The outside of Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.

The inside of Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière.

Lyon is a lovely city. We went to a Bouchon (like a bistro) and treated ourselves to a lovely meal. Salads (not salads), amuse bouche, fish quenelle, cheese, pudding, lots of bread and a pot of wine. An average walking tour but did get to see the famous mural and walk through the traboules (secret passages) which were built for the silk trade. We also tried the praline brioche (must nicer than it looks) and the bugnes (lemony doughnuts).

Stayed in a lovely spot by Lake Eyjeaux in Monts d'Ardeche. A nice bike ride to start a walk up the the Bonneroach castle. Also a nice walk through the chestnut trees (all harvested).

Pont d'Arc. One of two natural bridges over a river in the world (though Wikipedia suggets there may be more).

Amazing drive through the Gorges d'Ardeche. We had the place to ourselves which was nice but also meant that nothing was open so no opportunity to kayak.

Yesterday we visited Pont du Gard on the way to the southern coast. An incredible feat of engineering and a lot larger in real life than what we imagined.

1000 year old olive tree standing next to 49 year old Sally.

Italy is completely locked down now so that's off the cards for a while at least. Glad we hung back.

We've decided to turn west across the bottom of France toward Spain for the next week and reassess. Eventually we'd like to get over to Slovenia/Slovakia/Croatia and we've taken Greece off the list.

It's good to be able to be flexible!

Yesterday France announced it would force the closure of all but essential services (groceries, petrol, pharmacies, etc). Looking at our options we feel we'd be better off hunkering down here for a few weeks/months(?) rather than try to get back to UK or NZ. We don't come into contact with people, we're self-sufficient, the weather is warming up and France seems to be taking a good approach (I'm dubious about UK's approach and their system seems more fragile than France's decentralised way of running things).

We've been stocking up and identifying places we can stay at in comfort (i.e. with services like electricity so we can save on gas).

This morning we're heading to a place called Camping Baptistou near Franquevielle southwest of Toulouse. I'll post an update when we arrive.

We've arrived at Camping Baptistou and it's perfect: €10 per night with views of the snow-capped Pyrenees in the distance, electricity, hot showers, toilets, water/waste and steak de petit cheval whenever we like! We'll stay here for a week or two and see what happens.

If there's one thing I've learnt from zombie outbreak survival movies it's that you have to move quickly and decisively.

Another update.

Yesterday France further tightened its movement rules and we're no longer allowed to go anywhere without urgent need. We can go shopping for food but we need to have a special form explaining our reason for going out.

The new rules come into force at lunchtime so we've just been to a nearby supermarket and stocked up on a few things (including a cheapie electric hob so we can save LPG) as well as got out some cash and filled up with LPG which will now last us at least two months. Lots of people lined up at opening time and lots of face masks but very orderly and organised.

We're the only ones here at the campsite now but the owner is lovely and we have an unlimited supply of eggs. He even dropped the daily rate and gave us a homemade jar of terrine de foie de volaille (AKA jellymeat).

So, that's us for at least the next two weeks. Going to have to come up with an exercise regime and learn some new card games. Learn a bit more French, too. We still feel we're in the best possible location to sit something like this out. We'll reassess over the coming weeks.

Stay safe everyone!

Here's us all on our lonesome. We had a flock of sheep out on the grass yesterday doing a bit of mowing.

Weather's good. So far in our two days of lockdown we've done a 5km run each morning. Not used to running and legs are a bit dead so we might have to have a rest day tomorrow ☺️

Was 26 degrees on our first day in Saintes Marie. Not quite so nice for our first summer picnic with Tony and Trish on the 9th of March. Note the bull steak in the bottom left hand corner - cooked up superbly on the BBQ by chef Peterson. 

Gorgeous Gorges - Gorges de Colombières

Gorgeous gorges - Gorges d'Heric

A lovely little port on the Canal du Midi at Le Somail. We had a lovely lunch at the restaurant where we had a pizza to commisserate not being in Italy. The restaurant was open for its first day of the season on the 12th of March. I suspect it didn't open for many days after that 😢

We visited Carcassonne on the 13th of March (trying to keep away from the weekend rush)- it was very quiet and a lovely little spot. The castle had an interesting history and while it looks like it would be hard to breach it has actually happened three times. It was restored beginning in 1853.

Our first morning run of the lockdown on the 18th of March. Hopefully we manage to keep them up.