After a late night last night, it was time for a lie in this morning and also the maps needed updating on my phone for navigation – the memory card was full of pictures and other maps so that France and the other remaining countries could be put on there. These needed downloading, so it meant a relaxing morning in the hotel bar, before setting off at lunchtime on what would be a spectacular journey. Lots to see whilst on the road, judging by the number of pictures we’ve taken today.

The fastest route, as decided by the newly updated sat nav software on the phone, included literally hundreds of sharp bends, bridges, tunnels, speed limit changes and more. But that’s the practicalities. You can probably imagine what the roads must have been like from that description, but nothing I could write would do justice to what we could see out of the glass of the car.

The Alps are simply spectacular. I’ve only ever seen them from the air before, flying to Italy, but from the ground, the vast array of random peaks, towering well into the clouds – and valleys, including sheer vertical drops at the side of the road – really take your breath away. Or stop your heart, when you get a sudden side wind on a high bridge or take a corner and realise what’s on the other side of the fairly basic barrier, keeping you, your wife and your car and possessions away from the drops of sometimes more than a kilometre.

Each mountain seem to have its own ‘style’, some with large forests, a few with houses and villages, some with animals, and some even with snow. In August. This was another new experience that this trip had given both of us and was slightly surreal, given that it was a hot European summer day.

We were heading East from our original hotel (even though we needed to end up a little west – but MUCH further south – than our start point) and after the first tranche of Alpine Mountains we came across the big one – Mont Blanc (yes, it was white, well, what we could see of it as much of it was well into the clouds) – and over the course of an hour or two we were heading straight for it. With many of the mountains we spent quite a while slowly working our way around each one. With Mont Blanc, there is another way – to go straight through.

The Mont Blanc tunnel is an amazing piece of engineering. It is around 15km long. So long, that when you pay your toll at the beginning, you wait at the tollbooth for your lane’s turn – the lane barriers are opened in turn, with a gap between each one, to ensure a distance between each vehicle. On the drive up to the tollbooth (which is a climb in itself) there are Alton Towers style ‘queue time from this point’ signs. Thankfully it was empty for us today.

The tunnel is so long – and potentially dangerous – that they give you a long car to hang from your rear view mirror with all the rules on – minimum speed, maximum speed, distance from the vehicle in front, details of the in-tunnel radio station to listen out for any emergencies, etc etc.

The rules worked. We maintained a smooth 60km/h (ish) through the tunnel, enjoyed the almost hypnotic disco lighting as you go through, and the best bit is that when we came out at the other side, we were in Italy. Yes, the tunnel took us into the Italian Alps – again, spectacular – and onto our journey. Concentration was key again as we worked our way around mountains. In fact, there was one point where we saw a bridge, running parallel to us, just a few hundred metres away but much lower. That bridge was where we were about an hour and a half previously. We had spent the last half an hour slowly getting up a tricky mountain and round the other side of it.

This carried on for ages and then there was an hour or so of fairly standard, flat Italian motorway, heading South. It was raining at this point so we couldn’t see much anyway.

But then, suddenly out of nowhere, one of those massive changes in the holiday happened. We ran out of country. We’d hit the Mediterranean Sea and it suddenly appeared in front of us. And the sun came out. Memories of Malmo and that top-of-Europe climate came back. What a difference! This was definitely the other end of the continent.

The road took us west along the coast, which was great. Just after eventually crossing the border to France, we took a long, winding, complicated road down a massive hill to Monaco, another sovereign principality. The roads were so twisty that the satnav kept telling me to do a U-turn because the road bent round so much (i.e. 180 degrees) it must be a U-turn.

Monaco, and the main city Monte Carlo, take up such a small, very hilly, patch of land at the bottom right corner of France, but they have put something (usually something very tall) on every square inch. This is another millionaires’ playground – one of the world’s most well known ones.

Many international sports players and business people are resident here for tax purposes. Last time I checked, there is no income tax. Luxury is everything here, with designer goods shops, large apartment blocks, that famous marina and the world-famous Monte Carlo Casino. Just a look at the cars parked outside (and the restaurant opposite with the main courses ranging from €80 – €460, the latter being the caviar of course) really brings home the sort of place it is.

It’s completely different to the small French town I was standing in, seven hours previously.

But wealth isn’t everything. Monaco may be very impressive, but nowhere near as much as Mont Blanc and the Alps. And they didn’t cost a penny (or cent) to build.

On to Marseille for a very late arrival at the hotel.

KM TRAVELLED TODAY: 803 km TOTAL: 5857 km