The drive home

It’s always nice to be home but particularly so with such good weather.  As ever our journey back was long, driving to the north of Italy was frantic. There may be fewer lorries on the autostrada on Sundays but the traffic was still heavy and the service areas incredibly crowded. We stopped for our picnic lunch in 37.5 degrees.

Our usual Aosta hotel was not available, they were taking a holiday themselves, so we searched for an alternative.  I was very taken with a pretty little locanda run by three sisters but MrFF was not taken by the fact the restaurant was vegan.  It turned out to be a delight, the food was delicious, breakfast was the best I’ve had in years and I am a connoisseur of the continental brekkie.  Who wouldn’t be happy waking to this view then eating fresh fruit, many types of bread, fluffy pancakes, banana bread, brownies, apple cake, the best croissants ever, yoghurt, good coffee.

On our drive to our French 2 night stopover we found time to visit the Charles de Gaulle Memorial, situated outside a little village in a quiet and calm wooded area, we were impressed.

We also called en route to quickly look at Lac du Der which isn’t far from our accommodation. It was so nice we went back on our non travel day and took a walk.  It’s a lovely facility with holiday cabins in the woods, camping, boats, restaurants, cycle paths and everyone quietly enjoying the peace.

Back to our apartment for a swim, out for dinner, we left by 8 next morning.  We arrived in good time at the port but received a thorough check at border control, that involved completely unpacking our car and opening our suitcases so we were almost last onto the ferry. We had to park among the giant lorries and wait for everyone else to disembark but it was another epic journey safely completed.

Yesterday MrFF walked down to our beautiful Lido, had a picnic lunch, swam and sat in the sun, he said it was the mostly relaxing day he’d had in weeks and I can well believe that.