Five things to like about the French

1. They love their dogs. All sorts and they're allowed everywhere.

2. They love their sport. We've had many pub conversations about le Tour which inevitably lead to rugby when they find out we're Australian. Met a bartender in Paris who was a motorbike rider for the Tour cameramen for three years!

3. They love their vegie gardens. Always a few tomatoes, lettuce and beans in the corner of the backyard and a chair to enjoy it.

4. Contrary to popular belief, they are very friendly. Every French cyclist has given us a "bonjour" or comiseration/encouragement, depending on where we were on the hill. Also, every shopkeeper has bonjoured us in and wished us a good day/evening/ride when we leave.

5. I maybe idealistic but they seem to be fairly eco-minded. At least half the cars are diesel, there is a push for public transport and bikes and lots of windfarms and hydro power.

Ahoy-hoy

Have abandoned hills temporarily. Instead of heading south and flirting with the Pyrenees, we've headed west along the towpaths of one of the big canals towards Toulouse and the Dordogne. The canal we're tracking runs through sunflower and wheat country and was built by an enterprising young engineer in the 17th C to link the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

It's a bit cross country, but paths are lined with plane trees and places to picnic and watch boats float up and down through the locks (I love locks - they're so simple and clever). Very restive. Very flat. Very Wind in the Willows - there are even water rats and we think we saw a woodpecker.

My new favourite word

My new favourite word is truc. My dictionary says this means thingamybob and can be used successfully to convince the locals that the word is right on the tip of your tongue (when in fact you have no idea what the word is).

The hills are alive

A week of forests and hills - some excruciatingly gradual, some painfully steep, and even a col! The granny gear has had a bit of a workout and there has been a bit of shoe power as well. Flash, however, is living up to his name and is powering up the hills (his legs are steel springs you know, whereas mine are more like rusty coathangers). Wind has been boisterous of late - in fact if Dot and Aunty Pam weren't reading this, I'd say it's been a bit of a bastard.

First day (ending in Cleremont Herault for you mappers) was through beech forest, limestone crags and river gorges. It was a gloomy day, which added to the atmosphere.

Second day (ending in St Gervais sur Mare) started like a weird David Hockney landscape - lumpy red hills with green and yellow layers - and ended in the natural park region of Haut Languedoc - thick, very green forest over big hills, iviting streams and small perched stone villages. Contender for favourite town is Boussages, which is also halfway up the contender for the nastiest hill. Fortified town with rambly streets and stone archways and alleys - lots of terraced vegetable plots and friendly dogs.

The last couple of days (ending in Mazamet) have had some hideous climbs, but some fantastic dowhills. The landscape on the plateau is completely different with rolling green hills, cows and roadside verges full of wildflowers and berries - we even found some wild thyme. From the amount of firewood being collected and hay being made, I suspect it gets pretty cold up here.

So now in Mazamet, hometown of Laurent Jalabert. With all the drug scandals going on in this years Tour, the French still think Jaja is the best thing since sliced pain and have him commentating each day.

Up to speed

Obviously, I'm not talking about me here. We took the fast train to Avignon and picked up our bikes on Friday. Rew - I walked into the shop and asked to buy some bikes and the guy said 'Oh, you must be the Australians who sent the fax - I've been trying to contact you'!

So Avignon for a day with an awful lot of festival goers, then to leafy, cicada-ey Uzes for a night (after a quick trip to the Pont du Gard and one of the best peaces I've tasted). Decided one visit to Nimes in one lifetime was enough and bypassed it via a beautiful medieval town called Sommieres. Today off to St Martin de Londres. Allez allez allez!

Vive le metro!

I love walking around Paris and have many worn soles to prove it. I do however have a great fondness for the metro.

I am shamelessly lured underground by the little red and white signs, to emerge into the light on the other side of the city. Whoever designed the thing was a genius - it's simple, fast, efficient and best of all, colour-coded.

My admiration for French trains extends beyond the metro - there's a lot to appreciate about the suburban trains too. They have that rhythmic cachinga-chacinga sound and they're above ground so you can see how Parisians live and move about.

There is also some greqt plant-watching opportunities - from the little vegie patches to the brambly woods and wild lilac that grows next to the tracks.

Let us eat cake

[Sorry all - bit of Paris backlog here to catch up on. We're actually in Uzes today, down south]

Made the trek to Versailles on Thursday - along with about 10 000 others (about 3 million each year). Thanks to a very helpful train master we arrived as the golden gates opened, with ticket already in hand. By the time we left, the queue had blown out to 2 hours to get a ticket and another 2 hours to get in!

Versailles is jaw-droppingly impressive. The palace itself is over half a km long and is the epitome of luxury and self-glorification. The rooms are sumptuous beyond belief - all wood panelling and upholstery with fabulous paintings on the walls and across the ceilings.

The best thing about the palace are the views across the estate from the (probably French) windows. The grounds are a mix of symmetry and order - fountains, manicured hedges, statues and the like - and little pockets of unkemptness - meandering tracks through woods and the occasional unexpected urn or pond.

It's impossible not to be impressed by the scale and grandeur of Versailles but there's always the niggle about the cost to the country's coffers for the benefit of very few (slightly bizarre) people. If John and Janette did this, I'd be revolting too.

Stopover in The Dhab

Aloha and as-salaam alaykom from Abu Dhabi ('The Dhab').

We've just feasted on a breakfast of hommus, feta, pastrami and dates which is a brilliant start to a day. We haven't seen much else yet - arrived at midnight in 35 degrees (bit of a change from fog-soaked frosty Canberra - but it's great once you get used to it Mum..). From the window there's miles of sand, some very beautiful mosque sillhouettes across the horizon and heaps of date palms and associated birds and bugs.

We had some great people watching at the airport last night - it was still jumping well after midnight. Lots of moustaches, turbans, headscarves, flowing robes and dark-eyed babies. We'll be back on Etihad (the national airline of the United Arab Emirates apparently - and very pleasant too) this afternoon.

So it's ma'assalaama from me and ma'assalaama from him.

Hey ho let's go!

One tsoo tsoo - testing..