Elly and I discovered that if we sat in the sun outside the tourist office we could still use their wi-fi to check our emails AND have a most beautiful view of the mountains all around this town in the valley!

One of the inset photos is the view from our favourite table at our favourite cafe just around the corner.

The other one is Rob helping me with my emails on the wifi!

Each morning, while Rob and Elly shared coffee and croissants over the morning papers inside our apartment, I would be curled up on our balcony, continuing my writing that had begun in Fowey while watching the sun coming up, up, up over the mountains.

What a place to write!

During an afternoon walk along the river by our apartment, while Elly went off for a tougher tramp by herself, Rob and I found this sacred space in the woods – an very old chapel.

Magic!

By this time we’d driven through the Mont Blanc Tunnel )right through Mont Blanc) from France into Italy, through the corner of Italy and up, up, up an increasingly steep and narrow and dodgy road to the pass into Switzerland, the Col de St Bernard. This is where the St Bernard dogs originated from the St Bernard monastery next to the Col.

Sadly, on the top of the Col, there were a few stalls with tacky guide dogs for sale which would have brought some money for the local economy, but I DID manage to pursuade the young border guards to stamp my passport with a fancy stamp – bit of an ask because they normally don’t stamp passports these days. Elly hung back to see the reception I got, and when she saw that I got my stamp she asked for one too:-)

It was interesting that the road up to the Col (and therefore in Italy) was in dreadful repair but had a fantastic guard rail, whereas the road down from the Col on the other side (and therefore in Switzerland) was a fantastic repair but had NO guardrail to guard against falling over the VERY steep drops off the edges.

We went in 2 cable cars to get to the top of Aiguille du Midi (= middle needle in the Mont Blanc massif). You can see the entrance to the cable car station in the inset photo. Very cold, very thin air so I got altitude illness immediately which was a bit sad, especially as people older than me were happily prancing around…

Here Rob congratulates Elly on climbing Mont Blanc in the background last year.

We took the cable cars up again the day before we left and I prepared myself to have NO  altitude sickness and really enjoyed it – began to see why Elly first came here.

Driving into Chamonix from our apartment, we had to pull over for a herd – a herd of sheep complete with bells around their necks!

Rob snapped Elly and I on a “gentle stroll” – about 3 hours tramp along the side of the Mont Blanc massif – hard work but amazing views!

On our first evening in our apartment in Chamonix in the French Alps(for Elwyn, Rob and I), it was very tempting to order takeaway for dinner…I mean who could leave this amazing view to go inside and cook dinner! As takeaway was not available as it was the off season we just had a late dinner!

Anyway, this is France where they speak French and we hadn’t quite worked out how to be understood:-(

We stood by to make way for this ship!

Only after it was well gone did we make our way back to harbour to return our chartered yacht.

After leaving Fowey, we attempted to help rescue a sinking yacht before the rescue boat arrived, then made our way to spend the night in the River Yealm. The huge tidal surge had us struggling to grab a mooring, so at full throttle with me on the helm Rob grabbed the first mooring in the river and that’s where we stayed. Turned out it was the best place to see who was coming and going and to enjoy the gorgeous sunset:-)