Goodbye Rome Hello France

Had a wonderful day in Assisi. What a glorious town set on the side of a hill overlooking a beautiful valley in Umbria. We walked nearly every street and the little hill town never disappointed. It seemed so Italian sitting on the square having a glass of wine and eating pizza in the town of St Francis. The bascilica to St Francis is amazing and dominates the small town. It actually has a upper church and a lower church (where St Francis is entombed in a simple and appropriate site). Caught the train back to Rome and went to a wonderful little restaurant for Pizza. An extremely good day. On our last day in Rome we did another big walk going to the Ara Pacis (Augustus tomb) via the Spanish steps, had one last coffee at our favourite outside the Pantheon, sat at the Trevi fountain in the sunshine and then on the plane for Nice to meet our friends, Liz and Ron Jumelet. We actually did that effortlessly and were soon ensconced in our accommodation overlooking the French Riviera including Cannes and Antibes. The lights at night are amazing. We have driven down to St Tropez and had time in Cannes where the film festival is on. John and Ron were basically told yesterday the festival is not for the general public and they didn't care if the public went to see movies. Pity. We looked for David and Margaret but to no avail. We have eaten like kings and drank like fishes for the last couple of days. Today John and I have headed off for western Provence to see the sights of Avignon, Pont du Gard and Orange. It's nice to be in the French countryside again rather than the glitzy Cote d'Azur.