France offers the visitor an almost unlimited number of places to visit: cultural sites with amazing architecture and history plus natural features ranging from mountains to plains and giant sand dunes by the sea. Just wandering around a small port on the Mediterranean can take hours. But this experience does not come cheaply. While accommodation and food are generally excellent the cost of living is expensive. We sampled a range of hotels and all were pleasant and comfortable. Travelling is now a matter of WI-FI (wee-fee) and the internet is more and more common, allowing tablet- equipped  travellers to plan from day to day. Highway travel was excellent, from toll autoroutes to twisting mountain roads. Given the excellence of French highway signs driving is always a pleasure, but learning the correct technique to manoeuvre the many rond-points  took some time.  And there was the time we wound up driving in the reserved bus lane! Clicking on the shells (hommage à la Route de la Compostelle) will allow you to follow our trip. Clicking on active names will take you to the appropriate GoogleEarth map. Côte Vermeille Les orgues Arcachon Bordeaux Boats & stuff Rocamadour Selected images Toulouse Home TechInfo St-Cyprien