On the Road Again!

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19. Today we would be travelling from Cuneo in Italy, down through the Alps to Nice. Our hotel for two nights is the Durante. City centre with included parking! Hotel Durante, Nice The reason is not to visit Nice itself, but we are intending on going on " Train des Merveilles " up through the Alps on less accessible and scenic routes.

Cuneo- Nice A relatively short day today. MyRouteApp calculates it at 88 miles door to door. The standard route is to head down the main route to the coast and then along past Monaco.  And looking at the map book I saw the Col de Tende . Even with that the estimate is a little over 3 hours. So no rush in the morning to get going. Then when I took a look at it on Google I decided against it. If I had an SUV I would be up for it, but not in a road car. So. It will be the tunnel instead. We can have a leisurely breakfast and a walk around Cuneo to see the wonders of the city before we set off.

The scenic railway is called the "Train des Merveilles" and it runs from Nice Ville to Tende. Train of Marvels So how do we get there? My plan is to leave early on Sunday and head south on the motorways as far as Nuits-St-Georges. This will be the longest day to kill off miles in Northern France. Next stop Annecy. It's not a long day and I have set the routes from here to be "no tolls". I don't see the point in spending all day on the road and arriving with no time to see anything. The no tolls route takes us along Lac Annecy and then down to Albertville, then alongside the A43 to Modane.  From there you can take the  Fréjus Tunnel  or take the D1006 over the first pass of the trip over the  Col du Mont Cenis  at 2083m. This route joins the same route at Susa that would have come through the Fréjus Tunnel. From there it is into Italy. The route loops down and around Turin ending in Cuneo. I have booked an overnight here. This is the former end of the Train d...