Good weather has followed us through France and we are now relaxing – even more than usual – on the Cote d’Azur at our favourite Cote d’Azur hotel – Hotel Welcome at Villefranche-Sur-Mer.

The view from our room at Hotel Welcome.

In the last four days we have driven the length of France from Calais to Nice with stops at Lille, a rather special Chateau in the Champagne region which warrants a post of its own, and in Lyon.

Our trusty Peugeot has served us well and is now covered in a broad selection of French bugs and insects.  It has used two tanks of gazoil (diesel) – at about twice the price of diesel in New Zealand so don’t complain about high petrol prices folks. We have overtaken about 10,000 trucks on the trip and been overtaken by about the same number of flying Porsches, Audis and BMWs.

We are now only a day or so away from our home for the next 6 months and are looking forward to settling into a place for longer than one night and being able to unpack properly.