Return:
From coast through Var department - sun-baked, barren country - sheep, lavender, garlic, bees, romanesque churches, house roofs with round tiles - might see Mont Ste Victoire made immortal by painting by Cezanne, born at next town - Aix - Bouches du Rhone department - highly historic - founded by Romans 123 A.D. can't stir for Roman remains in this part of France - some at Les Baux near here - bauxite for aluminium - first place where found - Aix, regal sort of town - kind of exotic Bath - it is a spa - Cezanne born here - speciality is a sweet like a lozenge of almond-paste called calissons - travelling west - that river must be Durance - strawberries, mellons, peaches, tomatoes - to Avignon on Rhone - prefecture Valenuse department - famous Vacluse spring, Petrarch wrote poem about it - land of the Arlesienne - Arles and Nimes are just south-west - bull-fights and passion - shoes and sweets - 14th Century Palace of Popes - massive walls and towers - sous le pont - 12th Century - half of it, anyway - no wonder - Rhone most powerful unpredictable river in Prance - National Company of Rhone exists to control it - wonderful dams - North to Orange - magnificent Roman theatre, amphitheatre and triumphal arch - speciality a wine, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
Now into Drôme department - soft fruits and wines - to Donzere - hydro electric iinstallations - then Montelimar - more hydro electric installations - wine and nougat and house of 16th Century court-beauty Diane de Poitiers, Up Rhone valley - soft fruits, market gardening, always vineyards, through Valence - special wine - Hermitage - then back to Lyon - forgot to mention, first time round, birth-place of Mme Reamier 19th Century society beauty painted by David and Gerard - friend of most famous 19th Century pre-romantic romancer Chateaubriand.
Now West across Loire department to Roanne - ribbons, laces, gew-gaws - on the Loire - longest river in France - here it's only come about a quarter of its way. West again into the Allier department, past northern end of Monts de la Madeleine - northern extension of Massif central - then cereals and hay to Varennes - furniture - on the Allier. North now to Moulins, prefecture of Allier department - presumably home of 15th Century painter - offhand chap, told nobody his name - have to keep calling him Maitre de Moulins - painted exquisite- Autun nativity. North to Nevers on Loire - prefecture of Nievro department - wine and stock-breeding and watering places. China is the speciality of Nevers - its ducal palace - 15th Century and 16th Century - is one of chief surviving feudal buildings in central France - it also has a locomotive works.
North to Pouges les Eaux - a Spa, of course - diabetes and gout - then to Pouilly - famous white wine - then to Friare - canal which joins Loire and, Loing - (little tributary of Seine) crosses Loire here - next Montargis on Loing, shoes, macs, jewellery and honey - this is Loiret department, cereals and cattle.
Now Nemours - honey again. After Nemours we're with the Seine, in the Seine et Marno department - part of Ile de France - through forest of Fontainebleau - chateau built for Francis 1 - Nap.1. signed his abdication here in 1814. The school of Fontainebleau is a group of painters founded in France by Italians whom Francis 1 brought to decorate the chateau. Then Barbizon - another group of painters, 19th Century, this time - had their headquarters here - Corot, Rousseau, Millet, Daubigny and others - direct to fields and woods for inspiration.
At last - PARIS - Eiffel Tower, the Metro, bouquinistes, Moulin Rouge, etc., etc.