Our trip covered London, Paris, Grenoble, Nice, Provence region, Luberon region, Marseilles, Toulouse region and back to London over a period of April 18 to May 5, 2001. Here is what we found in the France part of the trip:

April in Paris (pictures) - We took a fairly relaxing train ride from London to Paris (Eurostar through the chunnel), and a slightly hectic Metro ride to our hotel near the Sorbonne. From there, we spent 4 days touring by foot enjoying the architecture, shops and friendly people. It was an absolute pleasure to visit Paris. We celebrated Jackie's 50th birthday at the oldest (appropriate?) restaurant in Paris - Le Procope (very nice, and not too formal). You probably already know about the many things to see and do in Paris, so I won't get into that (see the pictures). Suffice it to say that we would like to go back for a longer stay sometime.

Grenoble - Nice (pictures) - We took the train from Paris to Grenoble, which turned out to be a mixed experience. On the one hand, the mountains were beautiful and the walk up the mountain path to the Bastille was exhilarating, culminating in a wind that nearly blew us off the mountain. On the other hand, the site of the former Olympics has fallen into disrepair and the town center was rather uninteresting. However, we did enjoy the most well equipped hotel room of our whole trip - a large modern suite with all the conveniences including a Jacuzzi.

After two nights in Grenoble, we took the train to Nice where we spent the night. Nice was beautiful, vibrant, sunny and busy. There is a hillside park overlooking the beach on one side and the marina on the other. There is a great market and strip of nice hotels and shops running parallel to the beach. All this was within easy walking distance of our hotel. We rented a car and went to the Musée Matisse to admire the collection, which includes Matisse's studies showing sequences of work in progress.

Tourettes sur Loup - Gordon - Vence - Rousillon (pictures) - We continued our drive, heading up into the hills and mountains of Provence, to a charming hotel called Auberge de Tourrettes in the hillside village of Tourrettes sur Loup. Our room had a view of the village, the valley ,and the Mediterranean Sea off in the distance. The hotel has a gourmet 1 hat restaurant. The staff was very pleasant and helpful. We used the hotel as a home base for day trips, staying 3 nights.

The mountain driving is a little nerve-wracking when you are not used to it: narrow roads, no shoulder, cliffs, fast drivers steep hills. Still, it was definitely worth seeing. There are many little towns perched on mountaintops, Gordon for example. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't quite capture the sheer height of some of the places.

Another picturesque and thriving town we visited was Vence, where the locals seem to take pride in keeping the houses and buildings nicely painted and well maintained. It has a busy market where you can buy locally made arts and crafts.

Bidding a fond farewell to our friendly hotel staff at Tourrettes sure Loup, we headed for an outdoorsman's hotel in Lourmarin which is in the Luberon valley, near the Luberon National Park. The area looks good for biking and hiking - very green and hilly with large rock outcroppings. Once there, we visited several towns, more notably Gordes and Rousillon. Gordes is high up on a hill with nice old stone buildings, a castle, and a grande vista of the Luberon valley. In Rousillon, many houses are coated in multicoloured stucco with the colour mixed right in, not just painted. The colouring agent is ochre, predominantly red. It is mined there, and gives Rousillon's landmark red cliffs their colour.

Luberon-Marseilles - Toulouse (pictures) - Our next hotel was in Marseilles. On the way there, we visited the old centre of commerce Aix en Provence, and the pretty but very busy coastal town of Cassis. Marseilles was a big city with a well established and interesting but slightly rough marina. We then took the train to Toulouse and rented another car to visit Jennifer, Neil and Riley at their house near Lombez. It was a welcome bit of relaxation with familiar faces and excellent accomodation (the price was right too). The area has lush farmland rolling hills and well laid out towns. You can see the Pyrenees in the distance.

Well, that's it for our 2001 tour - it was fun. Sometime we would like to continue our tour onward to the Pyrenees, west to Biarritz on the Atlantic coast, and north along the coast to Bordeaux and Brittany.