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Hello everyone,

I bet you thought I had dropped off the face of the planet. I think it has been a month since I last wrote a travelblog and I can not remember myself everything that has happened. Needless to say, the month has gone very fast and now I am trying to recap through my photos.

After spending 2 nights in Andorra (fantastic mountains), I headed back to France; Carcasonne where there is a lovely fairy tale castle built on a hill. This one is a city in itself and is where Kevin Costner filmed ‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’. I then headed for Narbonne where there was a beach parking spec to spend the night. My old school mate was flying in to Montpellier early on 4th Oct so I headed up the coast and camped in a seaside tourist spot called ‘La Grande Motte’. We then headed to Marseille for the big England - Australia rugby match. What a great game. I was on the edge of my seat for the last 20mins. We had a great time and met up with the England tour bus and Austin Healey (who disembarked his yacht for a photo). The next few days were spent on the south coast of France, taking in St.Tropez (bit of a dive), Cannes, Nice, Monaco and Monte Carlo. I broke the bank at the casino and got a new car (not really). However, I couldn’t have left Big Red and so took her for a spin on the Grand Prix race track. After dropping my mate off at the airport in Nice, I headed round the coast stopping at Celle Ligure, Genova, Portofino (beautiful), La Spezia and stayed the night in Carrara. Any further south and I would have been in Pisa but I had a beeline to make for Milan. I stopped in Parma on the way and had the treats of Parma ham and cheese. After a very short stop in Milan I decided that I could not miss the England Rugby final in Paris and had been invited by several English correspondents to join them there. A 1700km round trip detour ensued. Paris certainly was spectacular. We climbed the Eiffel tower and drank loads of beer. It was great to see the crew. Thanks for a great weekend to Justin, Katie, Jeremy, Caroline and Andy. Instead of backtracking the same way I had come, I decided that Switzerland was the place to head for. I took in Basel, Bern, Interlaken and some of the most breathtaking Alpine scenery you could imagine. I thought that Norway had some awe-inspiring mountain passes, however, the Trollstigen has to come in second to the Grimselpass in Switzerland. Next was the lakes. Unbelievable. They are just beautiful. I spent a day driving along the coast of Lake Como. Bellagio really is the jewel of the lake.
I will now skirt Milano once more before heading to Venice.

Must go… world to see,
Bye for now,
Dave.

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