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Monday, December 26, 2011

Day 17 - FR

Cookie says...
Today was an odyssey. We left early as we had to drive to Geneve, offload the car, bus it to Chamonix, find our accom, get some gear and have dinner. It was a continuous day without a moment's rest.


Our GPS managed to take us into Switzerland which then meant that we were stung for a road use sticker (as if the tolls weren't costing enough already!). Apparently it isn't possible to buy shuttle tickets at the airport so we booked return seats on the bus and it ended up being almost empty.


We finally arrived in Chamonix and headed to the accom managers office and 30 mins later we're in the unit. Sarah's done well, it's a stones throw from the middle of the town and even has two balconies with half decent views. It was early evening but the race was on to get some gear. As conveniently located as it is, the store we went with is below us and the cheapest in Chamonix. After looking at the gear, we know why. I'm sure I'm going to miss my Burton Custom however beggars can't be choosers and this weekend's hack board is going to have to do.

Dinner ended up being in a Savoyish Brasserie where I ended up having venison - it was good.

Julie says...
Oh the joys of travelling - wasn't today fun :( I tried desperately not to give Bronwen my sickness (I'd already infected Sarah and Cookie), but I think she was more concerned with Sarah's lung convolsions then my little coughs. After the car journey, the random walk through the airport (we had to cross between the French and Swiss sides of Geneva airport through a secret passage - it felt like I was going to be stopped by Interpol), and the bus trip, we were finally here. I was very thankful for my backpack today, as I humourously watched Bron, Sarah and Pilty drag suitcased through snow and ice covered footpaths :)

After being told that this week was the busiest week for ski gear hire, I am now the proud owner of noisy ski pants - Mikey would be proud.

Sarah says...
When we first put the destination in the navigator it told us 800km - I was already feeling sick but this almost put me over the edge. Fortunately it recalculated and we ended up squashed into the car for only 3 and a half hours. I coughed up both my lungs so that didn't make it seem worse at all. Finally got to Chamonix and it was well worth the wait! Stunning!

On the way into Switzerland we had a slightly akward experfience where Cookie, meaning to say in French "I don't speak French" actually said "You don't speak English". Needless to say, the fact that the guard had just been informed that he didn't speak English meant that he wasn't as nice to us as he could have been.

Pilty says...
Well, turns out I got to add one last country to my list. Even though we were only in Switzerland for about 10mins, I think it counts.

Tolls once again took their toll on our pockets. The cost we saved on our petrol by taking these shorter routes went into shorter travel times and salted roads (aka safety, although we all trust Cookie and his decades of experience).

Bronwen says...
An early start, a 4hr car ride in between two coughing/lung evacuation sickies, 2 countries, a hideously expensive toll stop at the Swiss boarder and a 1.5hr bus ride up the mountain and we have arrived in Chamonix! Well worth it! Cookie and I checked out the local Super U and I shall never be returning to that particular supermarket. I think I caught a disease.

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