Heading north

Tuesday 24th June
Avignon is a beautiful city, my favourite so far in France. I explored the city and saw the main monuments (Palace de Papes and Pont Saint-Benezet which apparently is what the famous song is about... what this famous song is that everyone keeps talking about, I still haven't figured out haha).

Wednesday 25th June
I did a day tour of the Provance region which is just beautiful.  A lot of agriculture here, mainly fruit, vineyards and flowers (famous for theie lavendar and sunflower fields) so makes for a lovely countryside. We visited a few little towns and also Pont-du-Gard (the oldest Roman aqueduct in the world... very impressive).

Thursday 26th June
Another train (I've been lucky to get trains pretty much whenever I want, here is a massive rail strike over here but it's really the only way to get between the places I've been without a car), up to Lyon for a few days. Using Airbnb for the first time here, a few people have recommended it so thought I'd give it a try. It worked well however my host knew exactly zero english (literally, I can speak more French and that is limited to hello, goodbye, please and thank you!). It was a nice apartment but right on the train line, so very noisy. Considering this is a quiet part of my trip (as in no partying as I'm by myself and haven't managed to find great hostels to meet people) I have had very little sleep over the last week. Between no air conditioning in very hot places, noisy roommates and trains, plus very little coffee for most of the trip, I am surprising myself that I am still awake and haven't fallen asleep on the side of the road somewhere! :)

Friday 27th June
I didn't really have a plan for Lyon, it was just a convenient location and I'd heard a little about it. Turns out it is the 2nd biggest city in France and has a hell of a lot of history. Still, can't say that I'm overly impressed. It has a bit of a vibe that they think they (as a city) are better than everyone else, almost a but of 'little man syndrome' compared to Paris maybe? The office of tourism whose website goes on and on about how good they are were useless, ended up just finding what I needed on my own.
I did explore the city and it is nice, with an extremely impressive basilica and a cute 'old town' area.

Saturday 28th June
Was tossing up whether to do a day trip to Annecy or a wine tour today but couldn't get onto a tour and it wasn't fantastic weather so decided to just chill out in Lyon for another day.

Sunday 29th June
Very early start today for my bus to Paris! Very excited to be catching up with Jemma and Ali from my Spain tour and to check out more of Paris. I loved it for the 36 odd hours we were there on my last trip. Unfortunately looks like my run of great weather has run out though and it will be similar weather to last time... although it's got to be a hell of a lot warmer.