21/10/05 - Big rest day required today after too much driving. We strolled around Saint-Nectaire and its surroundings. The autumn colours are lovely, the trees are full of red, brown and orange leaves, the weather is also great, about 19 degrees. Autumn is also good from the point of view that the summer crowds have long gone and we virtually have the place to ourselves and the locals. This is a very interesting area, old volcanoes, lakes, beautiful farmland and old villages. We visited the 12th century church, plus the limestone Petrification Fountains (Fontaines Pétrifiantes des Saint-Nectaire, where artwork is created over a period of about 12 months by placing moulds on a ladder in a fountain of water which contains limestone deposits. 12 months later you have a limestone artwork or perhaps a limestone statue ... read more

18/10/2005 - We finally made it to Maniago after traveling through some very beautiful countryside. The roads were so narrow, when we came into the towns the mirrors of the car almost scrape the edges of the buildings. Robert is becoming very professional at avoiding accidents with the locals on tractors and those three wheeled, two stroke utility vehicles they drive. We went directly to a place called Campagna, 5kms east of Maniago. Wel, almost directly, we had to stop and ask for directions once, the guy we asked just happened to be a cousin of the folks we were looking for! The people we were to visit are my mothers cousins. Unfortunately they were not home so we were to return in the evening. We found a place to stay then took a walk around ... read more

Italian Autostrada, Smog and Trucks 14/10/05 - The Mont Blanc tunnel made world news a while back due to the fact that 24 people died in there when a truck caught alight. Our trip through was much safer, although we almost died when we got hit with the 30 euro toll to make the trip through. On entering the tunnel you tune your radio to the traffic station and they welcome you to the tunnel in French, Italian and English, giving you all the safety instructions you must follow on your drive. Once on the Italian side we found our way through the Italian Alps to Aosta and then the Autostrada in the direction of Milano. Aside form the high fuel costs the toll charges would discourage plenty of Italians from taking too many motoring holidays. ... read more

12/10/05 - In Switzerland we said farewell to our petite cousins (distant cousins) - Jean, Beatrice, Jean-Frédéric and my Uncle Robert at a restaurant on the banks of Lake Bienne. We discovered that Swiss cuisine is not at all comparable to the French food we have grown used to. Jean- Frédéric was on his way to Lausanne to start his studies at a business college, so we all tagged along on the drive from Alsace to Lausanne. We followed Jean’s green bus through Alsace to Switzerland, via the many tunnels that finally get you to Lausanne. The Swiss don’t just put holes in their cheese; they also put them through their mountains. The many tunnels through the Alps certainly make road travel a lot faster than if you had to drive over the Alps. We left ... read more

A quick trip across the Rhine 10/10/05 - we took a drive across the Rhine into Germany and visited the city of Freiburg. The cathedral there is a stunning Gothic affair and surveyed the flattening of the city by the Americans during WWII. The rest of the city was leveled by an onslaught of bombing and was rebuilt largely by women. It was hard to find male workers at the time as most were dead or in prison. I would not describe it as a lovely city. It was interesting, but a shame that the town clock tower has a McDonalds advertising sign just under it and the eatery is so close to the clock tower. I found it amazing the Freiburgians would allow them to do such a thing. Chocolate sardines We noticed in a ... read more