Hello Switzerland!

It was a bleary eyed 3am start this morning, we left home at 3.30am and got to the Eurotunnel in good time as there was no traffic. The tunnel was quiet, I was expecting long queues but it was not busy at all. It turned out that all my stress and worrying about the officious border controls and the necessary Covid documentation was all for nothing - on the U.K. side we checked Xena in at the Pet Centre and they checked her microchip and Pet Travel Certificate. Then we drove through the French border control where they looked at our passports and waved us through. No one asked if we were vaccinated or checked out vaccine passports, we were not asked or checked for any food taken into the EU. We were amazed. We boarded the Euro shuttle and 35 minutes later we were in France. It’s rather worrying that the Covid checks are so lax in France though, all the fuss about vaccine passports and they do not even ask if you are vaccinated or check them. 

The day got hotter and hotter and by the afternoon it was 33C. Poor Xena in the back of the car was getting hot as the air conditioning in our newish car was broken and only working intermittently. We stopped for breakfast at a picnic site and gave Xena a run around. The motorway service centres were not nearly as busy as they usually are, and therefore slightly cleaner than usual! 

There was a lot of roadworks all the way through France, and just outside Colmar there was a bad road accident that caused quite a tailback. We counted about 6 ambulances, many police cars and saw quite a few cars involved in the accident including a small car that was totally crushed from both ends and a large truck that had its cabin crushed and door off. We did not look anymore as it was too upsetting. 

It was a long journey - it was about 11 hours of actual driving time (half an hour more than usual due t the accident), and when you add in the roadside breaks and the time spent at the Eurotunnel crossing it took about 13 hours overall. 

When we arrived it was still blue skies and 28C at 6pm. It was so lovely to see the village again, even Xena got excited as we arrived as I think she remembered it from the last time we were here.

It's a tradition that as we approach the village we stop and I take this photo of the village, hopefully with a train going past - so this has to be my blip today although I think the extra image is much more exciting.

We are very tired and we are now going out to find some supper. Tomorrow morning it will be grocery shopping and a walk, and I will catch up with journals after that.