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Subject: Travel from France to Italy.

Question: We are planning to travel from Paris to Sicily and back again in January. We were wondering if it is possible to do this via Switzerland at this time of the year. Can you suggest a route, please? Guide books give conflicting information about the necessity of chains and I can't find a straight answer about tunnels. We live in tropical Australia so have no experience of driving in snow.

Answer: Here is what I am going to do, I will ask family and friends that I know in Switzerland and France and see if anyone has gone from France to Sicily through Switzerland, and if so what can they tell me that might help you. I myself have driven to Switzerland from France, but only to boarder cities, Basel and Geneva.

Next let me ask you some questions, do you want to drive all the way or drive some and also take the train? How many people are traveling? How long is your trip for? Will you want to sightsee in big cities along with the country side?

My first thoughts are this, no matter how much you drive make sure to get a car that runs on diesel, maybe as an Australian you know this but Americans don’t. In France diesel is about 20% less than gasoline and you can go further per liter/gallon. In Switzerland the prices are about the same but again you can go further per liter/gallon. If you want to visit big cities, Paris, Geneva and so on, having a car will make things harder, like parking and getting around, my experience has been that European cities are better to be seen by foot and also public transportation than by car. Paris has the best system in Europe and most big French cities also have good public transportation. France also has a high speed train system(TGV) that can get you around France very well. From what I can tell big Swiss cities have good public transportation(Basel and Geneva). Also being on a train you can meet locals and have a cultural exchange and every body gets to see the country side and no one will be tired from driving, plus you will get from place to place faster and not get lost. My sister took a train across Switzerland and said it was very nice and the best part of her trip.

Get back to me when you can and I will try on my side to find out for you as much as I can. If I can’t help you to go all the way to Sicily I sure can help you to get from Paris to either Switzerland or Italy. Jeff

Follow Up. After talking to my wife and in laws here is what I can tell to, the most practical way to go from Paris to Italy is to go from Paris and pass through Lyon, then pass through Chambery and on to the Italian city of Toring. This route as you can read does not go through Switzerland, to do that you would need to go from Paris pass through Beaune, Mâcon and then on to Geneve. With this route you really do not pass through Switzerland but stop over in Geneve, something that would be nice to do. The other problem is that the tunnel(Tunnel du Mont Blonc) is closed you would use to go to Italy, there was a fire there a few years ago and it is still being fixed. So you either need to go around lake Geneve to the north, and really go through Switzerland, or go on to Chambery and on to the Italian city of Toring. Yet another way to go would be to go from Paris to Beaune to Besançon to Pontarlier and then on to the Swiss city of Lausanne. The problem with this route is that you will not use the Auto Route the hole way and this could cost you time, but you might see more of France and Switzerland. All the other ways but this use the Auto Route the hole way, but it will cost you, to take the Auto Route in Switzerland costs 30 Swiss Francs you can go as far as you want, in France the price changes as to the distance you drive, you are looking at about 150-175 French Francs each way.

As to the weather I also had a problem getting a straight answer, most of the people that I talked to never drove this route in the winter. From what I have heard, thanks to global warming it snows less than it used to. If it does snow you will be on the Auto Route and they should be salted and plowed often, I don’t think you need chains, sorry I can’t get you a better answer than this.

Lastly, a route that will take you out of harms way as to the weather, would be to go from Paris to Lyon to Marseille to Nice and then on to Italy, this takes you along the Mediterranean Sea.

I hope that I was able to answer your question, if not let me know and I can ask more people that I know.

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