BREATHTAKING!!!

Friday the 3^rd September
Well… I have a new favourite location in the world. Perhaps this will change again in the next few days or weeks, but for the time being, move over Great Ocean Road. You are now number 2.

We are in Geneva at the moment, but this morning we woke up in beautiful Chamonix. As I said in my last blog, mountain view room, was wonderful to wake up to! After crawling away from bed with the beautiful view, we ate breakfast and made our way over to the world famous cable car. The cable car goes up the mountains and crosses over into Northern Italy. The summit of the trip is near Mount Blanc, which stands at an amazingly tall 3800m. All I can say, is that was the most beautiful experience I have ever had in my life The whole way you overlook spectacular mountains and it is just breathtaking, literally… You are 4000m up and the air is very thin up there. Brendon and I would walk up a flight of steps and have to sit down because it just exhausts you!

These photos don't even do it justice, it was just amazing. What a way to say goodbye to France! And Brendon had never seen snow before! Well he has now, and he was very excited about it!

Driving into Switzerland took us a little while. We kept going on the scenic routes and ended up crossing the border a few times! I think including Italy we were in different countries 5 times! Blows your mind a bit being an Aussie!! It was amazing! It is just so beautiful around here! There are mountains everywhere, and lovely houses and buildings. The roads are beautiful and windy and it s just the most amazing experience. Although when we got to Geneva that was a different story. There were bikes everywhere and they just ride out in front of you. And it took us over an hour to drive a 5 minute drive. It was pretty but by that stage we were completely exhausted and all we wanted to do was go to bed. After an obstacle course of finding the hotel, we went and found a place for dinner and happened to get seated next to some former Aussie turned Swiss people - so we had a nice chat, then went back to the hotel and crashed.

Highlights of Today

• Everything
• A big guy in a suit on the slowest scooter you have ever seen!
• Crossing the italian border up in the mountains
• Crossing 5 borders all together!

Lowlights of Today

• TRAFFIC IN GENEVA!

Here are some more photos of the mountains and our fantastic day!!

xoxo

Lyon to Chamonix

Thursday 2nd September

We packed up early to go to Chamonix. We had been told there is a nice cable car ride that takes you into the mountains. On the way we stopped off at a beautiful town called Annecy. Such a beautiful place. It is right on a lake that is surronded by mountains. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the water was crystal clear. We went for a walk along the river and Brendon got some really good shots. If you ever go to France, you have to go and check it out. Absolutely gorgeous! There were a heap of young people around and some really beautiful areas where you can just sit and enjoy the scenery. The energy of the town was lovely and relaxed and we wanted to spend the rest of the holiday there! But we knew we had to move on to make it to Chamonix before dark so after a few hours and a lovely meal, we headed off

We thought Annecy was beautiful and were not really prepared for the alps to suddenly come into view. It was absolutely spectacular. And they have tunnels that run directly through some mountains... for kilometers some of them!! Just beautiful. The roads were all windy and narrow in places, but the view was something else. We have some beautiful mountains in Aus, but this was just something else.

Brendon was especially excited when we came into view of Mount Blanc, the largest mountain of the French Alps, because even in early September, it was covered in snow and Brendon had never seen snow before.

The buildings around here have a very Swiss feel to them, i guess they are all so close together that they influence each other.

We checked into our lovely hotel and discovered that our room had the best mountain view! You could lie in bed and watch the mountain. It was just such a beautiful place! We had a nice dinner in the town, which was actually quite a busy little place.

Chamonix lies at the base of Mount Blanc, the tallest mountain in the European Alps (so says wiki, but i have heard different reports). It is in france but extremely close to the Italian border. They filmed "the world is not enough" here for all the Bond fans, and its just a spectacular town! They do lots of winter sports here and there are hikers everywhere with their hiking sticks!

Anyway tomorrow we are off on the cable car up the mountains! SOOOO Excited!!!

Highlights of Today:

• THE ALPS
• Mountain view room
• Brendon seeing snow for the first time
• Brendon taking all of these fantastic shots with his camera!

Lowlights of today:

• Motion sickness in car from windy roads... Lucky no puking!!

(This is the view from our hotel room on the right)

Uneventful days...

Tuesday the 31st August

Well today we regrettfully said goodbye to Nice and headed off on our way to Avignon. On the way, Brendon had heard of a little place called Les Baux so we stopped in. It was an old medieval town with an old fortified chateau. It was lovely and we had a bite to eat there, then we made our way into Avignon. Although the hotel was actually quite nice, we didnt really have anything nice to say about Avignon. It is a walled city, with a palace, so we were quite excited about seeing it. Turned out to be a bit of a dump so we actually ended up back at the hotel for dinner, which turned out to be a fantastic meal! Didn't even bother to take photos of Avignon, by that stage we were over it!!

Highlights of Today:

• Dinner at the hotel
  


• Brendon and I chatting to the waiter for an hour - Was nice to have an english conversation!!

Lowlights of Today

• Avignon
  
  
  

Wednesday 1st September

So after a hassle of a morning, we moved on from Avignon, to Lyon. Lyon we found to be quite nice. Certainly a lot better than Avignon. And we had a great meal. Felt a lot safer and there were a lot of young people around. It was quite clean, although it did have the occasional whif of a gross smell, it was nice. The hotel was nice too, and we had a nice time walking around the streets and the shops for the tiny amount of spare time we had. Plus Brendon got to try some yummy chocolate things!!

Highlights of Today

• CHOCOLATE
  
  
• Pretty streets and good food


• Good vibe of the city
  
  

Lowlights of Today:

• We didn't have much time to experience the city.



• Parking

Nice and Monaco

Monday 30^th August

Woke up after a little sleep, the room in Nice is so beautiful! Its huge! It divides into two rooms so yesterday Brendon and I managed to spend a few hours apart while he was watching a movie and I was uploading/writing the blog and reading. As for spending almost every waking moment together, it is actually going better than expected. We have had the occasional time when we have been frustrated with each other, but we have managed to get through the last week and a bit without yelling at each other or even raising our voices. Apart from a few times in the car arguing over directions, but honestly it was usually the stupid GPS's fault! This trip has really been good for us!

So anyway, after waking up we took the car in to get repaired, only to discover that they didn't have the glass they needed to fix it and it wouldn't be in till Wednesday. Considering that we had delayed the trip out of Nice for a day already, we were a bit worried, but they managed to arrange for us to get the car fixed tomorrow in Avignon. Only problem with that was that the glass was still flying around everywhere, so thankfully they put a plastic covering over it and vaccummed up all the glass for us so that I wouldn't cut my bum while sitting in the passengers side. After that was all sorted for the day, it was after 11 so we decided to go out and about in Nice to see what it was all about. I had heard that it was lovely, and I have heard about the French Rivera and how nice it ishere, but nothing could prepare me for the beauty that is Nice and its surrounds!. I have never seen such blue water in my entire life! Just spectacular! The promenade in Nice runs for a number of kilometers, from the airport right into the city centre. I just couldn't believe the blue water!

We parked the car and wandered into the main shopping part for a while and did a bit of walking around. Brendon wanted to get a sim card so we could call locally here a bit cheaper! But we were waiting in Orange for about 45 minutes and the line was so long that we only just made it back to the car in time before getting a parking ticket! By this stage we were exhausted from running, and wanted to go back to the hotel room for a rest!

After a little nap, we decided that it was now or never to go into Monte Carlo and take a look at the place. We grabbed our swimmers, planning to go for a swim on the way back in the crystal blue water. We didn't make it for a swim in the end. Monte Carlo was amazing! Even just the drive in there was beautiful! All these highrises pop up and they are all beautiful. They just fit into the landscape.

(This is a modern art sculpture of Adam and Eve. Apparently it was Eve, Brendon and Adam)

Monte Carlo has the Mediterranean ocean on one side, mountains on the other side, and a city in the middle! It is all at different levels and is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen! We found a reasonably priced car park and went for a walk along one of the wharfs, admiring the billion dollar boats and cruise liners. We wandered up to a magnificent park around the back of the casino area. The park is built on top of a hotel. The views were just to die for! You could see the Italian alps and the ocean for kilometres and kilometers. We were only planning on staying for an hour or so just to check it out but we ended up there for over 4 hours! The casino overlooking the ocean was something else too! Outside it there is a roundabout and every 2^nd car that goes around it is some expensive extravagant make of car. There are people everywhere ready with their cameras to take a snap of the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Bentleys, and rolls royces (forgive me if I spelt any of these incorrectly, cars are not something that interest me!). Including Brendon who was happily taking snaps of every shiny car he could see! Amazing the amount of money that must be in that place! It was just something else!

After we decided it was time to head back to Nice, I was a little disappointed, and wanted to move to Monaco! But we headed back to the hotel and freshened up and went out for dinner along the promenade. I was famished by that stage so we randomly picked a place to eat and it was FANTASTIC!!! They had so many vegetarian options and the food was SOOOO YUMMY!!! And we couldn't even fit all our desert in! SO we rolled back to the hotel, watched a movie and fell asleep.

Highlights of today:

· Monaco/Monte Carlo

· People/car/money watching in Monte Carlo

· Walking in the Monte Carlo park, walking on the hotel

· The blue water along the promenade

· Dinner at the promenade

· Nutella Crepes by a Monte Carlo bay

· The male waiter attempting to pick Brendon up at dinner

Lowlights of Today:

· The line at the Orange phone shop

· Not being able to get the car fixed today

· Having to sprint 3km to the car before the parking ticket ran out

· The traffic back from Monaco

· EUROPEAN DRIVERS!!! OH MY GOD!!!

Marseille to Nice via the Police Station

Sunday the 29^th August - Marseille/Nice

Woke up this morning in Marseille and quickly ate breakfast and moved on. We decided to go on the scenic route to Nice. We found a nice little scenic route on the way. It was very narrow. Not quite enough for two cars to fit through, but the views from the top were worth nearly driving off the cliffs! So we stopped in a little town near Frejus at about 1pm and thought that we best grab some food. The town is right next to the Mediterranean so we were quite excited about eating right on the water. We found a nice little place to sit and eat, in the sun right on the beach. It was a beautiful lunch in a beautiful spot and we had a wonderful meal… That was until we got back to the car. Someone had tried to break in through a little window next to the front passenger window. The glass went absolutely everywhere. Luckily they either couldn't get in or they were interrupted and didn't actually get into the car. Lucky for us because all our luggage was in there (except for our electronics and passports which were in our backpacks on us). So anyway the passenger side was full of glass and it was a Sunday afternoon so there was nowhere open for us to get it fixed. So I had to sit in the back for the rest of the trip while Brendon had to drive slowly because when the car went over 90km an hour it blew glass right into our faces.

And to make matters more annoying, we had to spend the majority of the afternoon in the Frejus police station making a statement for the insurance. It took AGES and by the time we finally got to Nice and checked into the hotel it was after 6pm and we were exhausted. And of course the hotel was out near the airport and we were not really able to drive into town with the glass everywhere and the open window. So we opted to stay in the hotel room for the night and eat at the little hotel café. Turned out to be a nice evening in the end, the hotel is lovely and we had in house movies! We also sorted out to get the window fixed tomorrow, so decided to stay an extra night in Nice rather than leave straight away in the morning. Hopefully that will leave room for Monte Carlo tomorrow!!!!!!

Highlights of Today

• Beautiful lunch by the water
  
• Driving into Nice, BEAUTIFUL!
  
  
• Hotel has water and city views!! BONUS!!!
  

Lowlights of Today:

• Finding the glass broken


• Getting lost finding the police station


• Attempting to converse with the french police, who didn't even look at the car window, and didn't care cause nothing was stolen...


• Glass in face
  
  
• Glass in bum


• Glass in finger

• Crazy European Drivers!!!

Farewell to France!!! - Why we will be so fat!

I wanted to write a little blog post about French food... Its bloody awesome!!

Unlike back in Australia, the French take their time with their food. It seems to be the consensus that it takes a long time to eat a meal. We had many a meal that we enjoyed that was 2 hours long. And the desserts!! OH MY GOSH!!! YUMMMMM!!!!!

So in a farewell to France, I wanted to share a few piccies of the food that we encountered!

Here are a few meals that Brendon enjoyed... Being a lactose intolerent vegetarian, its a bit harder for me to be daring!!

bon apetite!!

This is Brendon eating snails, just as he is about to take his very first bite... Garlic... ewwwww!! Very proud he ate the whole 15!!!

This is some raw meat dish that brendon got in Bordeaux... Again i will pass, but he ate the whole thing!

Marseille

Saturday the 28^th August

So today we left Carcassone at 0930 which was pretty good for us. We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then we made our way to Marselle. We decided that we had some time to kill, so we looked at the map and I randomly chose a location that looked like a nice drive. I am so glad that I did because we ended up in a little town called Saint Maries-de-la-Mer. Absolutely beautiful! It overlooked the meditarranian. It was a beachside town and it was just stunning. Along the water was lined with hotels and café's and shops. We spent a good hour and a half getting some lunch and wondering around.

There are horses around here everywhere. They are beautiful!

One thing we have noticed about France is that everybody has puppy dogs! In every café or resteraunt people bring their dogs along and they sit by their feet. At the lovely town we went to they even have puppy poop sections full of sand where the dogs can go and do their business. It is a beautiful day today and its only 30 degrees instead of 40 so it is quite comfortable. It is so much fun just driving around seeing where the road takes you.

We have heard some bad things about Marselle, so we were quite surprised when we were driving in and its beauty hit us! We were driving in from the South West and not the Northern side so maybe that made a difference. Our hotel was in the heart of the city, and it was just lovely. After checking in and getting a map, we walked into the city and went to the main port. We hiked up a huge hill where there was a beautiful lookout! We must have stayed there for an hour and a half just looking at the view! The streets in the city were dirty. There was litter everywhere, and the wind was so strong that it nearly knocked us off our feet, i have never experienced anything like it before! We walked back into the main city to find somewhere for dinner. We found somewhere and had a nice meal, and made our way back through the windy dirty streets back to the hotel!

Highlights of Today:

· St Maries-de-la-Mer! My gosh I want to spend a month there!!

· The puppy poo ports

· Lunch

· We caught a ferry near port st louis

• Getting seated next to a nice French couple in St Maries-de-la-Mer at lunch, and then sitting next to them randomly again at dinner in Marseille (which is the 2nd most populated city in France) at a little restaurant in the heart of the city!
  

Lowlights of Today

• The wind that knocked us off our feet!
  



• Dirty smelly streets of Marseille