Some views of some of the vineyards of the Villages des Côtes du Rhône beneath Mont Ventoux and the Denterelles de Montmirail. These views are from Rasteau, the village on the hill in the distance is Séguret and nearby villages include Sablet, Vacqueyras and Gigondas. Also the Chateau d'Hugues at Uchaux.

Views of Mont Blanc (4810.02 m.) from around the Col du Pré (1748 m.) and the Col des Aravis  (1486 m.), so views of two different aspects of the Mont Blanc massif.

We took advantage of a couple of fine autumn days to drive our hire car up the road passes and then hike a bit further up for our picnics. Great views of Mont Blanc in the autumn sunshine and with the new snow from the recent storms.

Autumn on the lac d'Annecy. There are some storms about so no longer the clear blue skies of high summer but still a very pleasant clear light on the water in this attractive location. I find Annecy is calm and polite and pretty, in a bourgeois way that is refreshing after London and Marseille. Maybe it would be limiting in the long term but it's been great for a holiday. The leaves are turning autumn colours now and there are mists on the lake in the mornings.

 We're staying in Marseille for the rest of our holiday. The weather elsewhere is too awful or unreliable to be worth booking to leave the sunshine and convenience of my place here. It's even better than Menton, being several hundred kilometres further south.

Here's my postcard of where we've been today, the beach village of Pointe Rouge: just a metro and bus ride at 3 Euros, return. Still have the clear blue sky here at the flat but a fierce Mistral wind from the North, which is keeping the skies clear and blue but also the dogs howling.

The Mistral also brought out the watersports guys, playing their sport within view of the mythic stadium of OM, Olympique de Marseille. That's the big white roof in the photo.