Sunday, September 19th

We left Anibes by 9:00 - destination Reims, France, via the shortest route which took us on roads not too suitable for our oversized van. Changed route to avoid freeways and this took us up and over the mountains. Beautiful scenery all around us but still not fast - the Alps in France are different from what we have seen in Italy and Switzerland. The biggest difference is in the houses that nestle in the mountains. Switzerland is prettier.
We stopped for coffee around 10:30, sitting among the motor bikers who were all out enjoying the great weather. We picked up baguettes, grapes and a hunk of brie cheese for lunch and were on our way again. We soon realized we would never reach our destination at the speed we were going so picked up the pace and took the freeways. It can get costly because of the hefty tolls you pay but we do need to get to our destination.
The houses in the mountains have changed from medieval type to more modern the closer we get to the big cities. It's still neat to see villages nestled among the hills - from our vantage point on the freeways, it's impossible to see roads leading to the houses. This part of France also has many apple orchards - the trees are covered with nets and harvesting has not begun yet. We see fields of dried up sunflowers waiting to be harvested. I'm sad that they are not bright yellow anymore, would have loved to see this.....
Grenoble is the biggest city we come through on the freeway. The further north we travel in France, the flatter the countryside gets - we are out of the mountains now and see much better farmland. The vineyards are plentiful again and we are told that the closer we get to Champagne this will be the case as these grapes are used to make champagne...
Before stopping tonight we see some excellent farms - some with crops already harvested, some crops waiting to be harvested and lush green fields with cows grazing. It was so flat it reminded us of the Canadian prairies.

Even though we took the freeway for half the day, we still land up at the youth hostel in Reims just before 9:00 p.m. The cafeteria was still open so we could get a meal there yet.

It's late, time for bed.....tomorrow another 450 kilometers before we get to Den Haag....the weather was absolutely beautiful all day today - beautiful sunset as well.