Tunnels, Tunnels, Tunnels

Surprise Wind Storm in the Bay of Poets as seen from our Portovenere Apartment Balcony

Woke up for the last time in France and the weather had changed for the worse. The winds were blowing and dark clouds were threatening rain. We were lucky as the weather cleared when we started heading south. We were also very fortunate as most of the journey was on the major highway system and so the journey from Antibes to Portovenere took only about 4 hours. Most of the journey was high in the mountains with the Med below. The scenery was breathtaking when you could see it. Most of the journey was through tunnels. In Italy they go through mountains where in Canada we go around them. I am sure it’s a lot more expensive to build and that is why they have toll highways. For the 4 hour journey it cost us 26 Euro (about $39Cdn). But it was worth it as driving on the smaller highways would have taken us over 6 hours. When we arrived in Portovenere our Tom Tom guided us to our new home for the week and as we were getting a tour of the apartment, a huge wind storm came out of the mountains without warning creating huge problems for the sailboats in the Bay. One boat capsized and two small sailboats were blown into the mussel farms. As quickly as it started it was over and the emergency crews quickly rescued the people in the capsized boat and pulled the two sailboats out into clear waters.

Our apartment is lovely, if you love the 1970’s!!! It’s certainly not the same standard as we had in Antibes. However, it is clean and spacious and has unbelievable views of the Bay of Poets. Tomorrow we will explore the town.

A few minutes after the wind storm everything was back to normal except the sailboats were all in the harbour

Our Living Room in our 2 bedroom apartment. As mentioned, very 1970's but its clean and spacious. Also, the view from the balcony is superb.