Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

  The 1-hour drive to Annecy was fairly straightforward and our accommodation was across from Lake Annecy, with the Old Town being a 15-minute walk. Again, the weather was kind to us, and it only started raining on the day we left.  The Old Town is a must-see when travelling in the area. A canal weaves its way through the centre of town with a multitude of amazing buildings, shops, restaurants and cafes.  Lake Annecy These croissants were 30cm long! They even had Max's name on them! We were fortunate to also be there when the street market was on. The range of fresh produce was impressive, with the cheese stalls being our favourite. Two nights were enough to take in the atmosphere, architecture and local cuisine. We found the people very friendly and happy to chat to us. In talking to the manager at our hotel, we found out that real estate was too expensive to buy if working locally as the wages were quite low. Subsequently, a large number of people got jobs in Switzerlan...

We could see the Alps in the distance as we began our journey. As we approached and passed the mountains, I was concerned we would be driving up and down hills with precarious bends; however, what we encountered were double lane highways over bridges and tunnels through the mountains, giving us a scenic and relatively flat journey all the way to our destination. Last Italian hot chocolate plus a filled croissant before crossing the Italian/French border.  Oh god!  Heaven! If only we had the room in our cases... The views all the way to Les Contamines. (Pron. Lay Con-ta-meen) The Mont Blanc tunnel is just over 11 kilometres long. It lightened our wallet by 55 euros for the privilege of passage!  Worth every cent as the alternative would have been lengthy and mountainous. We were stunned by the beauty. Here is the view from the kitchen window of our pet sit. And here are the cheeky dogs, appropriately named Mischief and Rascal. A few hundred metres from the house was a 'Gon...

We're not ones to visit big cities. Having the car, we've been able to stay at some wonderful pet sits that wouldn't otherwise have been accessible. This blog entry details our road trip from Seville to the French Alps. Hornachuelos, Spain Flying from Majorca to Seville was, thankfully, a quick trip as it had the least amount of legroom we'd ever encountered on a flight. We picked up the car and drove to our accommodation which was just over an hour away in what we thought was a room in a hotel situated in a national park near the small village of Hornachuelos.  This room was to have overlooked the terrain, with clothes washing facilities, the options of an evening meal in the restaurant and breakfast in the morning.  When we arrived at what we thought was an abandoned building, we confirmed the address. The doors were locked with no one around to greet us, even though we'd arranged an arrival time. I messaged the owner via Booking.com, with no response. Max found a...