From 'La Mole' to Penge

Our day started with a whistlestop tour of Aix-en-Provence
before heading south for the Côte d'Azur.

On the way we stopped at Giraud, a very picturesque village dominated by the ruins of the castle



Light lunch in Giraud and then down to Saint-Tropez. 
The town is quite beautiful but the people are very pretentious. And some of the ginormous yachts so nouveaux riches and in your face.



We had a nice walk around the port (spotted a couple of paparazzi with huge telephoto lenses trying to photograph goodness knows who on the boats; when they heard the clicking of my camera, they turned round all worried! That made me laugh!) and a hot chocolate at the Cafe de Paris. 
The waiter was very rude, the chocolates not very good and rather expensive; I got annoyed by the rudeness and paid the  €11.60 in change, some rather small. The waiter contemptously left the coppers on the table... and we left. 
Not one of my finest moments (bad Karma and all that) but push me and I'll give you Latin - but understated - temper!

Then we drove to Cagnes-sur-Mer where we stayed at the delightful Villa Estelle in the old medieval village. We drove through the village and the streets were just wide enough for our small car.


After unpacking, we enjoyed a romantic walk up to the castle (and let me tell you: that hill gives San Francisco a run for its money!) and dinner.

By day 5 I had already noticed marks on some of the pictures: some dust had got on the sensor and I didn't have anything to clean it with. Never mind, a number of pictures turned out rather spotty but it certainly didn't ruin the holiday.

Day 6 (March 25th) was spent visiting the city of Arles, and then the Camargue, the marshy delta of the river Rhône.

It started snowing in Grenoble in the night and it was still snowing when we looked out of the window


"What's this white stuff?"

We decided to stick to the planned itinerary and headed for Chambery and the Abbaye de Hautecombe on the Lac du Bourget.
Well, the snowfall got heavy on the motorway down to a single track, and it was difficult to drive on the uphill hairpin bends on the road leading towards the lake. We were both rather tense and worried about getting stuck. Luckily Adrian (london1952) just managed to make it down to the lake where it was pouring with rain and, amazingly, there was no trace of snow. What an adventure that drive was!


I had visited the abbey once before over 20 years ago, but this time I didn't get the same welcome. We arrived at lunchtime and the abbey was closed; there was no warm place to wait or to have a hot drink and it was simply too cold and miserable to hang around for another couple of hours until it was meant to be open again.
We had a look around, took a few pictures and left for Aix-Les-Bains where we had tea.

The Michelin guide recommended the Grand Hôtel du Parc for afternoon tea. I had visions of a sumptous spread. The reality was slightly different: we were made to sit in the small hall and served a cuppa with a slice of tarte tatin (albeit yummy and fresh).

Queen Victoria

would have not been impressed!

Then we headed to Annecy where the lovely Jean

We got back from our 10-day French holiday this afternoon. It was a wonderful trip! 

We had snow, wind, some rain and plenty of sunshine. Visited plenty of Roman monuments, picturesque villages and à-la-mode sea resorts; ate plenty of cheese and spent time with the gorgeous and lovely Jean. And took lots of pictures.

Expect a number of photo-posts in the next few days! (de-friend me now, if you cannot cope with them!)

Bonne nuit, for now.