CHAPTER 17
Southern France had been good to us, but after four weeks of soaking up the Riviera sun we were ready for a change of scenery. By this point, our plan to circumnavigate France was getting a little hazy, or in other words, we hadn’t actually made a plan. We had only pre-booked accommodations for the trip up until Menton, and were now faced with the innocuous task of plotting a route back to Paris, and closing the loop on our road trip. Driving north-west through Provence, the French Alps and Burgundy would have been keeping with the spirit of our trip, but somehow that didn’t inspire us. A jaunt through Italy, up and over the famous Simplon Pass into the heart of the Swiss Alps, with a weekend in Zermatt sounded much more exciting. So that’s what we did.
We had donuts for breakfast in Menton, France, a lake side pizza lunch on Lago Maggiore, Italy, and a laughably expensive banquet of bratwurst, bread, and an order of raclette, for dinner in Zermatt, Switzerland. The next morning dawned bright and clear, which was perfect for our planned day trip to the top of Gornergrat- a rocky ridge perched above the Zmutt Valley, accessible by Europe’s highest open air (i.e. not in a tunnel the entire time) railway. The views from the top, and actually all along the way, were nothing less than postcard perfect. I will let the photos of the Matterhorn speak for themselves. They will either make you want to grab your crampons and an ice axe, or reach for a bar of Toblerone- we always choose chocolate.
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