Chambéry is at a crossroads of four alpine valleys, hence trains go North, South, East and West from here, and it is surrounded by mountains. We stayed in a Mecure hotel right opposite the railway and bus station, and surprisingly we had excellent sleeps because of the hotel's very good soundproofing. The hotel also had beautiful breakfasts, with cakes, croissants of every description, bacon and eggs, fruit.... We played with our iPads during breakfast, so that we could stay at the table longer, eat more courses, drink more coffee. Bad, bad, bad!!

It is not a tourist town, despite having quite a few attractions, but it obviously has a lot of grandparents who care for grandchildren in the school holidays given the number of kids pouring off the trains into the arms of older people!

The city was the capital of Savoy from the 13th Century until 1563, when the capital was shifted to Turin (apparently the Dukes were having trouble with the French, and could get help from the Austrians if the capital was located in Turin) . Chambery has a medieval castle which housed the dukes and counts of Savoy, and it is linked to a chapel which was built to house the Shroud of Turin (lots of money went into housing that shroud!!). Unfortunately the castle was shut when we arrived so all we got to see was the formidable steep wall facing the town.

The old town (called 'Ancienne Ville' on all the road signs) has a number of quite wide cobblestone streets, lots of squares, and quite a few little alleys that were built so the aristocrats could get from their villas to the courtyards and streets. The tall townhouses have the same sort of coloured facades that the ones in Florence had, but they all had the French style loft windows that we love (that remind us of the first loft apartment we stayed at in the Marais in Paris).

There is also the most fabulous 'Fountain of the Elephants' in the middle of one of the streets. It was sculptured in 1838 to commemorate General de Boigne who made a fortune in the East Indies (no idea how he made this fortune!) and then spent a lot of it on the town . Each of the elephants looks real, and you get the feeling that real elephants are strolling out of arches into the middle of the street! Apparently the fountain is known by the locals colloquially as Les Quatre Sans Culs 'the four without arses' (translation into English by some stranger)!

We wanted to hire bikes and ride to a lake a little way out of town, but for me to hire an electric bike, I had to provide a €1000 cash deposit - which I am sure just about every person wanting to hire a €6 per day bike would have lying around in their pocket!! I could have hired a standard no gears bike, but having to do the work myself sounded so un-appealing!!! So instead we walked up a hill behind the town, aiming to get to a high point with a few towers on it so that we could get a 360 degree view of the mountains. Our penance for being lazy re the bikes was that we got lost, and ended up doing twice the distance as we doubled back to get on the right path. But it was worth the walking - one path went alongside some quite dingy houses whilst the other path went past beautiful villas and mansions . So our error meant we got to see both sides to life in Chambery!

The main tracks to the hill top started from a park that was obviously dog lovers heaven (yes Maureen and Deb - you both would have loved it!!). There was mayhem as dogs ranging from tiny to horse size tore around the place, followed by owners who clearly had no control over their dogs. I am not sure what was worse, the barking or the yelling! But the view from the top was worth the mayhem, with mountain peaks in every direction and little houses built in all the valleys and up the sides of the mountains.

Home to pack for our next stop in Toulouse. Now that we have to wear slightly warmer clothing, packing our stuff into our small suitcases has got so much easier!