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We have had our final sleep in Italy. It has been a wonderful seven weeks visiting interesting places and meeting many friendly people. Our decision to use apartments rather than cheap hotels has so far been one of our best. Today we load the car for our trip across the border into France. We are really looking forward to our week in Burgundy near the town of Beaune. On the last trip we promised we would return. This week we will. But first we have a journey to make.
The tricky part to leaving our apartment is to make sure all the doors stay open behind us as we get the car onto the street. We need to return the keys to the apartment and shut the doors and gate behind us. If one of these actions fails then we are stuck. The driver could be locked inside the building and the co-pilot locked between the car and the building with the phones in the car. We could be trapped for weeks. Fortunately all our planning pays off and we are on our way.
We trick Jane into taking us the scenic way to Grenoble. It will be a
long day but hopefully the scenery will be great. We soon leave the plains around Turin and start the climb through the mountains. There are several series of zigzags but now we are quite expert at navigating these types of roads. The weather is looking rather overcast with rain threatening all the time. We manage to find the only rest area in Italy. It is set out with about six picnic tables and some piped mountain running water. Everything is set out in a grassy area beneath the shade of some fir trees. The sun is shining but the cold mountain wind is rather chilly. The warmth of the car is a better bet. Fellow picnickers are trying to enjoy the outdoors with their fold-up picnic chairs and winter coats.
On we go, reaching the pass at Sestriere and soon after bid farewell to Italy. The settlement at the pass is like a large town that would be over run by skiers in the winter. A large amount of building is going on and some interesting high rise buildings dot the landscape. We cruise past the border guard and as we have nothing to declare we keep on going.
No point in making life difficult for ourselves. If we had stopped we might have lost our new Moka coffee maker. The scenery is spectacular on both sides of the pass. Perhaps not quite like the Dolomites but well worth a photo or two.
The roads on the French side of the border are great to drive. Smooth, wide with great sweeping bends. Getting closer to our destination the land appears to be used for cattle grazing. More hills appear near Grenoble and we need to negotiate more zigzags. This time we are ysurrounded by deciduous trees. As we approach Grenoble it is Friday night rush hour and everyone is leaving town. The queue of cars banks back for several kilometres. We are lucky, we are arriving. We will be filling an empty space left by those who have departed the city. Our drive in is quite straight forward. We arrive at the hotel and find the car park filling up with a variety of Porsche sports cars. Could be quite a night.
Our day ends with a delicious hotel meal and a good night’s sleep. It has been a long day. The distance hasn’t been that far
but the terrain meant it was slow and steady. We are not sure what we’ll find in the city centre tomorrow but it will be great to see what makes the city a place to visit. At this time of the year it will not be attracting the skiers. They’ll be in Queenstown, NZ.
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