77. A Month by the Lake. Views from Mount Bre.

Here we are in Lugano, looking at Mount Bre, the highest point. 

There'll be a view up there!  We are heading for that building right at the very top.

 

And here it is - a hotel with a deck!

And what a view.

You are looking down Lake Lugano from north to south. The dark line is a bridge built joining spits of land on either side.  The main motorway (Route 2) from Suisse to Italia crosses that bridge.

Looking to the south-west over the city of Lugano.  The other areas of water are Lake Lugano coming up the valleys from the south. 

You really need to look at a map to understand how these mountains and valleys all link together.  But enough to know that it is one body of water flooding the valleys between the mountains in this part of the Alps.

Our tiny village of San Mamete is not visible.  It is on the arm of the lake to the very left of this photo.  

Monte-bre, Suisse

It seems always to be a bit hazy when I take vista photographs.  I think it is either heat haze or cloud.  On this day it was heat!

76. A Month by the Lake. By Boat to Lugano.

Our first ten days at San Mamete were extremely hot.  

Once it cooled off a little we decided to take a boat trip to Lugano.  San Mamete is in Italy.  Lugano is in Switzerland.  They are about 12 km apart by road and less by water.  Of course the lake looks the same in both countries, but the land and what is on it, looks different.

Here comes the boat ...... 10 am!  Pretty early for us lazy, retired tourists!

A nice, slow 40 minute trip along the edge of the lake, with excellent English commentary from an Italian captain.

Lugano is a very handsome and refined city.  This is the old pedestrian quarter on the lake.

Lugano, Switzerland

Three beautiful cows - the first with an apple (William Tell), the second with a handle (handbag) and the third with a Swiss Army knife.  Paul is impressed.

Beautiful old buildings on the lake.

Most tourists seem to be German.  

Paul says Germans will queue for anything.  They like to be on and off first.  So, here are the Germans queueing for the boat that is just pulling IN to the dock. It doesn't leave for another 8 minutes.  The Aussies (and the rest of the world) stand back and watch it happen.

See that mountain behind the boat?  That is Mount Bre.  Because it faces south, it gets sun all day every day of the year.  That makes it the most desirable, and therefore, the most expensive real estate in Lugano Switzerland.  So we'll have to have a look.

Next - the view from Mount Bre.

75. A Month by the Lake. San Mamete Part 2

We arrived late last night and only had enough time to unload the car, find a car park in the town centre, grab a few vitals for dinner and crash!

Today we are keen to have a look around this tiny village called San Mamete on the shores of Lake Lugano, Italy.

Map of the lakes area of Italy

This is the front of our building.  Gutted and completely renovated about 15 years ago and then sold on, there are now about six individual owners of the eight or so apartments that make up the building. Yes, that's right. The main road is right on the front door step.

Looking through the gate at the side of the building, you can see that it is right on the lake.

Standing at the front door - looking left towards the village about 250 metres away.  The footpath ends at the end of our building.  After that, your'e on the road. 

Looking to the right of our front door.  No footpath.  Traffic, traffic, traffic.

 

It gets hairy when the buses come along.  But this is just the little local bus.  There are great big tourist coaches that come along here.  But they have professional drivers.  The most difficult situations occur with inexperienced drivers of campervans.

In Cima, the next village along the shore of the lake, there is much more space. (Things are relative, don't forget).  One can enjoy a beer under the magnificent plane trees, just across the road from the bar. The waitress runs across the pedestrian crossing with her trays of drinks.

Every village in this mountainous area has watercourses that continually cascade into Lake Lugano from the mountains.  This is the middle of summer.  Imagine how much water courses down here when the snow is melting in Spring.

San Mamete has managed to forge some extra space along the side of its watercourse to provide two levels of parking ...

... and a pool for children under 12.

Next - Taking the boat to Lugano.

74. A Month by the Lake. San Mamete Part 1

After more than eight hours on the road, including 90 minutes watching a fire, 30 minutes queuing for the Mount Blanc tunnel, 45 minutes getting lost and backtracking outside Milan (thanks to no map of Italy and relying on the GPS lady), we finally arrived in San Mamete at about 8pm.  Paul had to remember to phone Italy to say we had been delayed by traffic, while we were still in France because there was no guarantee that the French phone carrier would allow our French phone to work in Italy.   Territorial telephone wars!

This was to be our very own "Month by the Lake".  

Swimming, sunbathing, reading, walking, eating, having coffee in the village, pottering around the lake on boats, meeting the locals, a few nice restaurant dinners, a gentle life … And a cool place at the height of the European summer and holiday season.  We had very high hopes of this place and I imagined myself as a very modern Venessa Redgrave, imitating her month on Lake Como.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Month_by_the_Lake

Fabulous windows overlooking the lake.

The villa is right on the water.

It has its own small dock - below our window.

Looking to the right - past other balconies in our villa and onwards to the 15th century village of San Mamete.

Our sitting area and kitchen.

Our tiny balcony.

The bedroom.

The bathroom.

The next day, we made our way to the village square.  This and one other parking area service the whole village.

Not much here, is there?  But wait till you see the road!

73. A fire on the approach to the Mt. Blanc tunnel

On Saturday 13 August 2011 we left Nantua to drive through the Mount Blanc Tunnel into Italy.  

The traffic was heavy as this was a long weekend.  Twenty minutes up the highway we saw smoke.  A campervan was well alight by the time we approached it and a local gendarme was already on the spot.  We were the fourth car back when the gendarme estimated that the fuel tanks were dangerous and stopped the traffic.  We spent about 90 minutes waiting for fire services from both sides of the highway to put the fire out and make both sides of the highway safe.

The red-orange at the bottom of the black smoke is flame.

The truck and the three cars in front of us have been backed up.  The first of dozens of motorcyclists has arrived in the lay-by on the right.

The area has been cordoned off from both directions and the fuel and gas tanks are audibly exploding.

We have been stopped for 90 minutes.  At least the cars at the front have had something to look at ... it must have been awful at the end of this very long line of halted traffic not knowing why the traffic was completely stopped.  And who knows how far the tailback went?  20km? 50km?

And the final result - this was a largish campervan.  

We had a long way to go and an arrival time to meet, so we didn't stop for photos again - except for Mount Blanc, of course.

This is the sign board in the panorama area.  The real vista is below.

Mount Blanc is at the back in the cloud.  Doesn't look too high does it?  But remember, at this point, we are already at 2,000 metres.  Only another 2,800 metres to go!

Finally we are there.

Queueing again!  As I have said, this was the high summer long weekend and the roads were extremely busy.  Here we are about to pay our money and go through the Mount Blanc tunnel and enter Italy.

The tunnel toll is $37 euros, one way ($53 AUD) and the tunnel is 11.6 km long, most of which is in France.  It is no longer one of the longest tunnels in the world - they are in Norway (24 km)  and China (18 km).  You  are required to drive no slower than 50 kph and no faster than 70 kph, at a distance of 150 m from the car in front.  The 150 m is regulated by wall lights.  All these rules (for both the Mount Blanc and Frejus tunnels) were introduced after the fatal fire in 1999 when 39 people died.  I don't mind obeying the rules!  Being stopped in traffic in a tunnel, even a little one (and this id NOT little), is not a pleasant feeling.

At the other side we swap the order and gentility of France for the chaos and bravado of Italy.

MontBlancTunnel

Next - Lago Lugano.

72. Crossing France - again. West to east.

On Friday 12 August 2011 we set off to cross France, once again.  

This time we were heading for the Italian Lakes.  From Ste Foye La Grande, near Bordeaux we drove about 600 km from the Atlantic in the west, to just below Geneva in the east.  Ste Foye was about 540 km south west of Paris.  And when we stopped driving in Nantua, in the French Alps, just south of Geneva, we were 540 km south east of Paris.  

Nantua is on a glacier fed lake, just off the motorway.  Looking out our window on arrival - we had to rummage for jackets and long trousers.

The next morning we had a better view of this pretty place.

You can see why Europeans JUST LOVE LAKES!

So pretty ...

And the Logis De France that we stayed in had a vegie garden out the back.  Paul could hardly get me away - I was ready to pick up the hoe and secatuers and help out!   Oh, but I miss my garden!  When you are away from home for so long, it is the routine and ordinary parts of your life that you miss most.

Look at those pumpkins!  Later on I was to discover that this is the most popular variety of pumpkin all over the alpine regions of France and Italy.

Next - a fire on the road.

71. Our Last Night in Ste Foy La Grande

Our last night in Ste Foy on the banks of the mighty La Dordogne river was spent eating!  

Well, what else would you expect.  

Here is Paul, enjoying the best Atlantic oysters you've ever tasted, and chatting to a former copper, formerly from Britain.  This guy was the spitting image of every overweight, trudging police inspector in every BBC television series you could name.  He was also charming.

The entertainment for this market was a great four piece jazz band from Britain.

Snapping the sites for her blog is Alex (far left) - owner of our accommodation.  

Waiting for the food - the youngsters on this table are anxiously watching the rest of their family queueing for dinner.

Not a spare seat in sight.

This is the producer of duck products - always popular.  Potted terrines, foie gras and other goodies on the left and barbequed duck breast happening on the right.  I had duck at the first market we attended - delicious but a bit "pink" for me even though I like meat pretty pink.

These folks were ready for dessert and had decided on ice cream.

The French eat bread with everything.  So does Paul.  This stall is run by one of the SEVEN boulangeries of Ste Foy.  Paul calls this a town that takes it bread seriously.  These three bakers look pretty serious, don't they?  They also sold scrummy little pastries.

But this was the best stall.  Escargots!  Snails!  This was one of the best dishes I have ever eaten.  I'll never forget the sweet, soft, melt in your mouth, garlicky little things.  I could have eaten kilos of them!

And this was second best - fresh oysters, shucked while you wait!

What a fabulous community experience these producers' markets have been.

Next - off to Italy.