We managed to leave Sevrier at 8:35am with big plans to cross the border in to Switzerland. I had my money on not making it, as there is still so much to see in France. We drove through the beautiful Gorges d’ Arly from Ugine to Flumet; what a great name for a village, I’d like to live somewhere with a name like Flumet. Suddenly we realised that the buildings had changed again; they were now a low-gabled wooden Swiss chalet style and we saw lots of cows with bells around their necks; how they put up with the noise, I have no idea! We continued on through the Haute Savoire and at Praz sur Arly we pulled up at a supermarket for all the essentials. On the way out of town I missed photographing yet another brilliant roundabout complete with a miniature wooden chalet and perfect garden. I just love the French roundabouts.
The views coming out of Megeve and through St Gervais les Bains brought more “wows” from me, especially when we got a tiny glimpse of Mont Blanc amongst the clouds. We drove past the Glacier de Bionnessay and the Glacier des Bossons and then drove down in to Chamonix for a picnic lunch in the rain. While sitting in Eileen, Nick phoned to inform us that it was sunny in Norfolk, hmmph, still it was nice to chat to him.
The drive over the Col des Montets took us up to 1,461 metres and then we drove to the border of Switzerland. We waved our passports at a rather disinterested border guard who waved us through without even looking at them, obviously Eileen didn’t look like a criminally threatening vehicle…..
So we’re now in our second country, it’s taken a while, but we’re there and the first Swiss toilet was very nice, complete with paper, soap and a toilet seat !!! The route over the Col de la Forclaz was also stunning and from the steep sided Bans du Feys the drive was scary, but the views were beautiful. It took ages from sighting Martigny to actually getting down in to the town, I gave up counting the hairpin bends. In desperate need of more exclamations, I’ve now come up with “my oh my”, “cor blimey” and “jeepers”, all of which have been used extensively today.
Martigny seemed a very modern town and they seem to be competing with the French on roundabouts. So many of the roundabouts had fantastic sculptures on them, most of them wouldn’t have been out of place in the Australian ‘Sculptures By The Sea Exhibition’; they were wonderful.
From Martigny to Sion the road was long and straight with endless fruit trees; apricots, pears, apples and yet more grape vines, some on stone terraces stretching right up the sides of the mountain bases. We better try some Swiss wine, as we’ve never had any before and haven’t really thought of Switzerland as a ‘wine country’. In Sierre we got a bit lost trying to find Camping Bois de Finges, but we got there in the end and we set Eileen up in the middle of the woods at the top of a hill. We cooked up teriyaki chicken with rice and veggies, then wandered over to the shower block which had a lovely view of the mountains around us. Goodnight from Switzerland.