2014

Made it! Got the 8.40am flight out of Melbourne, arrived in Launceston, collected the hire car and headed up to the Tamar Valley where we were staying.

Tamar Valley Retreat is located right on the Tamar River and has 2 lovely cottages, fully self contained of course. It was unfortunate that we only had the one night here due to our delays but once we had settled in we were back in the car and off!

Followed the touristy route, stopped at brady's lookout, did some wine tasting (and bought a bottle of Pinot Noir) at Tamar Valley Vineyard. The region is reknowned for it's Pinot Noir. The vines are all brown branches at the moment as it's mid winter and cold.

Early morning start for our flight to Melbourne, a wait in Melbourne then on to Launceston.

Oops - didn't quite turn out that way - flew to Launceston alright but the airport was fogged in so aircraft came straight back to Melbourne.

We had already waited around for that flight for some 3 hours but then had another 5 hour wait for our designated flight after returning to Melbourne. Bummer!

Waited 3 hours till about 7pm then decided it was all too hard so we made arrangements to stay at the Holiday Inn at the Airport overnight and catch the flight to Tasmania in the morning.

Have had a brilliant day today touring the French Champagne region and learning so much (besides drinking so much!!!) beautiful lunch included but then nothing could beat touring through Moët and Chandon cellars.

28km of tunnels on 3 levels below the complex and no-one really knows how many bottles of champagne are down there!!! Staggering numbers!

110kms in total of tunnels under the town of Epernay, the heart of the champagne area. Brilliant day!

Here in Reims tomorrow, approx 80,000 people expected for the biggest festival of the year!!

Think we might lay low!

We have been having a wonderful time over the last couple of days here in the Burgundy region (Boourgogne) in France in absolute awe of the beauty of the vineyards and the surroundings we are in.

The weather has been perfect and as such, this whole 'wine trail' region is full of cyclists following their trails, a few tourists self-driving themselves like us and the occasional minibus of tourists stopping within the middle of the roads basically, to hear what their tour guide has to say.

Have just had a very quiet day today here in Aix-en Provence in the south of France. 2 days of travelling and eventually arriving late yesterday afternoon after a very stressful driving session in Aix through tiny little streets and not really knowing where our accommodation was until - "are you lost??? I think you're looking for my place, follow me up the lane" ….. we were parked in the lane way we were meant to be but just not really sure which house had the 'orange walls' and then "we're on the right just past that" - whew!! Thank goodness for John (Jean!) - a lovely couple here who are insistent that if there is anything we need to please let them know. Did we need some washing done, have you got anything for dinner?