Sur le pont d'Avignon...

Before leaving Avignon, we visited the old town wall and the Pont de St. Benezet, which is the bridge famously featured in the French children's song.

The weather is still being good to us - hot, sunny and dry - très Mediterranée. However, this may change as we journey towards the French Alps. As we travel north east towards the Swiss border, we leave the fields of Provence behind and the countryside becomes much more hilly.

Forgive me for being naïve, but there are some serious mountains appearing in the distance, while we pass through small villages set in the lush, green valleys.

I'm not a huge fan of heights and I prefer my mountain roads to have barriers, but this is not something with which the French concur. This shot (taken from a rest stop on the side of the road) should give you a clue about the landscape.

This is how Louise (the GPS) described our journey. She also kept "recalulating" after repeated hairpin bends because she thought we were turning in circles. Sometimes it seemed that we were.

 Our destination for the evening was a chalet in a ski resort called La Rosiere. Even though it is within the French border, it is about 5 minutes from Italy and also from Switzerland. The resorts have many vacancies during the summer as the ski fields are closed. We were so relieved to arrive at this beautiful chalet after a harrowing couple of hours through the mountains.