The south of France

Bordeaux
She said - Bordeaux for me consisted of yellow wallpaper, red curtains and red and yellow carpet. At great protest from Bradley I did drag my drugged and feverous body out to get Chocolate at this fantastic shop in the mall. I also begrudgingly for medicinal purposes only went on a winery tour of 2 local chateaus Reverdi and Chateau Paloumey both in the Medoc region, both are only Cru Bourgeois and not part of the Bordeaux classification of 1855 but we thought their Cab Sauv tasted ‘bloody beaut’ and we drank their free piss with gusto. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much more about this UNESCO town.

He said - Bordeaux! Best town ever!! I got up every morning about 5AM and went for a walk along the river and through the streets, staying alert for that first whiff of coffee from some early-bird cafe. Christine was a little on the sick side so I thought it best to leave her to suffer on her own, and I spent most of the day wandering the streets by myself as well. I did drag poor Christine from her bed and through the alleyways of Bordeaux at one stage, pointing out where such interesting people as Montaigne had grown up. She did her best to appear excited and not throw up, and perked up considerably when we did the wine tour. She even managed to impress the Semillion at one of the wineries by identifying all the flavours in one of their wines. I managed to correctly identify it as a red.

Avignon
She said - 1st impression, blissfully warm, great alfresco lifestyle, entwined with huge historical significance. Did you know the Popes Palace is here? They have a bridge that goes absolutely nowhere that has its own song 'Sur le pont d'Avignon’ and no self respecting French city would be complete without a protest march. I am the proud sticker wearing member of the la cgt. Me and my fellow cgt peeps sang Queen, Bob Marley and other classic songs blasted from speakers that you would normally see at a Metallica concert from the rear of several trucks. The anarchist in the crowd (Bradley) could not turn us violent so another boring day for the riot police.

He said - Avignon was the thirteenth century home of the Popes, their having been chased out of Rome for political reasons. We enjoyed the palace they had built and strolled around the old walls of the citadel. The biggest excitement was yet another rally. Christine signed up with the CGT, which she thought was some kind of medical workers union but is actually the French Communist Party (that will probably show up when we try and get back in the country - have to think about travelling separately when we return to Australia) I was, again, less than impressed with the politeness of the demonstration, as was the solitary, bored police officer sent to watch over it.

Orange and Arles
She said – went on a Roman amphitheatre pilgrimage the one in Orange apparently is the best preserved roman amphitheatre in Europe they still use it for concerts and the one in Arles they use for bull fights. As it was Sunday it was a ghost town in both places but we enjoyed walking around the quant villages.

He said - went on a day excursion to Orange and Arles to visit some impressive Roman ruins. If you've spent a Sunday in Orange in NSW though, then you have spent a Sunday in Orange, France. Not a hell of a lot to do, but just walking around for the day was nice, despite the weather.


Monaco

She said - Home sweet home, we wish, with views over the marina, we sip our 2003 Bordeaux eat our scallops and contemplate which boat we would like to own. Although rather chilly when we arrived and with the outside pool not being heated a dip was out of the question however it didn't’ stop us from making up stories of famous and wealthy people that get picked up from the hele-port outside our hotel and whisked away to even more exotic places. Have I mentioned how much we love Monaco?

He said - The best part of Monaco was undoubtedly the boats (though calling some of them 'boats' is like calling Everest a 'hill') Some of them were so big they had a garage built into the back of them in which they parked a smaller boat. (I wondered if it was like Russian Dolls - did that smaller boat have another, smaller boat parked inside it and so on?) We wandered around them for some time, trying to look like we were considering buying one whilst knowing that even if we sold everything we had, we couldn't fill up the fuel tank on one of these things. And they just sit there for 9 m