KEY POINTS:
After a whistlestop to Lyon - pleasant city by the way - we are now in Aix-en-Provence.
This is the town probably best known as Paul Cezanne's hang-out.
I can see why he liked it: old cobbled lanes, beautiful churches, nice scenery, et cetera.
The All Blacks have the run of Le Pigonnet, a character hotel with spectacular gardens. They look like they're enjoying it too with an unidentified player running amok through a media session with a facemask like a Central American kidnapper. Clearly he lost a bet.
Roll back to Saturday and the Portugal romp in Lyon. It was a great day for the fans. It is no exaggeration to say there have been Tri Nations matches with less atmosphere.
England South Africa in Paris on Friday was another great evening. You have to hand it to the England fans, the moist loyal and passionate followers of the game. This England team doesn't deserve them.
This week will be a case of testing the tooth in Aix's multitude of restaurants. A couple of the boys, though, were surprised to get a hamburger pattie after ordering steak last night. No doubt the vin rouge and Kronenbourg 1664 will get a look-in too.
This is bit of a scattergun blog to be honest but I should make mention of a note I received from ex-All Black Grahame Thorne.
He made a very valid counterpoint to my question to Auckland's town burghers on why they can't get from me the 20kms from town to the East Coast Bays in less than an hour when I can get the 380kms from Marseille to Paris in three hours.
"Apples and pears," he said, making mention of Paris' terrible traffic. Good point Grahame. We'll put that in the journalistic licence folder.
Quote of the day comes from a Sunday newspaper journalist who went to the French Resistance Museum in Lyon: "It was OK but it was in French," he said with genuine disappointment.
Cest la vie.
