June 17, 2012 Nice to Chamonix-Mt Blanc France

Left Nice earlier than planed at 8.00am. Another perfect day. Will be sad to leave the coast but know we have some exciting mountains ahead.  Today we leave France, entered Italy for awhile then  back to France.

We left by the A8  motorway  and drove along and through the hills up behind the coastline, past Monte Carlo across to Italy through to Savona  before we turned inland up through Torino and back into France just before Chamonix. (took us about six hours driving) Yes Pat, we have driven through Italy briefly, and we will be back in a few days.

As we drove along the last strip of the Mediterranean we got some great glimpses of views looking down to the towns  on the Med stretching into the valleys.  The highways/ Aotostatas are amazing on this coastline. Without them you would get no where. As the coastline is mainly on hill sides all you do is go through tunnels and over viaducts built on the side of the hills being a lot higher than the coast. The views are good if you travel west to east as we did then you are on the right side for the views. Had a good view looking down on San Reno but unfortunately couldn't stop for a photo. The Med looked like a duck pond so smooth. It was like that the whole time we were there except the day we arrived when it was very windy but still nice.

The further inland we went heading north we started heading to mountain country which is always enjoyable. In this photo you can see that the valley between the mountains is where we went through.

We got small glimpses of lovely scenery as we were mainly darting in and out of tunnels. They were so long two or three km long. We felt that we spent most of today underground and missing out on the views and the beautiful day.

Our first sight of snow. Always good to see snow being an Aucklander. Lovely country and below.

The Swiss influence coming in as we are very close to Switzerland now. Still in Italy here & just before the French border.

Just after the border we suddenly approached the Mt Blanc Tunnel. Before we knew it we were paying just short of 40 Euro to go through which was 11km. Really felt underground then. We know that you don't have to use the tunnel, there is another way round but we were at it, before we realised, so just had to go.

We have arrived at Chamonix at our hotel Auberge du Bois Prin. Very flash for us but I managed to pre- book this one on a flash deal special for half price. Normally 196Euros a night but we got that price for two nights. Still expensive but that's what you pay in these areas. The above photo is the view from our room. Mt Blanc to the left.

Close up of the glacier.The photo above you can see the glacier in the middle of the photo.

Close up of Aiguille du Midi  is the highest point the cable car goes.Which is at the left of the photo two up.

We are on the ground floor with our own patio. This is looking up at the Hotel. Will get a better photo tomorrow as sun was all wrong to get front on.

The room  is very nicely done out. Fresh fruit in our room on arrival 51in Tv which gets some English channels. Meant to say that our accom. at Nice was the first time we got an English channel CNN which was good to keep up. Although PT opens the Herald on the computer every morning and listens to ZB Newstalk. This is why its no prob doing my Blog as can't understand the TV so keeps me busy.

Nice bathroom

Our view from our room looking over our private patio very nice but far too hot to sit out there. Speaking of which, we had 29 degrees when going through Torino. Mainly 26 going through Italy but down to 22 in Chamonix although felt much hotter.
Went for a walk down down which we were told a 10 min walk so decided not to take the car, but that was down a steep hill and of course had to walk back up. It felt really hot then and it was 5.30pm.
Our accom is up the hill from town as I said so has a lovely view over to Mt Blanc and other mountains.

Today we travelled 476km in about six hours with a couple of quick stops to eat. Motorway driving all the way so makes it quicker than going through towns.

They were all toll roads and over 476km it cost us all up 90.30 Euros that's including the Mt Blanc tunnel of just short of 40 Euros.  Can't aford to eat tonight after that.

Now hoping that the weather lasts for tomorrow to go up Mt Blanc. Pete wouldn't go today as he had to do all the driving so wanted to wait until tomorrow. (probably hoping the weather is no good so he doesn't have to go up. He hates gondolas) The clouds have moved in a bit tonight so hope they clear by morning.

I thought that it would seem a long driving day but when you are doing  between 110 up to 130km max. it goes by quickly with the scenery, what we saw of it as I said we were underground a lot.