Adios Spain, Bonjour again France:

Palais des Papes in Avignon

Well, our last day in Spain was frustrating! We took the bus from our camp into central Barcelona, and it starting raining almost immediately after we left our campground. So our look around Barcelona was rather wet! However, we walked up and down Las Ramblas, which was good, lots of street markets up and down there, and all the restaurants/cafe's were open, however being a Sunday, all the shops were shut. We spent ages looking for the meeting point for the people who we were supposed to have lunch with, and when we finally found it, they weren't there! (a miscommunication somewhere along the line - so we never lunched with them). We found a cafe and had something to eat, before taking the train back to the seaside town where our campground was. This was fine, except we then faced a 3.5km walk from the station back to our campground! (we had missed the courtesy shuttle by ten minutes...) This normally would have been fine, except the heavens opened yet again, Xanthe was only wearing jandals and had a painful blister between her toes - which we heard all about for that 3.5km's, and I had a piece of glass stuck in my foot too - which made walking quite painful!

Anyway, moving on, we all got back, dried off, fixed our wounds, and hit the road again for a 2 hour drive to Perpignan. We got there just fine, except it was just after 7pm when we got to our camp ground, and their reception closed at 7pm. Everything was locked, no-one was answering the door, the window, the phone, etc! So I guess we lost our deposit on that one, and moved on down the road to what turned out to be a much better campground. Its part of the "Yelloh" chain of campgrounds in France (where we stayed in Mesland, and by the Dune du Pyla), and there emphasis really does seem to be on having fun, and creating a wonderful environment for children. And this place certainly topped them all! It had a whole shopping mall inside the grounds, 5 different pools, lots of organised activities (gym sessions, dance classes, sports events etc) for adults and children, restaurant/bar etc. After tea, we went into the bar to get icecreams for the kids and walked in on a live show of Grease. It was really funny, and at the end of it, they invited members of the audience to join in on a few extra songs/dances, and Lucas and Stefan got up there and boogied away!

Next morning we faced a long drive to Avignon, as Glen wanted to look at a few spectacular engineering things. We first drove inland to Millau and drove over the new viaduct which is the tallest bridge in the world. It was quite spectacular. We then drove through the Tarn Gorge back to the highway, which took over an hour. It was one of the most horrifyingly narrow, and windy roads ever, and on a few occasions I could have sworn that we scraped the side of the campervan (surprisingly it all looks fine though), I nearly throttled Glen on a few occasions, lost a few fingernails on that piece of road, and probably left a few claw marks in the arm rests as well! Having said that though, it was also one of the most stunning pieces of road we have ever driven on! The river with all its trees and flowers, lots of cute looking villages, all decorated beautifully with flowerpots etc, some dramatic rock faces and cliffs, and ancient stone villages built into the hillside, and tunnels cut into the rocks to allow access to the other side - it was all just beautiful! We then continued south again and got to the Pont du Gard which is an ancient Roman aqueduct, about 2000 years old. That was amazing! Finally we crept into Avignon and into our campground, which was on the island in the middle of the river, and after a really long day of travelling, we took the easy option of eating at the onsite restaurant!

This morning we had a quick tour of Avignon, inside the city walls, and it was incredible. Such a pity that we had such a short time to explore it. Its quite amazing too, to have a central city area surrounded by a huge stone wall (about 4km wall). The pope used to live there around 600 years ago, this is why it is all fenced off. Such a contrast though, inside the walls so ancient and full of character and outside the walls is all so modern. We headed south again to the Riviera just before lunch, stopping in Aix en Provence for something to eat, and then through Marseilles, and into Cannes. Such an inviting looking beach, and full of huge cruise ships. We are staying just on the other side of Cannes in Antibes.

I have really enjoyed driving round the southern parts of France - the landscape and scenery is just so beautiful, and the villages/cities that we have passed through are so full of character and have so much to offer. If we ever come back to Europe, this is a region I would be keen to explore more.
Italy tomorrow!

And just for you Selina: The hot guys are all around the Mediterranean coast! Yes, lots of them, all very toned and tanned (with a few exceptions though)- you would be in heaven! And as for the wine - French wine is better than Spanish wine! All pretty good though! Happy now???

Another picture for Selina from Spain - can you see where the kids are?