Life is a grand adventure and there is no one that I want to do adventures with besides Paul. I absolutely LOVE that he and I don't get snippy with each other, even when things are stressful.
One thing that we're pretty good at on vacations (and life in general, really) is being Flexible. That needs to be capitalized to emphasize just how chill and easy going we can be when things go awry.
So here's our first days of France and how many times we've learned to be Flexible. Fingers and toes crossed (please, join us, will you?) that the Fun days are ahead as a reward for the Flexible days.
Day One and Two: Travel
These merge into one day since the time change means we lose six hours along the way. When we made our France plans, the most worrisome part of the plans was the first day of travel. The best travel deal and times we could get meant that we'd have a short layover time in Philadelphia. We researched and researched and decided to risk it (hopefully it's not a similar problem on the way back, since we have a larger time gap for the future layover on our return). Our research said that as long as our Greenville flight wasn't delayed for more than 30 minutes, we'd easily make our flight to Zurich from Philly.
Well, our flight was delayed by more than an hour, so tragically, we had to get our plans changed. Paul was very patient (and Flexible) with the airport assistant lady as she struggled to find us a different flight. In the end, we had to add another layover in the London (Heathrow) airport. It meant that, as long as nothing went wrong, we'd make it to Zurich by noon instead of 8am. Somewhat frustrating, and it meant that we couldn't do the Spa/therme for more than a few hours on the first day (we were REALLY looking forward to this!), but no worries.
The other bad news from this change in our flights also meant that Paul and I were no longer sitting next to each other. We always get the cheapest type of seats, which means they are cramped, and it's nice to sit by each other so we can lift the armrest between us and poor Paul can sprawl his long legs a bit and I can get cozy and lean into him. Instead, I sat by a very angry Scotsman who swore constantly about....everything...and he also stole my arm rest so I was uncomfortable for the entire long flight.
Then we got to Heathrow airport. Yikes. Note to Self (and for you all as well): avoid Heathrow at all costs, if possible, for future flights. What a nightmare of an airport. It's so large that when the plane landed, they put us on a bus, to bus us a long distance down the road to the actual airport.
Once there, we had to go through a lonnng line of security (where they didn't like my ankle brace on my injured ankle and, after removing the brace, not only did a scan with a machine but also had to squeeze my entire ankle really hard, which made me cry actual tears in pain, in order to prove that I didn't have something, I dunno, hidden in my skin?). Anyway, we got through the long security and ended up in a huge lobby.
Apparently, since the airport is so congested/crowded, Heathrow has a policy of putting everyone in this large lobby and won't tell you your gate number until right before boarding, even if that means you have to run across the airport to get to your gate in time. Since security took so long, we didn't have long to wait in the crowded room, but then we had to find the gate (and go up and down stairs and on elevators in a confusing array) to get to our gate. We got there about 1 minute before boarding started. And then they put us on a bus again and yep, you guessed it, drove us the long distance to the same parking lot that we started in for a different airplane from the same company.
By now, our nerves were frazzled. Fortunately, we got to sit by each other for this 3 hour flight. Unfortunately, the airplane wasn't granted permission to leave yet, so our flight was delayed and we got to sit in those uncomfortable airplane seats for extra long while just chilling on the tarmac. Yayyyy.
By the time we landed and got our rental car, it was almost 2:30pm (remember when we had plans to be there at 8am?!). But despite being stressed and insanely sleep-deprived, we were determined to do something fun, even though now it was too late to do the Spa/Therme.
On our list, we had 'Augusta Raurica' which was a cool Roman ruins of an amphitheater that was close to our airbnb. We drove about 2 hours to the area, and then, tragically, could NOT find it. There was construction that closed the road that went to the parking lot, so we tried three different ways to get around the construction without success.
At this point, we were hungry too, so we gave up. We limped into our airbnb and, due to being Flexible, pretended it was a spa by jumping in their cold pool for a bit and then taking a hot shower (a nice cold/hot treatment) and passing out for about 11 hours.
Day Three: Chillin' at Chillon Castle and the Never-Ending Drive
When we made our plans originally, we knew that this would be one of our longer driving days. It was six hours to Annecy, where our next four days of adventure would be located. We figured that this early in the trip, our energy levels would be up, so a six hour drive would be fine.
At first, this was the case. We had two stops in our agenda for the day: at hour 3, we'd stop at Chillon Castle, most likely just to look at it from the outside and then continue (while being Flexible enough to allow a tour if we wanted). After the castle, we'd stop 1.5 hours later in Chamonix, a cute skiing village, where we were super excited about a 1 mile pretty hike with stunning mountain views. My busted ankle means we can only do short hikes on this vacation, so we were super pumped that this one was short and easy but also really pretty (most Alps hikes are tough/long). After that, we'd casually drive to our next airbnb in Annecy, with time to stop for groceries to make dinner at our place.
The first three hours of the drive were beautiful. The Swiss countryside reminded us of Germany: drive really fast for a few kilometers, then slam on your breaks to drive slow through a cute village, repeat. The villages were sooooo cute. I love Swiss architecture for their homes.
We had plans to stop at a French bakery for lunch (mmm our first bread and cheese time!) but tragically, there was zero parking available anywhere near the place, and it was so busy on the streets and right on a mountain cliff, that we were uncomfortable with driving around looking for a place to park somewhere in the neighborhood. So we were Flexible, and decided we would figure something out by the castle.
We got to the Chillon Castle and we were blown away from the views. It is an old castle, perched on the lake, with the mountains all around. And the castle is beautiful! Since it was so lovely, we decided to get tickets to go inside. And right next to the castle was a tourist restaurant. Not something we would normally do, but it was past lunch time and we were hungry. The food was fine and the castle - wow!
Just wow. I think it's my favorite castle that we've visited so far (and if you've been reading our travel blog for a while, you know that we've seen plenty of castles...). If not my favorite, then def. the top two (but I currently cannot think of one that I liked more).
Some of the things that I loved about this castle was: (1) we didn't have to join a tour; instead, we could just wander around as we pleased; and (2) it was HUGE and there were SOOO many rooms we could check out (we didn't even see them all!).
So we highly recommend checking out Chillon Castle: it's worth the money!
After that, we got in the car to go hike near Chamonix. If timing worked well, we'd still have plenty of time to hike and still get to our new airbnb and eat dinner. Ha.
The drive started out splendidly, if not slightly terrifying for me since I'm afraid of heights. We went straight up into the Alps, with tight curves in the road and tons of gorgeous views. It was like the Blue Ridge Parkway on steroids.
Tragically, we went around a curve and....some crew members had closed the road ahead. It's the only road to Chamonix and they assured us (and the many many other vehicles) that it would open in about two hours,
While many of the other drivers were a bit cranky (in a quiet, European way, not a boisterous American way), Paul and I decided to be Flexible and easy going about it. We parked our car and walked to the nearby Alpine building - where hikers crash for the night and there's a bar as well. We grabbed some beers and sat and relaxed while soaking in the views (including a picturesque pink church).
Paul decided that, if they opened the road when promised, we would still go to the hike in Chamonix. He would just jog up the hike and I would amble around slowly until he got back.
Of course, they did NOT open the road at the promised time. It was another hour before the road was open, and now it was too late to do anything besides get some groceries and go to our airbnb. Sigh....
And then, even more annoyingly, once we got out of that mountain pass, there was a closed lane and backed up traffic, which added another 40-ish minutes to our long long day of driving.
By the time we got out of that traffic jam, all of the grocery stores were closed for the day (they close super early! Lesson learned). So we no longer had any options for food because French do slow dinners and we didn't have time for that (plus we were not interested in finding our new airbnb in the dark). Fortunately, Paul cleverly thought about how there MUST be some McDonalds or Burger Kings in France, and we found one that was open on the way.
We grabbed some gross American food (they do have Korean and Italian Whoppers though) and went on our way to the airbnb, still slowly because we were behind a tractor pulling hay for a long time and then we couldn't find our airbnb and had to use detective skills to find it.
I'm glad the Chillon Castle was so amazing, as it helped salvage the day, but boy, we are tired of being stressed and also frustrated by cancelled plans! (Also: at least the views were gorgeous on our drive!)
Hopefully we don't have to be so Flexible in our future France days and things start going a bit better. Mainly, I'd like to start relaxing a bit more. Here's hoping tomorrow is better! The agenda is mainly e-biking around Lake Annecy and stopping occasionally to swim. And buying food.
We're keeping high spirits and looking forward to our next fun day!
~Cris (and Paul)
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