A Venezia. will do a full report tomorrow but now want to try to get up some pictures. couple of things Bologna has 2 leaning towers. during the night there the people upstairs arrived home at 3am and proceeded to rearrange the furniture moving it from one side of the room to the other. 15 minutes later they moved it back. we are staying in a lovely bed and breakfast here in Mestre. yesterday we walked around venice. today we road in a series of ferries. great value. [View Full Entry]

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Italy!! Day 18 (if you say it quickly it just pops out without blinking an eyelid) We have arrived in our second country. AND THEY HAVE A QWERTY KEYBOARD!!!!!! The last night in Salon was again lovely. We discovered this beautiful Morrocan restaurant, I was over the moon about the vegetables so you know it must have been good, We had Morrocan rosé which was like Rosé light. it was more sé than rose, Still it went down well. Then it was up early to begin our adventure in Italy, We said farewell to Clare (our GPS voice and family in [View Full Entry]

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Well we solved the problem with the photos one day and ran into another problem another day; it seems the computer we,re using wont allow us to access the camera; ce,st la vie; Salon is great; we went to Aix this morning and were really disappointed; Yesterday we went to Avignon and had a very enjoyable day; I have had a bit of slight deli belly since Toulouse (touloose??) so since arriving we have steered clear of heavy french food; On monday we ate Italian (excellent ingredients made fresh in the deli which doubles as a restaurant at night) and last [View Full Entry]

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Its Salon actually herewith are some photos I had some help but i think in future i,ll just put up the originals say ' at a time [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour, the good weather couldnt last; were back to rain and wind and cold; we decided to drive to Toulouse via the backroads; nice trip; reminded us of driving in Oz; again we cmme across a minor gem when we realised we had to pass through the town of CONDOM (wait until you see the photos :) ) anyway Toulouse is the least salubrious city we have visited; it is on the way to being described as sleazy; still it is the closest we get to spain so i intend having a paella tonight; tomorrow is salon de provence for 3 [View Full Entry]

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After 9 days of foul weather our host David promised us a fine day today and he didn;t disappoint. We set off this morning for St Emilion, wine district extraorinaire and world heritage listed. fantastic; you approach it from the flat and it rises before you like a mediaeval adventure world. Then you find out there,s no free parking; We wandered the streets of cobblestones (old hat by now but still impressive here), sampled some of the local fruit of the vine and bought a bottle; Liz fell over twice (before the wine) and is now officially registered as accident prone; [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Bourdeaux; LIZ IS SO DRUNK FROM all the red wine we have been drinking: she actually drank some red we had with dinner last nite: We have had 3 days of heavy travel: The car problem put our plans in disarray: We finally Got the car back at 5pm wednesday (€1000 thanks very much: you have to get reimbursed by the lease company): We then drove to Caen only to find out on the way that the hotel had cancelled our booking: Guess what Mary and Joseph, all the inns were full in the area and we had to [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour, We are on our way. We picked up the cqr at the airport and had a 2 hour drive to Amiens: Although we had had a short tutorial on GPS it took a while to work out how to drive it: We arrived at Blangy-Tronville for our B&B to be met by the lovely Patricia; She runs the b&b with her husband Alain who teaches Anglais at the Université; They are lovely people: We spent the afternoon touring the battlefields of Pozieres: very moving: We called in at the British graveyard: There were so many headstones with the same date; [View Full Entry]

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bonjour bonsoir bon nuit bondi We arrived sqfely: pity our luggqge didnt: it qrrived 12 hours qfter us so we get E100 so we bought another phone let ,e explqin so,ething bizqrre qbout french keyboqrds: the q qnd a are reveresed: qnd q full stop requires the shift key qnd the , is where the m should be qnd its QLL VERY FRUSTRQTING/ I JUST TRIED TO FIND THE EXCLQMQTION mQRK QND THEre ISNT OONE&&&&&&&&&& (SHIFT 1} Will do more extensive entry lqter on but highlights include pompidou centre qnd the Louvre [huge) We are off to versailles todqy: weather hqs [View Full Entry]

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Guess what? most people over here dont speak english: Actuqlly our mixture of high school french; sign language and perplexed looks have managed to get us by reqlly well: Versailles is difficult to describe in words: You are forced to fall back upon inadequate words such as opulent, decqdent, even obscene; you hear about the hall of mirrors but until you;ve stood there and seen it you dont fully grqsp the whole thing: It leqds you to the inescqpqble conclusion thqt there hqd to be a revolution: This was a regime so removed from its citizenry that the one immediqtely understqnds [View Full Entry]

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