Today we drove on some of the narrowest roads we have ever seen. These narrow roads took us over 4 or more mountain passes. We drove about 100 miles on these roads, so we were on them for hours. We seem to be getting desensitized to all the beautiful views. I am taking less pictures, but holding on tight to the motorcycle as we drive on switchback after switchback on the edge of a cliff that drops straight down for thousands of feet. Mark is exhausted. He is sleeping as I type. I am exhausted from just trying to hold onto the motorcycle, so I cannot imagine what it feels like to have to drive!
This is a panoramic video (if you can get it to play) of a view from the top of the Alps between Italy and France.
Today, we left France, drove into Italy, drove over the Alps to France again, then drove over the Alps again into Italy to our hotel at Sauze d'Oulx. The signage changes languages, but otherwise it is a little hard to know what country we are in. We haven't gone through any customs station yet on this trip. Customs booths exist on the roads and the national flags change from Switzerland to France to Germany to France to Italy, but we are rarely asked for our passport. We surrendered our passports when we checked into the Italian hotel tonight. That was the first time.
Italians are a little different. A shout out to my friend Tina, because all the Italian women I have met remind me of Tina. Italians are very aggressive drivers, not quiet and subdued like the French. Italian men are very gracious to women. Italians are a bit suspicious though. They do not trust foreigners as much as the French and Germans, yet they like taking the "tourista" money. It is an odd association. Italian women are small, with long dark hair, extremely pretty, and talk a lot! My friend Tina lent me her extensive picture book of Italy before I took this trip. I am grateful for Tina's guidance and advice.
My sons will be surprised that I ate "bacon" several times in France. French bacon is more like our ham. French cheese is simply lovely. French wine is CHEAP! Okay, that was a surprise to me. We can buy a bottle of French wine in a food store for 3-5 Euros, is 4-6 US dollars. I am drinking a French wine as I type. We bought another bottle of French wine today for 5 Euros and it is 15% alcohol. Higher than anything sold in the US.
We saw some clouds today, but no rain. We had rain while we slept in Kaysersberg, France last week, but otherwise we have only had clear blue skies and temperatures in the 60 at night and the 90s in the daytime. Lucky us! We remember having lots of rainy days on our New Zealand trip. So we feel fortunate to not have had to drive in rain on this trip at all. No rain gear have been needed. Only 5 days of riding left and no rain is in the forecast!
Italian dinner was a spinach souffle, an pasta course of risotto for Odile and ravioli for Mark. Meat course for both was lamb. Dessert was a dessert that included something primarily coconut covered in chocolate sauce. I apologize that there are no captions on the pictures below. We are staying very busy and I am finding it difficult to find time to blog.
Today we ride more through Italy to Courmayeur.
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