My Mediterranean tan

Bordeaux
After our misadventures locating the Mont Saint Michel we took the train south to Bordeaux, hoping to leave the rain behind and taste some delicious French wine. Unfortunately only one of these things came true! The grey clouds followed us along the west coast and kept the weather chilly. Bordeaux though made up for the foul climate, it's a very pretty city about the same size as Canberra and with a better public transport system! We spent most of the time wondering around the city, siteseeing and shopping. We booked ourselves in for a 1/2 day wine tour to the Medoc wine region, the tour itself was dull and the guide put us to sleep within 30 minutes of sitting on the bus (he indulged in long pauses between words), but the country side was stunning and the Margaux wine we tried was delicious - like caramel!

Aix-en-Provence
So we headed further south and into the quint-essential French country side of Aix-en-Provence, where the sun was shining and the weather was more to our taste (finally! - about 30 degrees C). Aix is a pretty town but it's too flashy and a little dull, which was a bit dissapointing. Next time we will hire a car and visit some smaller towns.

NICE!
Nice was brilliant! It was everything we were looking for in France and it had a beach! We decided to splurge and stay 5 nights in a nice hotel. It was a little further away from the old town, but still easy walking distance and close to the beach.

We had planned to visit Cannes and Monaco, but in the end it was nicer just to wander around the city and swim in the afternoon. We took the mega lift up to the fort/palace gardens where there are some pretty man made waterfalls and did some shopping.

Managed to get sunburnt, so I was probably one of the only people wondering around England with a sun tan!

Lyon

We only spent one night in Lyon, but wondered around the old town in the evening, which is very pretty and we had a nice regional dinner at a cute cafe (although we dodged some of the more interesting specialites).