Following offspring #2’s university year, she came to France for a visit, and we spent most of our time taking a road trip through southern France.

Southern France, in case you didn’t know, is bloody hot and humid in the summer. (Just a little FYI for you there.)

We stayed at a campground on the Mediterranean, which unfortunately had the beach closed during our stay. Classic me, amirite?

Still, there was plenty to keep us busy. We took day trips to Nîmes, the “most Roman city outside Italy,” complete with its impressively intact amphitheatre (still used for concerts and events even today) and maison carrée, then on to Valensole, in the heart of France’s lavender-growing region (and purported location of an alien close encounter), then out to the edge of Montpellier to visit an oceanographic aquarium.

With a couple of days left, we’re planning a stop in Annecy, near the Swiss border—which, from everything I’ve seen so far, might just be the French town I’d most like to live in. Unfortunately, it’s too far from Paris to be practical, but I still like to visit whenever I can.

Anyway, here are some photos to give you an idea of what we’ve been up to.