You can click to enlarge.
Above is a homemade map of our plans for France. (Sorry I never got around to making one for Italy!) Except for the first few stops, this is not at all exact and we'll likely veer off the path quite a bit. But this gives a general idea of the route we'll take as we attempt to see as many big cathedrals, little churches and picturesque villages as we can. I am so excited!!
As you can see, the plan is to come from Italy in the east, go north to Strasbourg, then work our way down the eastern half of France. From there we'll go along the south coast and into northern Spain before heading up the western half towards Paris and Normandy.
After that, the arrow veers east towards Frankfurt Airport for home, but if energy and money allows we may make a quick ferry trip back to southern England first! It's very close to the port of Calais, shown on the map at the northern tip. It's hard to say how long all this will take, but our best guess is that we'll be home in August or September. Hard to believe that's only a few months away now - hooray!!
So, tomorrow morning we'll drive across the Alps from Bergamo to Chamonix, which is in France but very close to the Italian and Swiss borders. We'll be there for three nights and we're hoping to do some Alpine walking among the spring flowers and some relaxing.
Next we'll head north through Switzerland. For a stopover I've booked us in the Hotel Kursaal in Bern, which is one of our favorite hotels ever. We stayed there during our Christmas trip in December 2006. We'll be there for two nights, during which we intend to revisit the Münster and a whole lot of rösti.
Then we get to drive through the Black Forest in Germany! We are so excited about driving in Switzerland and Germany again after enduring erratic Italian drivers for so long. French drivers have a bad reputation as well, but we'll hope for the best!
Our third stop will be Strasbourg, which has a German feel and a beautiful cathedral. Two nights there, then we'll finally get away from cities for awhile and explore some Romanesque churches and abbeys in rural France.
Arrivederci, Italia! You have some of the best churches, art and food in the world, but we are ready to leave for greener pastures.