I don’t know about the sun shining on the righteous, but we left Camping Moto in fantastic weather, determined to make it as far towards Switzerland as we comfortably could. We planned to use the more interesting roads again, but accepted that it might be necessary to use one or two bits of motorway if we were going to get close to Switzerland.

Stopped to enjoy the view

Well, what a fantastic ride! Some truly amazing roads through stunning scenery. It was a constant fight between concentrating on the road and taking in the breath-taking views. More than once I had to drag my eyes away from a fabulous vista as the road was disappearing around a steep hairpin with a rock face on one side and a steep drop on the other! At one point we saw our two neighbours from Crest coming flying around a bend in the opposite direction. Mr Ducati seemed to be right on the limit and determined to get every last bit of grip out of his worn tyre! His mate on the GS behind was more relaxed, and had time to wave back.

When it started to get late we decided to jump onto the motorway so that we could get to Chamonix, which is just on the French side of the Alps, before we stopped for the night. We rode around a sweeping bend onto an elevated section of motorway that suddenly became a twisting turning bridge hundreds of feet above the valley floor. Stunning and nothing like I have ever ridden on before.

We continued into the dusk and were suddenly presented with a breath-taking view of the last of the sun’s rays striking Mont Blanc. Unbelievably beautiful and one of those moments that makes you realise just how good it is to be alive. We spotted a parking area and were able to stop and take a couple of pictures. The light faded fast and the spectacle quickly disappeared. We had been in just the right place at just the right time 🙂

We got into Chamonix at 9pm and struggled to find anywhere remotely within our budget that had any vacancies. No problem if we had been prepared to spend 150 Euros for one night! The owner of one lovely 2 star hotel turned us away with apologies but came rushing out after us saying that she had made a mistake. She had put two people who were sharing a room down as being in separate rooms, so there was room at the inn. Excellent.

They stored our camping gear on the ground floor for us and we gratefully moved into an en-suite room on the top floor. What an interesting room, with wood panelling and a bath that extended into the eaves – that made sitting up in the bath rather interesting!

We ate and drank our provisions and Sarah had a soak in the bath (being careful not to hit her head), whilst I blogged on the laptop. After a while we fell into the lovely soft bed and drifted off to sleep with the moonlight shining on the alps outside our window and thoughts of Switzerland in our heads.