains of sand as big as my fist, no wonder no one was lying on the beach.Criel sur Mer was our home for the night and in the morning we had our second glimpse of the idiosyncrasies of French plumbing which left us gasping and shivering.

We had a rendez vous in a few days time with Graham and Jackie at their friend's house by the beach in a small town to the south of Nantes.So we continued making a beeline south.Stumbling across a group of delightful old towns somewhere between Normandy and the Loire we decided to stop for a couple of days at a camping site recently taken over by two lovely English couples.Sunday came and we slept in, went for a run through the countryside, did some washing and took a leisurely shower in preparation for a long French Sunday lunch.What we weren't prepared for was everything closing for the day.No fuel, no food, no money...just lots of pretty countryside.Luckily for us the English couples took us and a few others in and introduced us to our next French feast, with their dining table groaning with food and wine.Many laughs later we were groaning as we waddled away.

A hop, skip and jump later we were at Peter and Dawns place by the beach.A couple of great days were spent at their home as they kindly (as long time expats) started to unravel some of the mysteries of life in France for us.Primarily they just reinforced the fact that we were now in a country where life revolves around your stomach.Every meal saw a mountain of food stretched out over five courses.Artichokes, mountains of mussels, cheese boards and lamb grilled over the coals.Roast beetroot, baked custard tarts and fresh sardines fried in butter.The list was endless.Two days saw us out and we made our escape whilst we still fitted into our clothes.

By chance we found out that a friend from Wollongong was staying in Bordeaux on his wife's families farm.Too good an opportunity to miss, we high tailed it south to Jean Michel and Josepha's home.The day we arrived they had already planned an outing to the famous wine village of St Emillion.If you could make a picture of the perfect ancient French village set amongst the vines, you would come up with St Emillion. Which would be a fairy tale destination were it not entirely devoted to the tourist dollar.Another three course meal, a wander around the town and then we headed for a chateau for a wine tasting and a great explanation of the Bordeaux wines.

We made it back to the farm at around 9pm, just in time for a light supper.Or so we were told.Our hosts brought out a whole Foie Gras and matched it with a 1996 Bordeaux Sauternes, followed by local cold smoked trout, a mountainous cheese board featuring the local speciality Roquefort matched with a 1999 Bordeaux red, and of course salad and baguettes.This was followed by aged Calvados, local cakes and coffee.Another amazing feast!At this point we were starting to question how these people stay so thin.

We were invited to stay the next day for a special luncheon celebration feast but we excused ourselves whilst we still could move and headed south.A quick dip in the Atlantic Ocean to refresh Rabbit, frozen feet were enough for me and we headed for Lourdes.Lourdes is another pretty town which benefits from some spectacular natural scenery.As timing would have it we had arrived on Pentecost and the whole town was buzzing.Our hotel room was possibly the last free one in town.

Lourdes was lovely but the Pyrenean town of Foix was next.We had intended to spend a month in Foix, perhaps hiring an apartment and settling down to some serious French language study and a little rock climbing on the side.All in all a great plan, at least it would have been if the people of Foix had spoken French rather than some weird cross breed of French, Spanish and Catalan.

So now we are headed to the Mediterranean and then on to Tuscany to visit Rachael on her archaeological dig near Sienna.Hopefully finding ourselves far away from the Med by the time the summer crowds descend.