France Sept 2022

 September 15 Today was our day slated for the Gorges of Verdon. First thing I did out of bed was go for a walk with Avi. This has been a daily occurrence which has been very enjoyable. After we returned, I continued the saga of trying to secure a refund from Chase and change the dropoff location with Budget. Chase finally confirmed a refund and after many tries, I gave up with Budget. We decided to just return the car to the train station and take our lumps.  David and I were both feeling like we'd had enough driving from the day before but our younger cohorts had their hearts set on the visit to the Gorges. We got breakfast from our new favorite spot once again and headed out. Google Maps told us it was about 70 miles but would take over two hours to get there. We were unsure why but the reasons became clear later. We needed gas and tried to fill up at a stop along the road, only to discover that it would no take American credit cards, no matter what we tried. We finally gav...

 Sept 14 Today was supposed to be a beach day but we woke up to thunderstorms and pouring rain. Not entirely a surprise to me the weather watcher. Avi wanted to do the typical morning walk as he and I were up first. We headed out into the drizzling rain for a short walk. Grabbed coffee for all of us and brought it back. Absolutely the worst coffee we've had yet. Pretty much undrinkable.  After breakfast, we got ourselves ready and headed for Cassis, hoping that the rain would let up. The drive was beautiful and Cassis is a wonderful town with narrow streets and heart stopping driving. But since it was still pouring, we decided to head further south to Toulon. When we got to the public beach in Toulon, it was raining slightly less. We sat down for a drink of water and some coffee, only to find out that the coffee was even worse than the coffee we had this morning. I really did not drink mine, which rarely happens. Avi and Georgia changed into their swimming suits and headed int...

 Sept 13 This morning when I got up I was happy to find all the clothes that I had hung all over our apartment were dry. Yeah! There is another market on the streets of Annecy but it is still so much quieter than the weekend crowds and the market is smaller. Avi and I went out for a walk and brought coffee back from Haven, a restaurant that we discovered that had good coffee. We all got showered and packed, returned our key to the host and headed out for breakfast at Haven. It was a wonderful and beautiful breakfast. The food looked like art and tasted incredible.  Breakfast over and bellies full, we got started on our journey. The scenery was absolutely beautiful on the drive and David drove the 130 km/hr allowed in France so the time went fairly quickly. We stopped at a rest stop about 130 km into our trip and were blown away. The beauty was amazing and the rest stop had a zipline for kids. It was lovely in every way. Avi did some of his callisthenic moves and then we headed...

 September 12 Slept well and woke up to a quiet Annecy. The weekend traffic has thinned considerably. We all got up and headed out for breakfast. Found a wonderful place to have eggs, yogurt and coffee. Decided this was the day to hike up and see the lake from the top of Mount Veyrier. We found a hike on All Trails that looked like it was good for all of us. Rated moderate and only 2.7 miles with less than 1000 feet of elevation gain. We dressed for the hike, took a little water and headed out to the trailhead. The first issue was that Google Maps took us to someplace that was not the trail head. Some glitch in the system. So we reloaded with Apple Maps and headed back out. The views along the drive were so incredible. The lake was glistening aqua green and everywhere we looked was so beautiful. Mountains surrounding the lake and people picnicking with runners and swimmers everywhere. Just a lovely sight. Found the trailhead but there was a problem. The last mile was closed. We tho...

 September 11 I was up first in the morning. When I looked out the window, it looked like the world changed overnight. All the restaurants were closed and the streets have been taken over by an open air market as big and diverse as anything I've ever seen. The smell of stinky cheese has permeated the air.  Avi got up shortly after me and we headed out for a walk to the lake. Beautiful morning and I got some coffee before returning. Not great coffee but it helped to wake up.  After everyone was up, we headed out and wandered through the market for a while, perusing all the wares. Just beyond description. We got some breakfast and then headed out of town for a very easy hike, actually more of a stroll. We walked through the beautiful forest along the river and it was lovely and peaceful. After our hike, we headed back to town for lunch. I dared to try the Rablochon, a local specialty, and Avi got the largest Calzone I have ever seen. Of course, he ate every bite. We never l...

 September 10 Big travel day today. Huge. I had a lot of anxiety about this day when planning the trip. Not sure how we would navigate it.  We drove to Amboise for breakfast and it was a beautiful morning in a quintessential little European town. I was in heaven. This is what I love about Europe. We had breakfast at a delightful place that actually served eggs. After breakfast, I stole a quick walk along the river. Little did I know that those 15 minutes would almost cost us our train ride. We had left 3.5 hours to get to Paris, drop our car off and get on the train to Lyon. The drive was 120 miles but there was an accident close to Paris and the drive took us 3 hours. Then we couldn't find the car rental return. I'm still not sure how we finally found it. There was nothing to help us and you had to drive through a tunnel to get there. But David somehow got us there and returning the car was quick. Georgia was absolutely desperate for a bathroom by now and we had only a few mi...