nge not just driving on the wrong side of the road but having the gear stick etc on the wrong side too! Our friends Sheree & Marty had leant us their TomTom (Satellite Navigation) which was an absolute star and made our self-drive part of the trip a lot easier.Our first planned stop was a small pretty village named Sarlet la Caneda. It was really quaint and pretty but also very touristy and busy. Niki had seen the same thing advertised at lots of restaurants and was stuck on ordering what he thought was casserole – it turned out to be steak with onions, very chewy steak in fact. Still I trust his French more than mine. We passed through many small towns and fields and fields (or is it yards and yards…vineyards?!) of grape vines – and also fields of sunflowers (which I guess is something to do with getting the soil ready for the grapes as all the sunflowers were left to die off).
That night we found a lovely B&B in the middle of nowhere with a host who spoke very little English (Niki’s French was better than this guys English!). We had a lovely breakfast the next morning consisting of all homemade items including bread, jam, honey and cake.
Day 2: We started the day with a plan to make our way to Toulouse and stop at various p
laces that caught our eye on the way. Niki had been fiddling with the TomTom and found a feature where it tells you tourist points of interest in the area and that’s how we found the stunning look out in the Pyrynnees (mountain range). It was absolutely stunning landscape and we had excellent views. We also came across a lot of spray-painted text on the road (one supporting kiwi Julian Dean) and we think we may have been on part of the route of the Tour de France!
We drove through Toulouse and that night ended up at Foix where 
we stayed in a hotel. That night the town was having a festival so there was a carnival and live music – many well known english songs including theme songs eg the Simpsons and the Muppets – very funny! We went back to the hotel and a little while later a large fireworks display started right over the gorgeous castle which we could see from the bathroom window. It was brilliant – very fairytale like!
Day 3: We travelled to Carcassonne which is a gorgeous walled city including a castle, where we stopped for two hours to explore...not much to tell so just look at the pretty pics! We did quite a bit of driving today (well, I was sleeping no doubt) and I got more itchy bites!! This time on my face, one on an eyelid which made me look like I’d been punched…oh so pretty is me!
Day 4: We drove to the Pont Du Gard which is a massive roman aquaduct. I wasn’t really sure what an aquaduct was so in case you don’t either, I’ll explain here… back in the day when there were no pipes to transport water the clever romans came up with an idea of building a large bridge at the opening of a water source and having is on a slight angle so that the water flowed down it…I’m talking massive bridge through mountains and over ditches and waterways etc. It was really impressive and interesting.
Later we drove to Avignon which is another walled city which houses the palace of popes. It’s a really gorgeous town, all very medieval and old! Next stop was Aix du Provence where we explored for an hour or so, lovely winding streets, saw people dressed in traditional costume outside a church and sampled some yummy patisserie stuff. We arrived at our drop-off location at 6pm… Toulon.
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