Before we give you a bit of a summary of today we would like to share some facts with you of the BBA which started on April19th 2009. First though we would most sincerely like to thank all those people who helped make this adventure one we will never forget. Arthur and Dorothy in Settle,Rhona and Eric from Leeds,Ian and Chris from Long Preston,Jean and Stella from Southwick,Anice and Bruce from Kendal,Alan and Alison from Edinburgh,Jamieson and Jackie from Edinburgh,Aileen and John plus all the cousins and Benvies from Montrose and nearby ,Wim and Dinny from Zwolle and Di and Sebastian from near Lucerne and to anyone we might have inadvertently forgotten a VERY BIG THANK YOU for the greeting and the hospitality you gave.Without this our adventure would definitely not have been as memorable.We look ... read more

Things are all back to normal in the hotel at least from a hot water in our room to be able to shower and get ready for another day of sightseeing. Tour director,Gretchen,has day two planned with more top attractions to see all to be connected by rides on the Metro.Paris is proving to be a little bigger to get around over the three days that we have and the best option for today and tomorrow is to use the Metro.It may mean we miss some places we would have passed had we been walking a bit more but we just have to accept that and pick up on those when we come back to Paris again. We are out of the hotel door 45 minutes earlier than yesterday and across the road to the Gare ... read more

It’s a strange life!! For the past few weeks after daylight saving finished in Europe we had been waking in the morning quite late,sometimes not until 8am even.Yet this morning,without a car for the first time in months to get to our next destination,we are awake at 5.30am!!!And all this because we had programmed out minds to think that we must be awake so we can get prepared and over to the station so we don’t miss our train to Paris at 9.30am, four hours away!! We did manage to get some further shuteye before we got serious about rising at 7am. With all but the barest supplies of a couple of pieces of fruit,yogurt,toast and butter our breakfast will be of the ‘express’type this morning. Getting down the 4 flights of winding, narrow steps with ... read more

It’s another beautiful morning and oh so close to being a frost.Yet with absolutely no wind it is actually quite bearable to be outside loading the car with a short sleeve shirt on. Like yesterday we could take the shortest and most direct route from Mende to Ales and be there in an hour and a half.But we wouldn’t get to see as much of the interesting French countryside if we did that so we shall take a diversion north the south to extend the drive to perhaps 4 or 5 hours,with stops. Our room at the Deltour has not been without incident and whoever thought of the idea of putting a single bed above and across the queen size bed had to be dumb!!And then to make the furniture of modular steel and sharp corners ... read more

The day is starting out with a thick fog which is probably made worse by the large lake below where our cabin is located.And there is absolutely no wind to blow the fog away so we will hope that once we get on the road and away from the water the fog may lift. The road away from Larche wanders through a mix of empty farmland and forest for a good distance until we crossed over the top of A20 which runs from Paris to Barcelona. We then went onto the D840 and took a break in Martel,another medieval town with a large church dominating the skyline.The church wasn't that intricate inside although the way the statues of Jesus on the Cross and St Bernadette were lit up were eye catching.The buildings in the town had ... read more