The great canine adVANture to Chamonix - Part 1, preparations

Preparations.. 
Who knew there was so much to do to prepare for an overseas skiing trip with a dog..specifically, Ripley (golden retriever), currently aged 7 months and a little bit of a monkey (as you can see from the pic.. (FYI we are PARKED & no he does not travel in the front).
When your dog has been chronically car-sick from day one, what better holiday to arrange than one which involves driving a minimum of 762 miles each way in a VW camper (route planner says 11hrs 40mins, i suggest it will be substantially longer than this when you add puppy toilet breaks, walks, vomit cleaning up etc but we will report back in due course). Though we have purchased industrial strength anti-sickness pills from the Vets at a whopping £10 per tablet! (they better work!).

Wisely, we have decided to break up the journey with an overnight stay in the van on the way and a few nights in order to 'mooch' back towards the UK. Bearing in mind the car-sickness we have also committed to taking the Eurotunnel to avoid finding out if he also gets sea-sick!!
Our destination, is Les Houches ski resort (just round the corner from Chamonix) as this is one of the few places that offers self catering apartments that accepts dogs (additional charge of 60 euros a wk), close to the ski bus and some chair lifts and not in the middle of nowhere.
The plan is to make a straight run down sucking up the 80 euros in toll charges and return avoiding the toll roads and via the scenic route taking us through Switzerland & Germany before heading back into France.

On the basis that we are sleeping overnight in the van its been a challenge trying to figure out where Ripley is going to sleep.. thank goodness he's not fully grown yet as we can just squeeze his travel crate in between the front seats as in a SWB VW theres not enough room for a large breed to sleep in the passenger footwell and theres no room between seats & RIB altair bed.. (for the first time we are considering adding a SCA pop top roof.. for when he outgrows his crate)

Lastly is his travel comfort aside to water, food etc.. this journey we have opted for an RAC dog harness which you can see he fits into already (its an XL!)

Wish us luck.. for it is only 1 day until we depart.. nothings packed, nothings ready (well, except for the dogs stuff) but its amazing what you can turn around when a little pressure is added! We will report back from the road.

For those considering  travelling to France for the first time with your dog some of the items you need are as follows:

- Pet passport (from Vet @ approx £75-00)
- Rabies injection
- Microchipping
- Tapeworm treatment

(Guidance on what you need to do with your dog can be found here https://www.gov.uk/take-pet-abroad)

Have a look online to see where the nearest vet is in the country you're visiting as you will need to visit a vet for a tapeworm treatment a minimum of 24hrs max 5 days before being allowed to return to the UK.