About 5 hours after us 3 going to bed last night, Rebecca, our last roommate came crashing into the room with the help of some other girls trying to get her into bed. She got up on the bunk eventually and finally went to sleep fully clothed. So I enjoyed opening up the shutters and windows on her this morning to about 25 degrees and bright sunlight! :) Despite this though, we had an awesome sleep. Today was basically just a lazy day around the Chateau. It's been lovely.

We didn't get up til just before 9, to many hangovers though! I felt good :) It was so hot first thing in the morning. Standing outside at 9am and doing nothing I was dripping in sweat, and I wasn't even moving. The sleeping bag I bought from Contiki is way too hot for where we're staying at the moment. I have to sleep with it completely open. We had breakfast and then just lounged around for a while before heading off on a picnic at 10:30am. We were told to wear proper shoes because it was a bit up hill at the end. The entire hike was uphill! And went for over an hour. A few people turned back, but you'll all be happy to know I went the whole way! It was hard because it was so hot too, and I was covered in sunblock (yes Brendon, sunblock! :), which always makes things worse. We had maps to get there, but I don't think anyone really knew where we were going (the tour manager didn't come), however there's a dog which hangs out at the camp and he came with us so everyone just followed him. He turned off into a large patch of grass which we assume was the picnic spot. So we made it to (what we think was anyway) the top eventually and there was no shade at all! So we had our picnic out in the open. We had some nice baguettes with ham and cheese, wine, fruit, chippies and chocolate. We stayed there for a while, took some photos, and then packed up to walk back down.

On our way up, we walked through a tiny little village, completely in the middle of nowhere, but it had a pub. So a group of us stopped there for a drink and a break in the shade. There were still some very hungover faces. I don't know how they can do it, because if it was me, there's no way I'd be doing that walk hungover! We sat at the pub for a while before finishing the last trek back down to the chateau.

Once we got back most people were in/around the pool. I didn't want to get in the pool, but I couldn't even go dangle my feet in because that would mean sitting in the sun, which was too hot. So I just got myself a drink and went and had a sit down on some loungers in the shade. It was really nice to have a day like this in such a beautiful place, especially after having over a week of complete full on activity. It also gave us a really good chance to get to know more of our group today. We basically just sat down and had a few drinks and laughs as a smaller group all afternoon. Everyone's sort of formed their little groups within the big tour group already. It's funny though because it's a group of guys who have really formed a little 'click' and not girls surprisingly.

Next thing it was tea time and we had just chatted all afternoon. Just before dinner, 2 other Contiki groups turned up to stay too. There were 2 other groups there when we arrived but they both left this morning. It's funny - in that group there is a girl who me and Stacey went to uni with, and 2 other girls who were my friends at primary school. Then after dinner, we were all sitting outside when another Kiwi guy came and sat down who I thought looked familiar - turns out he was from Palmy too. He said there're 4 people on his tour who come from Palmy. It's such a small world! Yet on our tour there're only 3 Kiwi's in total.

Tonight's party was 'shock your mother' theme. It was written on our day sheet at 'chock your mother' and we were all wondering what chock meant? So I went and asked Andreanne, the tour manager, and because she's French she just thought that's how you wrote shock. I'm not sure what I could dress up as that would shock my mother though? We didn't dress up but at least we did stay down stairs for a few drinks tonight :)

We're up at 6:45am tomorrow morning and we're continuing to the French Riviera in the south of France. We only spend one night here and then the next day we're off to Italy. It's the longest bus trip we have on the tour apparently. We're staying in a camping ground but in cabins. Once we get there, we have a chance to get changed and then we're off to Monaco for the night. We drive on the Grand Prix track to get there and then we head out for dinner and a night at the Monte Carlo casino.