Mont Blanc

Whilst most holiday journals will talk about going up and down Mont Blanc, ours is going to tell you about going through it.



As we drove towards Mont Blanc we didn't know what to expect. There were lots of signs advising you to tune in and listen to your radio but unfortunately all the information was in French and Italian - still none the wiser. There were also lots of signs like this one but we still couldn't quite figure out what the time was referring to - time to get to the tunnel or go through it.



It was early Saturday morning so while the last run up to the tunnel was a bit slow all in all it wasn't too bad.



We then proceeded through 11.6km of tunnel. You have to drive between 50 to 70 km/h and entry to the tunnel is controlled so that you remain 150m behind the car in front (blue lights on the sides of the tunnel help you monitor this).

We briefly popped out into daylight on the Italian side of the mountain only to discover that the tunnels in Switzerland were nothing compared to what we were about experience on the Autostrada in Italy. We gradually made our way ever downwards through a system of tunnels through the mountains and bridges that spanned the valleys.

Gayle

Location:France/Italy border