Thanks very much for that. Will have to bear that in mind. Sounds great especially the beer bit.If it's mainly to do Ventoux then you can't beat this
http://www.veloventoux.com/
Craig and his lovely wife will pick you up from Marseilles airport, feed you handsomely, charge you very little for beer and put you up in a beautiful house in a beautiful village of Faucon.
I stayed there with a couple of friends but if you're on your own there may well be some other like-minded cyclists to team up with if you want.
.Is there anyone out there that can tell me the easist way to travel to France from the south east of England with the intention to attempt Mont ventoux hopefully next year , and any decent accomodation u can recommend for an old bloke of 45 yrs.