Moved on this morning, retracing the road back almost to Milan before turning North. Lake Maggiore and Stresa were very scenic and very laid back - most enjoyable and we wished we could have had more time there! Our lunch stop was in the old town of Bergamo and after a short tour we had free time to wander and take some photos before having a few drinks at a tiny little bar while watching Daniel Riccardo in the Monte Carlo Grand Prix on an amazing High Definition...

Weather was a bit cloudy early on as we started our first day in the Italian Lakes Region. There was an optional tour of the palace at Isola Bella, a little island in the lake, it wasn't my cup of tea so after brekky Mumsie joined the others for the short boat ride and I took a walk along the waterfront into the little town of Stresa. Some very impressive looking hotels dominated the shores of Lake Maggiore - everyone of them very old - but still impressive a...

Our transfer to Charles De Gaulle Airport demanded a pickup 4 hours before our EasyJet flight to Milan - goodness knows why because the ride took only 45 minutes and we were so ridiculously early that the bag drop wasn't even open! Our driver, a young Frenchwoman, was a terrible driver - on and off the accelerator every few seconds - and it was quite a relief to actually survive the frantic Paris traffic and get to the airport! We waited for a lengthy period ...

After breakfast we walked over the River Seine to the Rue de Rivoli and wandered about for a while - Den managed to get a camera battery he had been chasing for a while! Then we walked back to St Louis Island, which the smaller island in the Seine next to Notre Dame and found Berthillon - a famous icecream shop - where we had a sample of the creamy, smooth delight and then walked back along the Seine through some gardens and finally back to hotel.With nothing pla...

After the encounter with the taxi on Monday morning, we decided to get the Metro to get to the departure point for our Champagne Region Tour - it all went fine, including a line change, until we came up the wrong exit and took off down a street which we suddenly realised was not the Rue Des Pyramides at all! We asked a few passers by for directions but drew a blank until one bloke gave us a vague direction and then Google Maps got us to the Tour Office right on t...