Salon still

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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 night we ate chinese/vietnamese; Again excellent; the last 2 days have been very sunny; in fact today it has hit 20 degrees; we are actually hot; Everyone else still wears coats; We must be the only people in France who sleep with the window open;
At Avignon we visited the Palais de Papes (palace of the POPES); this is where the Bob Balls of this world go when they die (this is an NCC in joke)
We have clocked up nearly 2500 km since Paris; we had our first car service this morning;
France has been interesting; I guess we feel a bit muséed out; What has been great is walking through the places we have visited and getting a feel for the place; we have had very sore feet from day 1 and they are now settling down; I have to say we have been disappointed with the food; i was expecting more regional variety; we tried on a couple of ocasions to order the regional specialty only to be told it wasn,t available that night; I did at leqst get my paella the other night;
Some of our pubs at home do better variety of menus than we have struck here; and again it hasn,t changed from city to city;

maybe we haven,t been looking at restaurants which are up market enough to provide that variety but we do spend lots of time looking before we decide on a restaurant/cafe;




some more observations
1; the footpaths in France are filthy; We have nothing to be ashamed of on this front in Oz; This includes dogsh*t which is everywhere; add that to seatbelts and drink driving as behaviour changes we have managed well in oz;
2; doof doof music is a universal language; it sounds the same no matter the country
3; Cheap crap at outdoor markets is also universal; the only difference here is the wonderful display of vegetables and (from my perspective and not Liz,s) the dîverse array of fresh meat and seafood; Also you would struggle to find live fowl in cages ready to be slaughtered at the Honeysuckle markets; Health regulations are very different here; Deb Alterator at NCC would have nightmares:
4; We are constantly helped out by French people wanting to assist
5; Avignon has to be the windiest city in the world
6; nothing is free in France
7: GPS has been very helpful; not sure how we will get on in italy;
8; it has been 2 weeks aned i haven,t thought once about work (other than wondering what the missed callls were from you Melissa);
9; All French cities are crime prevention through environmental design black holes; the CPTED principles are sucked in and disappear into the void that is french inner city design
10; all french people smoke; it is like a time warp back to the 70s; cigarette butts are everywhere adding to the filth in the streets: Yuck

Over to Liz

Salon is a lovely big country town, with houses built at odd angles resulting in odd spaces becoming "places". Our hotel appears to have been built in the 1930's and still has some of the original charm, as well as some more recent decor of questionable taste, such as murals on hall walls.
Aix had not much to write home about, literally; Very disappointing. Avignon was great, and still has much of the original city wall around the city centre. We stood sur le pont d'Avignon, a great feeling! the wind was so strong you could barely breathe! Also visited the palais des papes, dating back to 14th century. Still has some beautiful murals and floor tiles in pope's chambre.
We leave France tomorrow!!! Looking forward to Italy, though I won't be as comfortable with the language, and our driving will depend on downloaded info from Michelin, where I will frantically be searching for street signs.
Love to all

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