Tag Archives: casola

Day 17: Casola to Des Grangettes

17 days in and it’s time to say goodbye to Mick and Yvonne (and my new adopted kitten), and head for Les Grangettes on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Once I’d left Casola, the motorways were pretty uneventful, the only entertainment being trying to work out how the Italians could charge so much for tolls and get away with it.

I stopped for lunch once I’d got to the mountainous bits of Italy, and sat on a bench in the shade (above). The views were absolutely stunning and it’s just a shame I didn’t stop to do some pictures. With 300+ miles to do today, plus a late start due to the campsite owner having a lie in until 9AM, I didn’t do much in the way of stopping.

Arriving at Les Grangettes at 5PM, I checked in and went to my reserved pitch. It’s only a few yards from the shores of Lake Geneva which you can see in the background. Couldn’t get the site WiFi running as the office had closed by the time I’d set the van up, but I’ve found my old Vodafone dongle which is how I’m doing this update 🙂

Tomorrow, I’ll take a ride into Montreux a few km up the road, where the Jazz Festival should be in full swing.

Welcome to sootyvan.com

This is my first attempt at creating a blog so please go easy on me 🙂

It’s my plan to do a tour of Europe in the sooty van during late June and early July 2012.  This is the place where I plan to put updates and pictures so friends and family will be up to date on whatever trouble I manage to land myself in.

Here’s the rough plan:

Leave Essex on Saturday 23rd June 2012 and head to Kent for the Eurotunnel.  The trip then follows three legs of approximately 1,000 miles each returning via Eurotunnel on Saturday 14th July.

Leg A – Witham to Auschwitz, Poland.  Travelling through Belgium and Germany, Czech Republic and finally Poland.

Leg B – Auschwitz to Casola in Lunigiana, Italy.  My friends Mick and Yvonne have a villa in Tuscany and I plan to stay with them on the weekend of 7th/8th July.  This leg will take me through Austria and Slovenia with a detour to the Plitvice National Park in Croatia, before briefly travelling through Slovenia again to Italy.

Leg C – Casola in Lunigiana to Witham.  The final leg will see me staying at Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva, and meandering back through France before taking the Eurotunnel again for the trip home.