Planet Ruby Starrs

We are back in France. France has never had that much sway for me... We've been loads of times and the main attraction is visiting lovely friends who live here. I'm really disappointed we couldn't hack the heat in Italy and more fed up as once we got into France its just as hot....we might as well be in Italy... We spent a very non descript night in and even more nondescript expensive Aire... just outside of Geneva.   given we had just had two fabulous nights in an amazing car park in Switzerland for next to nothing the Aire was poor... c'est la vie.. We walked down to Lake Geneva but its all private residences so we thoght ... b***** this for a game of whatever and we just had to trespass to get to the actual lake side. It all felt a bit precious... (obviously in a bad mood - reality of odd holiday days 🤣🤣🤣) We moved on to a campsite just north of Lyon.  Dr Fred - understandably is fed up of driving. We have had 2 long days..  ...

After a fab stay on lake Orta we headed via the supermarket to replenish supplies into Switzerland. Uncharted territory for both of us really - I did come through Switzerland many years ago but Dr Fred has never been before. The mountains are majestically amazing With snow on top and glaciers. The roads are very good, I suppose they have to be, there aren't many of them - and there are a lot of lorries.  We climbed higher and higher, through some amazing spectacular scenery and eventually parked up by the giant Eagle on the Simplon Pass. Its just glorious up here... crisp cooler air - still 26 ° but no humidity. We climbed to look at the eagle statue .. sat there watching a helicopter almost land as workers jumped ... then it disappeared over the mountain only to come back 10 mins later with more workers jumping out. It felt faintly thrilling like being 4 yrs old and getting excited to see a digger🤣🤣🤣 .. tbh there were loads of helicopters all ove...

The mountains turned from possible  shapes to solid towering lumps and slowly came into view acrosstjelandscape -  majestic with clouds sitting on top... then as we rounded the corner the lake appeared gloriously aquamarine blue.. we tried to park🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 at Orta San Giulio - as usual no luck whats so ever so we just headed straight to the campsite.  That, tbh, did us a favour but we didnt realise until later.   It was an absolute delight to be under a proper shower... not a camping one, not a flannel and the washing up bowl🤣🤣 - good to get the washing done as well - we can go out in public again now. ... just in case you think its all scenic and fun The campsite Bellavista was good - reasonably priced for the area and not too busy - the peak season here was over so it felf bit more spacious.  It had good clean facilities and even almost a lake view from where we parked.  It also offered an unofficial taxi serv...

Another beautiful  quietish Italian village... discovered once more courtesty of park4night app.  It wasnt quite so nice for parking - a more open carpark but pretty empty - so we figured it would do for one night.  We had a wander around in the evening. Google lying again - had said there as a food festival but we couldnt find it... it didnt matter thats nor why we ended up here it was more,about finding nice place to sleep off the main drag. The villege was very old  - some really lovely obviously ancient buildings.. all stacked on top of each other small alleyways and tiny streets brightened with dashes of bright red geraniums. -  It was a very tranquil spot - we settled down for our evening meal, back doors wide open - fantastic view across the plain... amd as it got dark we finally battened down the hatches and went to sleep...only to be rudely woken by youths at 3.30 am reving cars and playing VERY loud musi...

We had a very quiet night in the pretty much deserted car park... which actually filled up as it got late with more campervans... we are usually quite happy in these circumstances to see other travellers - saftey in numbers.. We managed to work out the pay for watwr dispenser and replenished our dwindling stock. ( to be honest we had watched so many people mess about get confused and walk away we felt this was a great achievment🤣) We couldnt quite decide what do the next day. - Dr Fred didnt want to do too much more twisty driving stuff but theres little choice around here.. we set off. The van kept beeping us the side door was open... but it wasnt!!! It was very annoying - turned out to be a dodgy dirty contact but before we worked that out, we kept stopping and trying to sort it, and then it would go off again ... Dr Fred couldnt face the little roads so we hit the aurostrader... this reduced our journey by over on hour and took care of the main leg of the distance....

photo for attention.....Usually I keep two records- one everyday mindane  in the 'van log book' and then the more 'interesting' sight seeing' on the blog.  For this trip its all going in one glorious never ending ramble on the blog... to be printed out and stuck in the log book when we get home.  So some of the blog reads are rambly and in places not very exciting to anyone else but me and Dr Fred if he ever reads it... we just like a record to look back on...  So just giving anyone else who reads this the heads up - I know a few people do take the time to look it over and I love getting your comments - remember to indentify yourselves or it come in as anonymous...