Road Trip 2024

 Day Two From Annecy to Le Puy Leaving Annecy in the extreme east of France, but north and touching the Swiss border, we headed westwards.  The highlight today was the road! Rolf had found two imposing stretches of narrow winding road with overhanging rock, small tunnels and breathtaking scenery left and right. The first was the Au fil de la Bourne.             This is a film of the road as we took it. Skip it if you are not a road fan! A short stop for a sandwich and a cold drink at a small town in the mountains - at Pont-en-Royans. Although lovely on such a hot day in the summer, it would be dismal on a rainy day. But its August, French on holiday, so it is picnic time on the river.                 Then to the Combe Laval which is a shorter stretch with slightly different feel.        Finally to Le Puy, which is noted for the three "hills" in the town. There are three rocky outcrops whe...

 DAY ONE Set off from Stuttgart My friend Rolf loves driving. And if you had a modern Mazda MX5 maybe you would too! He has driven it all round Europe and in 2024 we travelled through Romania together. This year he opted for a trip to see the solar eclipse in Spain in August and after I hinted I would be interested, he asked me to join him. As he had to travel from Hamburg, Stuttgart was a convenient meeting place, and he stayed with us. Kit and Rolf before the Romania trip      The beginning of the trip was fairly boring for anyone living in or near Stuttgart. We took the motorway A81 directly from Stuttgart southwards to the German border with Switzerland and crossed at Koblenz (not the one on the Rhine!). Then through Switzerland which was uneventful. Although we passed both the big lakes at Neuchatel and Lausanne, we saw little of them. We quickly made for our first overnight stay at Annecy, just inside France, below the Swiss border. We had a cheap hotel half an...