FRANCE!!!

Bonjour everyone, how's it in Windy Welly??? It's around 40 degrees here, wherever we go, we're sweating all over! So far we've been to:

Montpellier - We arrived in Montpellier by train from Barcelona on Saturday 27^th of June. It was 39 degrees with no humidity.

We picked up our Motor home from here (the motor home is really cool, but really hot inside… it's over 7 meters long and much wider than a normal van, sometimes we don't think we'll fit down the little streets). We then drove to le Grande Motte (the large mound). Which is a very flash marine area which the tour de France passes through in a couple of days (it starts tomorrow…). This camp site had about four giant pools and 3 waterslides!!!

Avignon – City of Popes – this walled city was once the site of the Vatican before it moved to Rome. We went on the Ferris wheel here and got fantastic views of the walled city. It is also famous for its incompleate brudge - in the french song - Sur le pont d’Avignon L'on y danse, l'on y danse Sur le pont d’Avignon L'on y danse tout en rond (On the bridge of Avignon We all dance there, we all dance there On the bridge of Avignon We all dance there in a ring).

Aix on Provence - Aix is often referred to as the city of a thousand fountains including the
three fountains down the central Cours Mirabeau that produce natural hot water at 34°C, and is said to be mildly radioactive!!

Antibes (where the rich people play) – We have realized that the beaches in the south of France do not compare to the wonderful expanses of fine sand we have at home. You also have to try and find an empty couple of square meters to lay your towel out on and claim as your own space. We also noted that the togs over here are some times invisible :)

Cannes (where the film festivals are held) – we had a great walk around Cannes, looking in all the wonderful shops such as Gucci, Christian Dior, Louie Viiton, Porsche, Lamborghini etc. We did not see any film stars = the only major festival on at the moment is the launch of the new PS3, Xbox and other electronic games for the new season. Everywhere we go in Europe we see great cars – we will put some cool pics up of Aston Martin's and Bentleys – and the odd Porsche of course.

Monaco and Monte Carlo – Monaco/Monte Carlo famous for the Grand Prix and James Bond (Casino Royal). We were able to walk around the area where the Tour de France starts tomorrow. The south of France was pretty cool although not at all what we expected. We based ourselves at a campground in Antibes and caught the train down to Cannes one day, and to Monaco another day. The Tour de France was starting in Monaco the next day. Louis went swimming in some quite deep water in Monaco and came out saying the fish were nibbling him and it tickled - turned out it wasn't fish - he was being stung by a jellyfish! Which might have been okay except a couple of days later he brushed up against some stinging nettle and the slight rash he had had became an all over systemic rash. I was quite worried about him so we smothered him in Anthisan cream and gave him some Prednisone and he's been fine (still some slight evidence of the rash now). Only Louis eh!?

We have had a great week but the motor home was very large - over 7 meters long and 3.2 meters high which is very stressful driving down those narrow village streets. However, we got to Antibes no problem (well actually a minor scraping of a poor local villagers car! Oops!).

Paris - It continues to be very hot where ever we go. After dropping off the motor home yesterday west of Paris, we had to get a bus, a train and two metro trains to the apartment - took about an hour and a half with us, the boys and all our luggage - no small feat! I am absolutely paranoid about keeping an eye on the boys - there are some weird people about! It doesn't feel as safe as Barcelona.

The apartment in Paris is fantastic! It's two bedrooms and is really five star standard. It has a PS3, a DVD player and two large flat screen TV's so the boys are happy! It is situated just around the corner from the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre and a short walk to Sacre Coeur. It is very busy and vibrant around here. Oliver is in his element because he can buy small fire-works in the shop across the road!

Today we have been to the Eiffel Tower which was great - we walked up to the second level (great for the thighs!) and then the elevator to the top and same coming back down again. It was great. Also saw Princess Diana's memorial over the tunnel where she died. We went to Sacre Coeur (the big church on a hill overlooking all of Paris at 9.30 at night - it was still very light and a big crowd were there listhening to a band playing great music.

Not sure what the plan is tomorrow but we want to go to the Louvre, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, take a boat trip down the Seine, etc etc.