Driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to get to our friend's house in Morzine was a bit of a convoluted way to get there, but we were under the impression that the shorter trip from Italy through Switzerland might be very expensive on the motorway.

Mont Blanc Glacier just above the Tunnel beneath the Alpine mountain

We understood that you have to buy a license for a year on those motorways, even though you are only going for a day!  Anyway, it was quite spectacular, with loads of snow scintillating in the sunshine on the top of Mont Blanc, and the glacial melted water cascading down from the dizzy heights, the start of so many rivers which end up in the Rhone.

The Palladian villas from the Italian lakes gave way to the French Chalets, so many new ones in new resorts all around the ski-lift areas. 

Being August, the villages and roads were full of people in their walking gear with walking sticks to the fore.

The GPS told David to turn right instead of left to our destination, only to find we had chosen the wrong one!  Never mind, it was able to correct its mistake by guiding us over the top of a very high pass to the next town.  The views going up right over to Mont Blanc were outstanding,

 and at the top was a lake where it seemed that the world and his wife had come out for a picnic!  It was pure Heidi country - cows on the pasture with bells round their necks,

wooden chalets with piles of wood outside ready for the winter fireplaces. 

We met up there with Sailing friends who now normally live in Melbourne.  They'd driven from Germany after visiting relatives there and stayed with English friends of theirs who have a chalet in Morzine. 

It's a very pretty village, although quite new, built very traditionally, with a small square and shopping centre with cafes and small specialist shops.

 Our friends offered us a traditional 'Raclette' dinner that night, where the meat and vegetables and cheese are placed on a griddle on the table, with a variety of sauces to dip them in. I'd never tried that before.