Popped Over to France

Our next leg of the journey home was a completely different route from our outward journey. I decided we would head towards France via the North West shoulder of Italy, Pisa, La Spezia, Genoa, Turin and then ending up just inside France at a little village in the French Alps called Bramans. The drive featured so many beautiful views including the rolling hills of Tuscany, peeks of the Mediterranean, rushing rivers of melting snow and the plentiful rice fields of Lombardy and Piedmont. Apparently Italy produces a million tons of rice a year - focusing on the specialty rice used for risotto.

It seems, though, there is always a glitch in the drive. Yesterday it was courtesy of a careless lorry driver, today it was the exorbitantly priced Frejus tunnel which costs 75 euros in tolls and took a full hour of queuing before we could use the tunnel as vehicles are spaced at 300 metres apart for security reasons. So we didn’t arrive at our tranquil site in the French Alps until just before 7. However, the views here are spectacular - this photo was one of many different mountains we can view from our van.

We ended the day with a delicious reprise of amandoAlentejo’s African chicken which was delicious once again. We also enjoyed the remains of our bottle of Lacrimus Rioja and now it’s time to get some sleep before our no tolls journey to Beaune, a town north of Lyon where we will once again stop for the night.