On the road

Rather than waiting, hoping and hanging around the hotel - which makes Barcelona less fun - or indeed waiting to get thrown out of the hotel because it was fully booked for tonight, we are on the move. The car rental companies are no longer allowing you to take cars from one country to another (presumably if the north coast of europe has too many cars left there it will sink) so we booked a rental car in Perpignan (via the helpful folk at Toshiba Germany) and hopped in a taxi. We've passed quite a few taxis in the distinctive black and yellow of Barcelona on the road... Of course when we got to Perpignan the booking was there but the car wasn't - they did find one after a while (and a second car for the other journalists) and now we're driving to Calais. If we get there tonight we have a bed booked and we can queue for the ferry tomorrow. Wish us luck!

We're passing all these great wine regions

- but all we've bought is a tin of cassoulet and the usual road snacks!

The road out of Perpignan was very slow in places, but the castles and the glimpses of the alps towards Grenoble and the fruit trees and the Rhone were pretty. Currently passing Macon heading for Dijon, Reims and Calais. Must stop and eat at a service station - hopefully something edibly French.

Wine areas we've passed: beaujolais, morgon, bourgougne, l'herault, languedoc, crozes hermitage, nuits san george - let alone the rest of the rhone valley. Sob!