Sunday, 22 May 2016

Paris to Milan , May 20-21

We've done so much in the last 2 days.
Saturday morning we all took an Uber to the Gare du Lyon station where we were to pick up our rental car and Mark would take a train back to the Eurostar station.
The Hertz office was very hard to find and once found finding the car was not easy but we finally got it done.
Our GPS took awhile to find itself so we had a few wrong turns finding our way to the Autoroute but once on it started enjoying the drive.
Most  of the way has a 130 km speed limit but also tolls.
Not long before we had to go through a toll booth and pick up a ticket to bee payed for at the end of the toll road.
We motored along through beautiful green fields with little villages of stone buildings and churches every so often in the distance.
The terrain gradually got more hilly with the occasional vineyard  or old castle in view.
All of a sudden this came to a halt as all 3 lanes of traffic stopped.
I checked Google maps on our phone and it advised there was a 1 hour and 30 minute delay do to traffic congestion.
So we sat in the car in 30° weather , mercifully we had AC.
People got out and chatted and smoked cigarettes like this was a normal occurrence.
After 40 minutes we started to move, only about 1/2 a mile then stopped again.
This happened twice more and finally we started moving at a crawl then finally after 1 and 1/2 hours we were at full speed again.
Soon we came to the pay end of the toll road and were charged €28 for the privilege.
Finally got to our budget hotel in Annemasse, France at about 6.
We found a nice sidewalk cafe for dinner the went back to the room and collapsed.
Today, Subway morning we checked out and drove 25 minutes into Geneva, Switzerland.
Found a parking space luckily and walked to another sidewalk cafe for a breakfast or croissants and Cappuccino's then walked down to the lakeshore to see the waterfront and the Jet d'Eau fountain of Lake Geneva.
By now it was time to hit the road to Milan.
Another beautiful drive climbing into the Alps.
Lots of chalets on the hillsides on the way to the summit and entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel which is 11 km long through the mountain .
After paying a €40 toll we came through the other side and were in Italy !
After another 2 hours and a few more tolls and only some minor wrong turns we found our Air BnB  in Milan.
Quite nice, more room than Paris and only 2 blocks from the Duomo of Milan which is the second largest church in Italy and 3rd in the world.
We got unpacked and had a nice dinner of spaghetti carbonara at a nearby restaurant.
Came back and watched a movie with Stephen.

Pictures below;

Châteauneuf 

Geneva

Swiss Army Knives

Mont Blanc

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