We had a nice breakfast and tried to persuade the German couple that NZ is not too far to come. Christine did not speak much English but clearly understood a lot as she gave her husband a 'look’ when he said that driving the Pyrenees might be his next project. He said his van was expensive to drive in some places as often the toll is doubled if you have a high vehicle – theirs is 2m 5mm and the 5mm tips them into the next category – with the toll ticket issued according to the height of a lorry cab.

We had planned our route south so we were not on toll roads for the first third then on the motorways for the rest . This did add about 1 hour to the drive but made it more interesting and saved about 20 euro.

As we drove out we passed a sign saying the Tour de France would be here on July 13. The river through the valley had a number of dams and is obviously a great source of hydro power. We were following the toll road for a while then it disappeared we think into tunnels while we went over a mountain pass.

The drive up was less spectacular then the previous day but still great. Luckily we had so many photos already so we didn’t have to make the same number of stops. The river was less steely grey but still looked very cold. There were villages on the lower parts and then just the mountain and the road. There were more trees on the mountains here and less snow on the tops although some of the waterfalls seemed more impressive. I even saw a few sheep and cows with bells.

The road was a lot narrower as we neared the top but still 2 way - just!!!. There were not quite as many cyclists and motorcyclists as yesterday and also a few walkers. As we neared the top we saw a man walking down with a guitar – obviously an essential piece of hiking gear.

The top was 1820m and a bit past it 3 roads actually met and there was a restaurant/café!! I was a bit disillusioned to see a van pull up and unload cyclists at the top . John thought it was a great idea though and much more sensible than cycling up….

The road down was steeper and the cyclists making there way up were struggling. We saw some zigzagging across the road to lessen the slope. I don’t know what it was but it did seem steeper than the 11% of yesterday. There was a nice lake on the way down except the lower slopes were bare so we assume it is generally a lot fuller. We then got back to the villages which became more common as we got near to Grenoble. We nearly stopped to do a cache at a Hydroelectric museum but time was moving on.

After our experience with motorway food we stopped on the outskirts of Grenoble and bought fresh rolls, pastries and fruit which we could then snack on. It is so nice to have strawberries and apricots in July.

The next 80 km were less impressive as we were on one side of a river going through towns at 30-50km/h with 90 km/h stretches between them while the motorway was on the other side with the 130 km/h speed limit . We had a number of glimpses of the river and otherwise just enjoyed seeing the houses, fields and mountains in the distance.

We then joined the motorway for a trip south to the coast, and then west. We still had 450 km to go. We saw a motorbike with a GPS onboard, wind farms, and nuclear power plants. We crossed the Rhone and it was now very flat and hot – thank goodness for air-conditioning.

We reached the toll station, where the machine took our card and we were away again before we even knew how much we’d paid. We eventually had glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea. Our roads only occasionally got a bit congested but things would rapidly clear and we could do the 130 km/h safely. We did see a couple of glimpses of roads heading to the beaches and they seemed much busier.

We stopped once for a stretch and cold drink – and got back to find the car temperature reading 45C!!!. We don’t know exactly where it measures but it was certainly very hot although it soon dropped back to the mid 30’s when we got moving .

As we headed for Toulouse we saw sunflowers again and also fields of purple lavender. Violets are the local flower but they bloom in Spring. We also saw 2 cars with the red number plates that means they are lease-cars like our – one was a Peugeot and we think the other was a Citroen. We passed a truck with 5 big trees on the back - there are always big trucks but there seemed slightly fewer today. When one passes another it definitely has an effect on the traffic flow.

We stopped for a cache at one of the nicest motorway stops we have been to. It was an area by a canal and was part of a walking and cycling area. There was even a small lake and good picnic facilities. It was relatively cool as well with many trees for shade.

Claire lives south of Toulouse and we had hoped we would not need to go into the city, but after the toll rod finished (18.60 euro) we found ourselves driving through the city . It would have been fine but…we took a turn one too early and ended up in the city at 5.30pm. And the GPS took us down a road that had road works and then a deviation and then the GPS instruction was 'Perform a U turn when possible’ which it never was. We went around again and then ended up retracing our footsteps so next time we went one further exit in the wrong direction and got ourselves back in place to take the correct exit. It added to our blood pressure and cost us nearly half and hour but all worked in the end.

There was one more small toll to pay and this was interesting as you could pay with cash that you threw into a bowl and it checked you had paid the right amount and would even give change. Claire had sent us an email saying her house could be hard to find but the GPS took us to the right street in a small village called Ox, her email gave us the number and she was waiting at the gate having just returned home herself. So it was all perfect timing.

Claire is a member of the Teacher’s Travel Web (TTW) and was incredibly welcoming . She showed us our room, suggested showers and then we sat and chatted while a load of our washing went through her machine. We asked if there was a place we could get a light meal as we had snacked during the drive and she asked us to have a salad with her. The TTW agreement is bed and light breakfast and she had already asked us to have a bbq tea with her the next day.

Claire’s house was so well built for the conditions with shutters to keep out the heat of the day and solid walls. It was so nice to get away from the air con and into fresh air. She told us it was about 35 years old but she had lived previously in a 150 year old house made in the traditional way. In this area if you were very rich your house might have been built in stone as this is not a local item. If you were not quite so rich your house would have been made completely in red brick and the poorer you were the fewer fired bricks would be used. In such house only the corners and some horizontal bands in the walls would use the brick and it would be infilled with what sounded like cob. She said they are lovely in summer but in winter heating is definitely needed. We saw houses like this when we drove the next day.

It was very easy to talk with Claire as we had teaching and travel in common. She teaches English and we would forget we were not talking to a native speaker as she was so fluent. Her children were on holiday with their grandparents and she said it was nice to have company. We ended up sitting outside for tea at 9pm eating salad and then lovely French cheeses with a small glass of red wine. We had said to Claire we wanted to go to the Pyrenees rather than to Toulouse and although surprised she said the city would be very hot. She rang her brother who first suggested we do a lovely walk to a waterfall – but it was 1.5 hours one way and a 3 hour walk in the heat was too far. He then suggested a village in the foothills so that was the next day sorted. We went to bed and slept well.