One day, three countries.

Monday 9th July

Time to leave Florence and make our way towards Calais in France.  We had a fair distance to cover so for the first time we used the autostrade. We travelled 450k which cost us 44€, but saved us 6 hours of driving time, and once we got away from Florence and settled in to the rhythm it was much less stressful on both of us. Well worth it!

We stopped at a roadhouse on the motorway for lunch. What chaos! They probably had a system in place but for us foreigners it was just confusion. We obviously didn't follow the proper procedure because we ended up with 2 paninis when we only ordered, and paid for, one. Anyway, it was a nice lunch.

I've mentioned before the tunnels in Italy. Well our journey today certainly involved tunnels. I decided to count them after lunch and that count was 17. I reckon in the whole day we did at least 60 varying in length from 100m to 2.5km. Along with the tunnels there were also some amazing bridges where the autostrade crossed deep gorges. Pretty spectacular stuff.

We arrived at our hotel in Chatillon not long after 3 and are very happy with it. It has a restaurant attached so we don't need to get in the car and search for dinner.

Tuesday 10th July

Back to France. Not a good start to the day with the toll booth not registering our payment and leaving us with a bill to sort out.

We decided to take the road over the Great St Bernard pass, the third highest pass in Switzerland at 2469m, rather than the tunnel under Mont Blanc. Some pretty amazing views as we climbed, and looking at where the road climbed ahead of us was pretty spectacular too.

Along the climb out of Italy.

Hikers to be seen all over the mountain walks.

At a cafe up in the mountains,
individual 'igloos' with day beds or tables and chairs. 

Statue of St Bernard. There was a museum here to the St Bernard dog.

The Swiss border post. Closed up tight so no checks.
A bit of confusion for us here as a huge sign saying vignettes (motorway toll passes)
were mandatory but not clear that it only applied once you hit the toll roads.  

Still in Italy looking back -
not a lot of snow remaining in this part of the alps.

Looking ahead to Switzerland.

Our aim for the day was to leave Italy and travel across Switzerland and in to France without spending a penny. Reason for this was twofold - first everything in Switzerland is expensive, and second, I didn't want to have to deal with another currency. The drive took a bit longer than planned as the speed limit in Switzerland is 80kph, and our route took us right through the middle of the city of Lausanne. At least the traffic moved through the city at a slow and steady pace. Quite civilised really.

Passing through Switzerland we travelled through a large region of wine growing - don't know anything about Swiss wines though Rob says they are probably cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and chardonnay.

Crossing the border in to France, the French border guards were paying close attention to who was in each car. They are looking for refugees attempting to enter France.

So now we are feeling at home again in France though we can't get out of the habit of 'Si' and 'gracias'.