day 2

Waking up in sunny Troyes and having freshly baked baguette and croissant for breakfast sure set us up well for the day. We were on the motorway for a while and then on to the a roads.with the alps gradually nearing the scenery changed from flat lands to foothills but always beautiful, we entrees Switzerland at Basel and paid 35 euros tax !! Too many tunnels and speed limes of 100k meant that we saw a lot of interesting country side. Lucerne was sleepy- got agree ride on the ferry and enjoyed the spectacular views of the mountains, before we grabbed some food and walked the old town. Very beautiful , bansky though in a more traditional sense !! Have long drive tomorrow to Verona , stoping on the way at an ice cream shop recommended by Paul !!

day 1

So we made it to France in good time. Google maps conservatism, james's earnestness and eurotunnel's extreme efficiency aided us to hit Calais an hour before we had actually planned even including a very welcome and , actually quite delightful, fish and chips detour at Folkestone !! The driving in France initially was mostly on the motorway and that didn't take much to get used to. The roads were like butter - smoothe - and the conspicuous lack of works made us wonder about the rhetoric "why in the uk.....".entering Troyes was fun as we had to be very careful of where to position the car at roundabouts and big junctions. James's claim that in roundabouts in France people have priority to get in but not to get put was disproved quickly luckily without an incident. Troyes was beautiful and for once the typical stereotype that I had built in mind from watching French movies was quite accurate. Beautiful houses huge windows , outdoor dining , gothic churches - trot had them all. Lovely dinner and then the temperature dipping unite suddenly meant we entered a pub soon and that was surreal. listening to shaggy in France while this nutter said f£&k more times in sentence than I have heard anyone in england say, and extreme friendly staff meant we stayed on there for longer than we should have. Woke up this morning and sun is shining gloriously - like in India in the summer !! Actually France is very much like India in many ways - barring the food of course. ;) we drive to lucerne in a few hours - should be seeing the alps soon a yay !!!!!

The wedding at florence

About time ! Desperately need a break - very tired mentally. So James and I are driving down to Florence !! First stop Troyes in France . Have never driven in the right side of the road yet - that's just one of the many firsts that will be tracked this week and before I trek from bath to rugeley - but hold on that's another story ! Plan for the day - go to halford to make the car euro friendly - I hear they have a major distaste to bright lights in their eyes from Brit cars !Then head to Folkestone to get the eurotunnel at 1442 to be trained into the continent !!Will post from the other side when I have wi fi access