St Jean de Maurienne, Tunnel du Fréjus and Beyond

On Saturday we said ‘au revoir’ to our grandsons, their parents and their dog, and followed the river Arc up the Maurienne valley to St Jean where we planned to stop the night before heading for Italy. We arrived in the early afternoon and hunkered down for the forecasted thunderstorm which arrived on schedule. The municipal campsite is close to the town centre and is popular with cyclists keen on cycling over cols.

 It was a good jumping-off point for the next part of our journey through the mountains to the Italian Lakes; incidentally, there’s a Carrefour supermarket where you can top up with diesel on the route to re-join the D1006 to Modane.

 We left next morning and drove up to Modane and the Fréjus tunnel. It costs a stonking 54€ for motorhomes and caravans, but an hour after setting off we were through the tunnel and cruising down towards Turin. Why not use the Col de Cenis and save money? Because we’re wimps and we had a long way to go. Twisting, unguarded mountain roads are not for us!

 There’s little in the way of campsites across north-western Italy until you come to the lakes. Travelling along the Torino to Milano autostrada, we arrived at Camping Sassabanek on the shores of Lake Iseo in time for a refreshing swim in one of the pools. We chose Iseo as it’s principally a holiday destination for Italians and low-season started here this week: Lake Garda, on the other hand, is still in full Teutonic holiday mode

 We’re going to spend a few days more in this area before we set off for Croatia and the island of Cres where we hope to spend most of September: perhaps we’ll send you all a ‘Postcard’