France

Sorry about the lack of updates - Internet cafes are a little hard to find around here. Jim and I met up easily in Nice; he called me the night before so we both knew about the flight changes. We picked up our car and headed out into the wide world of France.

We have done a lot of travelling in the last week and a half. It takes foverever and a day to get anywhere in France if you are not travelling by the toll roads. The first day we drove down past Cannes to look at the beaches and it took about 3 hours to travel the 20km back to St-Laurent-du-Var. We also drove through the Alpes along some of the routes that Jim cycled - a very very long process since the average speed is about 50km an hour.

The places we have stayed have been very beautiful. We have been trying to stay in little villages instead of the bigger towns - there aren't as many people around as there was earlier in August. We have been very good tourists - we have spent a lot of time walking around Medieval and Roman villages. We have tasted a lot of French wine - I'm not sure that we are super impressed with the wine - Jim prefers the Barossa variety.

French geography has become a bit of a pig's breakfast. Obviously it was rather easier in the 12-14 siecle -- which incidentally is when most of the houses were built. Certainly when most of the plumbing was put in -- before the invention of the toilet! So anyway, in those days it sems France was split between two saints, Les and Des. Lots of places are identified by which body part remains there -- Les Dentelles, eg. Since then obviously a lot of big players have come on the scene: A. Louer and A. Vendre just to name two. Still, we are struggling through.

Indeed, the wine is a little thin compared to what we are used to. Still, it has been fun to try the different regions and to see differences. Cotes du Rhone (post L&D) is very similar to Braossa experience -- tasting is free etc. Wine is in the GSM/9 Popes style: majority grenache and mainly rest shiraz. Bordeaux is rather wanky. You have to pay for tasting typically, and book to go to a Chateau. They only taste a couple of their selection. If you don't like it you have not much to go on. They don't taste their "big" wines. In between these are smaller regions like Cahors and Languedoc. Still, huge amounts of vineyards. These are more fun in the sense that the people are more interesting and typically know more about the wine.

Love to all,

Kylie & Jim