Wednesday 18th. May 2016
We left Paris at 9:00am and traveled south. We arrived at the town of Beaune at about 1:30pm. We had lunch and looked around the town until 5:00pm where upon we climbed back onto the bus and headed to Lyon. We arrived at our hotel just after 7:00pm.

Thursday 19th. May 2016
It was threatening to rain as we boarded the bus for our guided tour of Lyon. It was bitterly cold on top of Fourvière Hill (one of the two hills in Lyon) and visited the Fourvière Basilica which the locals call "the upside down elephant. It was built in the Byzantine style and bears great mosaics. The basilica is a very plain white on the outside but ornate inside.
We then visited the other hill in Lyon, "the hill that works," and saw the wonderfully painted murals (tromphe d’oeil) on the sides of some of the buildings. These murals are generally three dimensional streets scenes and are very difficult to distinguish from a real life scene.
We then had a walking tour around the old city of Lyon.

At around 12:30 we went down to Place Bellecour to watch the protest against French Government's austere changes to the labour laws. The French don't seem to want to accept what Germany, Greece and Spain have already had to do. I have never seen riot police before let alone watching them in action. The whole process was fascinating, with the hard core protesters getting on with the protest while the young teenagers, probably Moroccans, just provoked the riot police. It was a little like watching a Medieval battle with each group, riot police and then protesters, vying for control of various parts of the square. There were continual thrusts and parries by each side, and then counter moves until each side backed off.
One tactic of the protesters was to have a single protester walk right up to the riot police. The riot police would retreat, to avoid a confrontation and set up a new position and stop. The space that was left vacant was then occupied by the protesters, and the whole thing would start again.
As I was changing the lens on my camera a young man approached me and asked if I was the "media." In his hand he held what looked like a spent 12 gauge shotgun cartridge, which he claimed had been used by the police. He was disappointed when he discovered I was only a "tourist."

We got back to the hotel at about 4:00pm. At 6:30pm we walked down to Georges Brasserie for a very pleasant dinner.
Friday 20th. May 2016
We left the hotel at about 8:30am and headed towards Cannes via the town of Grasse.
We arrived in Grasse mid afternoon and were given a guided tour of one of the perfume blending facilities here. It was very interesting how they blended the various perfumes etc.
We then continued on to our hotel in Cannes. The film festival is about to wind up this weekend and everyone was dressed up to the nines. The men in dinner suits and the women in long dresses. I have never seen so many extraordinarily tall women and girls. I almost felt like a dwarf.
We had dinner at a restaurant just outside the hotel and then walked down to the beach. All the beautiful people were out parading themselves and going to various events. We walked down to the convention centre where the vary wide red carpet was out for all the guests.
We were behind a barrier and so we couldn't get very close. However I managed to get a couple of shots of Actress Charlize Theron, and Javier Barden as they were leaving the premier of the movie "The last Face." The movie was produced by Sean Penn and was apparently booed by the audience during the screening. Meanwhile the audience for the next sitting of the awards were gathering in front of us. I noticed a young girl leaning on the barrier a few metres away from us. She suddenly collapsed and slumped to the ground. We couldn't reach her because of the barrier in front of us but we called for help and the ambulance people eventually came and took her away. I'm getting the hang of this photojournalism lark and so took a few photos of her in her dilemma.

Street scene in Grasse, France	Street scene in Grasse, France	About to faint at Cannes Film Festival
Jean Reno, Charlize Theron & Javier Barden Cannes Film Festival	Charlize Theron & Adele Exarchopoulos Cannes Film Festival	Charlize Theron & Adele Exarchopoulos at Cannes Film Festival

L to R:  Jared Harris, Jean Reno, Sean Penn (Front),  Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem

We arrived back at the hotel at about 10:45pm

Saturday 20th. May 2016
It was 9:00am start on a sunny morning. Our bus took us to Monte Carlo and up to the top of the large rock which is Monaco. We watched the changing of the guard outside Prince Rainier's palace. We then had a look at Monte Carlo which was in the grips of preparations for the forthcoming Grand Prix, so there were road closures everywhere.
We then moved on to Nice and had a look around there and wandered down the esplanade looking at the sunbathers on the pebble beach. In some areas they had brought in some sand for the people to lie on.

Monaco	Monte Carlo
Changing of the guard at Monaco	The beach at Nice
The beach at Nice with imported sand	On the beach at Nice

We had dinner again at the restaurant across the road from the hotel and then wandered down to the convention centre to watch all the beautiful people parading and taking photos.
We obviously arrived too late, although it was the same time as last night, but everyone had left the red carpet and the next lot of people were filing in for the next session. I didn't have a flash with me and only the telephoto lens as the 27-105mm lens has a problem with it's connection to the camera. The professional photographers were targeting the most attractive stars and taking them aside to photograph then. Some of my photos were taken while the professionals were using their lights. I was then approached by a dark long haired woman who asked if I wanted to take her photo. I enthusiastically said yes. I gave her one of my cards and she introduced herself as "Alice." She was from L.A. and was an actress in "The Big Bang Theory" TV series. She said she played Raj's mother, Mrs. Koothrappali. Unfortunately all this meant nothing to me.
A little research revealed she was indeed Alice Amter, an English actress, living in America who claims to have no Indian ancestry.
I suppose I was in shock but I forgot to get her to pose properly (she was a big lady and she should have been standing side on to the camera) and I regretted not having a flash with me. So the photos were taken with natural light and a very high ISO.

Sunday 21th. May 2016
We checked out of our hotel in Cannes and headed to Aix en Provence, the one time home of artist Paul Cezanne. We arrived about midday, had lunch and spent a few hours exploring the town before moving on to Avignon where we will spend the next two nights.
While in Aix en Provence we wandered about the town starting at the Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur d'Aix-en-Provence, the construction of which began in the 6th century AD. I took a photo of The Burning Bush Triptych of Nicolas Froment which came from a 15th Century Carmelite convent that was destroyed during the French Revolution.
There was a service just finishing. There was a clatter of bells and the doors opened and the congregation came out. There was an excellent all male choir who also came out and sang a few songs in the village square.
There was a young mother with long dark hair who was whirling her long haired daughter around on her hip. Both of their hair flowed outwards and they spun around.

The Burning Bush Triptych

Young mother and daughter

Young mother and daughter

We then had some lunch and walked through the various markets in different parts of the town. In the general market at the bottom of the hill I noticed a young lady selling hats at one of the stalls. I asked if I could take her photo. She had been using a mirror to show her customers what their new hats would look when on their heads. I wanted a photo her with the reflection looking at me from the mirror. Her lack of English and my poor French made it very difficult to achieve, but I managed a couple of interesting shots of her. I paid her  €5 for her time and patience. She seemed grateful for her reward.

The young hat seller

 In Avignon we are in an excellent room on the first floor of the Novotel Hotel. It is spacious, modern and most things seem to work.