The Boring Bit First

Not that this holiday was in anyway boring!!!  An ordinary View From Our Hill Post will follow this shortly but I thought I'd do a few, quick holiday snaps first.

And quick and few they really are.  We went with a group from car club to France to drive some of the Monte-Carlo rally stages.  John was driving, of course, but I was navigating and it really wasn't a case of just firing up the sat nav.  Reading pace notes whilst on the move and on very winding roads is very tricky.  They were bad enough to decipher sitting at the dining room table the week before! Occasionally I did manage to convince John to stop for a few pictures but most were taken through the windscreen and ended up rather blurred.

You will know if you've been with us a while that we do tend to like mountains and a good view.  Of course pictures do not show the actual scale or vastness of some of these views.

We drove about 200 miles each day going up and through valleys.

Around lakes, reservoirs and rivers.

And across plenty of mountains.

There were very few areas where we could look back and see some of the rally roads without another mountain in the way.

One of the stops on the way where we were served strawberry tarts and coffee by the lady on the left of the picture who just chatted away to us all in very fast French.  I think she was used to enthusiasts stopping by.

 I saw this profile on one of the rock faces looking over the next valley.  I hope you can see it too.

One day we did manage a slight diversion and went down into gorges both Daluis and Supres du Cians. Magnificently beautiful, very colourful and the engineering involved in making the roads, tunnels and bridges staggering.  (If you would like a taster of them, I found a YouTube video Here that's been put together quite well).

We had a couple of nights in Monte Carlo itself.  Our hotel is on the right overlooking the marina.  The boat in the foreground was being made ready to leave and had at least seven crew doing so.  We did wonder who may be on board perhaps sleeping off the night before!

After all the twisty, intense driving we drove up to Lake Maggiore in Italy for a few days.

I had to show you this wisteria.  What an aged old lady she is and still putting on a bit of flower.

And just to show you how old she is, John kindly posed next to her rather wrinkly and hollow trunk.

They may not be your cup of tea but not all driving holidays are manic, waking up to this each morning is food for the soul.

It was great fun and lovely to see old friends and make new ones.  I did take a sketchbook and paints but they didn't have a chance of seeing daylight and even the sewing only came out rather briefly.

Now the washing machine calls and then perhaps some catch up!

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