Paris to Provence, thanks to Bertrand

TONY: I would have started this blog a week or two ago, but thinking of a name for a blog that's not already taken by someone else isn't easy.
A few things I've noticed so far: France is great, baguettes are great, speaking French is easy, reading French is hard.
We spent a week in Paris in a great little top floor apartment in Montmarte and spent most of our time cycling around to the touristy sights (e.g. Louvre, Eiffel Tower etc) and the not so touristy sights (e.g. hipster art show in a run down turret come artists squat). We then picked up our gutless but charmingly funny colored car and drove south through the stunning Loire Valley, which reminded me a bit of the English countryside with its rivers, little stone walls and quaint little shops, except there were huge castles everywhere.
We eventually got down to Orgon, in southern France (near Avignon), where we are now camped in a valley surrounded by polished limestone cliffs. Two days climbing so far, getting used to the rock and avoiding the midday heat. I think I can handle this for a few months.....

P.S I'm not sure why we named the car Bertrand, other than it's a funny name to shout in a bad French accent when you need the car to do something it doesn't want to do. Like accelerate.

Julie in Paris, with a Baguette. We're eating a lot of baguettes. They even deliver them to our campsite every day.

We mostly used the bikeshare bikes to get around Paris.

At a Restaurant near Notre Dame, eating a three course menu. We ALWAYS eat three course menus

One of the many Chateaux in the Loire Valley, and some grapes which will one day become fairly  tasty but very cheap wine