LOST IN FRANCE

Interesting times today when we started well and fired up the SatNav only to discover that the new road that had opened before due date in February 2011 (i.e. last week) did not feature on the program and we spent at least an hour in one town going round and round in circles (and paying umpteen tolls) trying to get on to the correct road.  Several shouting and swearing matches at one another – as we had to blame somebody – we ended up paying a huge toll to travel through the longest dirtiest tunnel ever but which transported underneath Mont Blanc.  I don’t know why we were so surprised to enter it in relatively warm weather and emerge some 35 minutes later into thick snow on the Italian side of the border.  We thought that by now we would be getting into warmer climes – in fact K had tossed aside the can of windscreen defroster and his warm jacket just before we left home – but I haven’t taken off my anorak yet.  It has been very cold everywhere so far.

Approaching the toll booths on the autoroutes has been a bit stressful because it is impossible to predict what they will require from you – i.e. change, notes or credit card or whether they will disgorge a ticket.  Whatever you prepare yourself with, it is almost bound to be wrong and we thought we might get arrested at one point when we paid 5.70 euros in change for 5.80 charge.  The machine would not accept our credit card and eventually sent us on our way with a reluctant arrividerci.

After a very hard drive until well after dark, we ended up in Alessandria in an intriguing hotel with very ornate roccoco furnishings and a veritable gallery of original art on every wall in the place.  However it had a bathroom to die for and we gratefully fell into a wonderful hot bath.  This would not have been possible for most guests but I had with bitter experience provided myself with a universal bath plug and felt that my 99p on a large silicone disc had been very well spent.  After a plate of wonderful pasta, ham, cream and fresh parmesan we felt ready for new adventures the following day.