Rained this morning. Drove to Roussillon just 19miles east in the Luberon. Amazing ochre cliffs. Red orange yellow sandstone with village perchech on top of the ridge.

Spent Saturday morning walking for miles along sandy beaches near Grau, Ann paddling! After lunch farewell to friends, drove to l'isle sur la sorgue. Lovely campsite by the river. Today went to Fontaine de vaucluse by bike. Water source as foot of high cliff in beautiful setting.

A Grand Day Out

Good to hear from you Carolyn/Chris - so sorry about your weather back home and the ongoing car problem. Housegroup must have been fun! Things have started to look up in leaps and bounds here - we had hoped that spring would arrive but today Summer came! Our first real T shirt day! Keith and Tessa had hair dressing appointments in Arles this morning, so we had no excuse but to tag along too, spend a couple of sunny hours strolling through the beautiful old town, standing in awe of the Roman arena, amphitheatre, Espace Van Gogh, Place du Forum and more before meeting up with K & T to sample their favourite restaurant with them. What a life eh? Then came Keith's Grand Tour - Daudet's Mill - Les Baux, wonderful rocky scenery with a village perched on top - Van Gogh's Asylum, the hospital he went to after he cut off his ear and where he painted many many of his famous works - St. Rémy de Provence for a welcome drink - home journey with us girls snoozing in the back. What pleasant exhaustion!
Leaving here some time tomorrow, so either back to the limited blog time or short texts via Craig. Had a lovely few days, but looking forward to being back in the van.
Comments always welcome!

Le Grau du Roi

Yesterday morning we arrived at the Med. and greeted by our good 'old' friends Tessa and Keith (from Tenterden days) at their new second home here in Le Grau du Roi. It's in a beautiful quiet spot just 2 mins from the beach. They are giving us a wonderful time, wining and dining us as well as taking us out and about. We've cycled all along a track behind the dunes, walked along the beach into the little town for a look around the arty shops and read lots of menus outside numerous restaurants and done a bit of bottle shopping. In between, lunch was served on the terrace. Oh - and before we went out this morning, John helped to repair the door on the garden shed - very successfully too! The sunshine is lovely and warm, but still that chilly wind.

Avignon day 2

How good to wake up, pull back the blind in the roof above our heads and see waving green branches against a vivid blue sky. Still cold though! But what a fantastic day we have had in Avignon - it was extremely windy on le pont, but it didn't stop us listening to all the commentary on our hand-sets taking us right out to the end in mid-stream. We discovered the origins of 'Sur le pont .....' and that the dancing was more likely to have been 'sous le pont', ie under the bridge because it originally spanned 22 arches across the Rhone with lots of little islands in the middle. Now there is one long island, l'Ile de la Barthelasse and there are only 4 arches of the bridge left. Then went to the Palais des Papes and again had the audio commentary telling us all the history of the building and various popes through the ages. We even had a hot drink at the terrace cafe on top of one of the towers! After all that walking and stair-climbing we were ready for our poulet and frites at a pavement restaurant in Place de l'horloge. Then it was back on our bikes to cross both parts of the river to explore Villeneuve lez Avignon - along a very pretty canal and then to climb through the ancient streets to search for a geocache high on a hill in a small park with fantastic views across to Avignon. Quite an energetic day - most enjoyable.

Avignon

First of all, thanks to Craig, our Deputy Blogger, for putting on our brief texts when we have no internet access ourselves. This will happen on many occasions.
But tonight here at Camping du Pont d'Avignon (right opposite the ancient half-a-pont) we have purchased 1 hour of wifi, so here is our latest news.
It's still cold, but at least we left the snow behind in Tournon - we woke up this morning to 1cm of it. Travelling south, we soon ran into sunshine and it's stayed with us all day. Set off on our bikes soon after our arrival in Avignon and explored the old town, including the Rochers des Doms and around the Palace of the Popes. We are going back tomorrow to go inside. We also found our first geocache of the holiday, a micro tucked into a crack in the city wall! Although it is so unusually cold, we have noticed that we are now in Spring - the trees are bursting with new green leaves - such a change from the bare branches further north.
We trust you are all keeping warm back home and that you had a very happy Easter.
We went to Easter Sunday Mass at the catholic church of St. Julien in Tournon yesterday. Quite a change from our usual Easter Day, but we grasped a little of what was going on and enjoyed the singing. We planned to follow this with a meal at an attractive-looking logis close by, but unfortunately it was complet when we arrived. So we ended up in a little bar/restaurant with a limited menu - prawn salad followed by steak for John and Fritures for me (deep-fried sprats including eyes) and then we chose eclairs chocolat from a whole list of desserts! Very tasty.
(Saving a bit of our wifi time for tomorrow).

Happy Easter. Came to Tournon sur rhone yesterday. Still cold but after the hail the sun came out this evening we enjoyed a walk on the rocky hillside overlooking the town.

Anse, near Lyon

It's been a long time finding somewhere with internet access, but this morning at a very nice campsite we've found it! One big problem is the French keyboard which makes it very slow for a Brit touch-typist! We loved the comments from Graham and Doreen - we are having a great time but it is NOT warm! We have stayed 2 nights on campsites and 3 on FREE aires. The first of those was by Lac d'Orient and Thursday beside a Voie Verte, an old railway track now for cycling with a station car park for camping. The Restaurant de la Gare was excellent. Shame we woke to rain yesterday for our visit to Taizé. First time we've been in cold weather, but the spirit was just as warm. A very friendly young German girl welcomed us and showed us a video about Easter at Taizé, we joined thousands for the lunch-time Prayers - beautiful singing - and we decided to leave while the youngsters queued for their lunch in the pouring rain. It didn't stop all day. We continued south in the hope of some sun and today it is trying, but not quite what we hoped for. We're hoping for better when we get to the Med. Will write more when able - lots to tell already.

Rained all today. Spent morning at Taize. Joined thousands at lunch time prayers with beautiful singing. Then south to Anse with internet. Will use in the morning.

Traveled 50miles south today following canal du centre to st Gengoux to a lovely aire on the site of and old station. Cycled on trackway through some vineyards.

Last night at geraudot by lac d'orient. Was peaceful until the circus turned up this morning! Country route today to Beaune. Still quite cold, but there has been some sun.

Ready for the Off tomorrow evening

With the return to work of the officers of Seafrance, we expect a trouble-free crossing to France late tomorrow evening. After a night's rest in the 'Sans Billet' car park at Calais Harbour, we will be setting off on our latest adventure - this time to Provence. We look forward to posting our story.