We had an 8.15am breakfast like yesterday except we also had ham and cheese with our croissants. We thanked Elena for all the good advice and told her we had had a lovely meal the previous evening. She was off to the dentist so had our commiserations. We told her we would leave between 10.30am and 11am so she could let her helper know. Just before she left she knocked on our door and gave us a bottle of wine. We were rather taken aback but obviously delighted. We took a couple of photos of the BnB and also skyped Liz and Jennifer before leaving.

It was only when we were underway that we realised the GPS was taking us through the centre and not up the coast . What is more the turnoff to the coast was in an area with a lot of road works. We did consider going back but decided to stick with the GPS.

So it was about 4 hours of flicking from one toll road to another with a stop at a 'Chef' for basically a pizza happy meal with rather tough pizza, a small fruit salad that was mainly apple and a coke. The first part of the drive was not easy as there were trucks and road works but from about 1pm the road was fairly clear. We came off the series of toll roads and paid 30 euro.

But the route guide had said we would move onto partial toll roads. The first was a coin one – I spotted the sign and had the 1.40 euro out for John. The next didn’t have the number out and was 1.30 euro. The next two did not give us a cash option and the credit card coughed up 3.70 euros then 5.10 euros. But there were also tunnels – and they were between 1.5km and 4.5km long. Each automatic toll station wished us a very cheerful arrivederci as the barrier arm popped up and they gobbled another bite from the credit card .

We got to the old border which was of course abandoned. We then struck another toll booth but this time in France, and it was not abandoned. As we drove in I thought I saw the price but thought I had misread it. No this toll was 35.10 euros ($70) . I was left wondering why the 10 cents. Also what would have happened if we had ticked the no toll box on the GPS. After this toll we entered a very long tunnel with a 70 kmph speed limit regularly displayed and kept to. The website had told us there were speed cameras in this area. The space between the truck in front and the truck behind stayed much the same so we should all be OK.

After the tunnel the GPS took us to Anne-Sophie’s mother’s (Marie-Claude) house without missing a beat. (Anne-Sophie and her friend stayed with us in February this year). It was in a small side street in a small village (Villarodan-Bourget) but there was quite a big town about 3 km before here . We did have to stop for a red light (‘go’ was an orange light??) while a man abseiling on ropes was working on what was obviously a slip on a bank which was now covered in wire netting.

When we arrived Marie Claude was talking to a German couple ?? (we can’t remember) and Christine, who had just arrived also. We heard that the last tunnel was over 13 km long and that there was an option of a drive over the mountains which would be OK this time of the year but a lot longer and slower (AND CHEAPER). So in the end the (gulp!!) grand total of 76.70 euro or about 150 NZ dollars was ‘probably’ money well spent!!!

We are in a room upstairs next to a room with a TV and computer and have use of the kitchen. Hence we decided to cook up some of the pasta we have and drink some of our La Marche wine (thanks Jane) – an Italian way to celebrate being back in France. We did visit the supermarket to add to the pasta sauce and for pastries and ice-cream for dessert.

The view from the area we are sitting in after eating dessert is wonderful, with an alpine village and church spire nearby and all nestled into the hills with mountains still with some remnants of snow above. Oh - and also a temperature that is far more comfortable with a cool breeze – well wind really. Hopefully we won’t strike to many more 40+C days…..