Chris tells it from his perspective...

 

The following morning I didn’t have to prize Jacky out of bed. Janic butted open the door and Cedric jumped onto her bed and decided she need a wash. It was love at first sight between those two. There was snow forecast for the Alps, although we had our “snow Socks” ( soft snow chains)  I wanted to get going and be heading downhill before it arrived. About 10.00 0’clock we left. the city traffic had gone down marginally and we had to make a start on our climb over/through the Alps.
        

The climb up through the valley to the beginning of what proved to be several tunnels was spectacular. Aimile managed the majority of it in top gear only having to drop down to third in the steeper drags. When we finally exited into French sunshine, minus the windscreen wiper on my side. This could prove a problem if it started the rain or snow. We pulled off the Peage and into a small town in search of replacements. After several stops we wound up at a tyre supplier who sent a mechanic off to search the village. He returned with two one the correct size and one slightly bigger. Duely fitted I parted with the handsome sum of 57 Euro. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful as we cruised down to 2/300 meters according to the google maps. The Peage was a straight road well sign posted and Jacky got to work googling an inn for the night. We ended up in Macon.
        

The next day were on a wild goose chase for a winery the barman had recommended. After an hour we gave up and headed back for the Peage. We were in predominately flat farming country with a cold mist hanging over the fields and nothing of much interest to see.  My confidence in Aimile was growing with every hour of cruising. It was getting irritating being overtaken by the big trucks. They were only going 5km faster, but these guys will duel over 1/2 a kilometre extra speed. I wondered if we could sit in the slip-stream and what effect it would have. Bingo, we eased up to 90kph and had to lift off the accelerator. Double bonus maybe. The Peage can be pretty boring, you need something to keep yourself amused. The result after a whole tank of petrol and almost 300kms, was 5 kph more speed and a whopping 19.5 kms to the litre or 55 mpg in old money.


I can now appreciate why the French are pushing back against the Americanisation of French culture. The accommodation that night was perfectly fine, but the restaurant turned out to young "Modern” I reluctantly ordered a hamburger. No house wine and the bottle we ordered turned out to be sweet white. Unfortunately we had opened it and being English were embarrassed to send it back. The hamburger was a high rise affair about 15cm tall supported by mound of designer fries. Reasonably edible, but not a tarteflette. Tactics for the coming day were discussed and our target of me dropping Jacky in London and going on to my son's new house. Another early start and a run to the tunnel. Booking last minute was expensive, but we were still not too confident how many kilometres we would achieve and how well Aimile would perform. The Border Police turned out to be a very pleasant lass who checked our passports were in date, commented what a nice car we had and wished us enjoyment on our trip. The tunnel itself was a doddle out of season there weren’t many cars and Aimile got directed to the upper level. No view sadly from a train in a tunnel. The good news - the rest of the sea crossings are on ferries.