France, Country 2, Diary entry 2-5th Aug 2005, Total distance in France: 1082 KM

I can think of worse things to do than waking up and visiting Moet and Chandon for a champagne breakfast! There are 28kms of cellars with millions of bottles of champagne and we had a tour of just part of these. It was a fascinating; Msr. Jean Remy, founder of Moet, before his great granddaughter married Msr Chandon, then becoming the world renowned Moet & Chandon, was good buddies with Napoleon. Now, if you have ever been lucky enough to have a bottle of M&C champs, you will have noticed that the label says �Imperial�. The word Imperial was put on the label as a personal acknowledgement of Jean Remy�s friendship with Napoleon. �Imperial� is printed on every label of every bottle of M&C champagne!! Interestingly, the bottles are initially capped with steel tops and then after fermenting for a period of time, the bottles have to be turned in a special way (first a 1/4, then 1/6, then 1/8) for the sediment to settle at the neck of the bottle, it is dipped in minus 28 degrees so the sediment freezes and is removed. It takes 3 years to learn the trade of �turning�. Only after this does the bottle have its cork inserted! Well, it wasn�t long before a cork was removed and we were tasting it :o)

We then headed south for our next port of call. After leaving Martin on the motorway, direction Chambery, we headed in the opposite direction for St. Jean D�Aulps where Max has a flat. Unfortunately, for personal reasons, Max has had to delay the start of his journey and could not leave with us on the 2nd August as planned. He will join us as soon as he can, wherever that may be��. Hurry up max, we miss you!

After arriving in St. Jean D�Aulps quite late (true Towns� style!), we decided to find a restaurant before the flat. In pigeon French we managed to order ourselves a fantastic fondue and bottle of wine and began to relax. After finding the flat which was just round the corner from the restaurant, we collapsed into bed to rejuvenate ourselves for the next days adventure.

With a day of sightseeing ahead of us and not a cloud in the sky, high spirited we drove to Les Gorge du Pont du Diable � Devils Gorge. After descending about 100 steps, the small tunnel we�d just walked down opened up into a beautiful gorge that has been slowly eroded by the Dranse de Morzine, which has gradually eaten into the rock like a saw.

We then drove on to Yvoire which is a beautiful medieval town overlooking Lake Geneva. After wandering round here for a couple of hours, we headed on to Evian where we sat and had lunch (6pm!). I�m not sure if it�s illegal to eat and drink outside, or just not the way the French do things, but we had a lot of people staring at us!!! However, this did not dishearten us and we thoroughly enjoyed the French cheese and bread we�d bought earlier in the day. We headed back to the flat where Alex then spent the next two and a half hours �fixing� things. I wonder whether he will truly be able to sit and enjoy an evening and not feel the urge to tinker with the car!!

Saturday we packed up the car again and went to Chamonix to look at the glacier. After fighting with the other millions of tourists for a parking space, changing into walking gear and heading to the cable car, we were told that we were too late in the day to go up and enjoy a closer view!!!! So after a few more piccies from the road side, we decided to say Au revoir to France and Ciao to Italy!