Driving in Europe - Thank God for GPS

Bonjour from our 2nd city in France - Grenoble

We arrived via bullet train from Paris on Thursday around 10:30 am.  I have ridden on one in Tokyo but Nick had not.  It was super comfortable and we were glad we upgraded for assigned seats as we watched this one guy go from seat to seat as the "assigned" passengers came on so he was obviously not happy with his choice of "coach".  We were so incredibly surprised given the world today that there was absolutely no security.  You could pretty much take anything you wanted on the train and no one cared.

Our hotel in so opposite from our one in Paris.  Nick picked this one out and it's very nice just very modern.  However we both agree it's the most comfortable bed we have ever slept in....like we want to ship it home comfortable. 

We walked around town and found where to catch the "bubble/tram" that goes up the mountain side to Fort Bastille.  You can see all of Grenoble from up there.  We even spotted the old Olympic Village (1968).

They have a zip line which looked fun except once you do the first run you then have to climb up the face of the mountain to get to the 2nd line so we said "yeah no".  They had a very cool "ropes" course for kids that some schoolchildren were doing which was fun to watch.  We made dinner reservations at their nice restaurant for our last night as the view are amazing.

The part of town we are staying in has all the older more "European" feel buildings just like the area of Paris did that we stayed in.  Tons of alley ways with shops and outdoor cafes.  The part I love is that there are apartments above all the shops and cafe's.  Each building has a unique main door that the tenants use to go in and out - they are all shaped different and are different colors.  I just love this "old world" charm they have.  We saw the military police again with the machine guns - I am kinda starting to think they are following us.....

We walked around and found a fun Pizzaria and sat and watched all the people stream into the bars and cafe's for the French soccer game.  It was like participating in a Seahawks tail-gate type atmosphere.  Flags, 6 packs of beer, pizzas, noise makers, just like an American football game.  The bars all had big tv's setup and we even saw one guy that brought his own bar stool (smart man)!

France won for those that don't follow it and the town went crazy.  Fireworks, sirens, horns, people screaming and cheering - gotta love good sports fans!

That night Nick asked me "hey want to go to Switzerland tomorrow".  Like I'm going to say no - right?  So we planned out our trip to Lake Geneve.

Friday morning we got up - went to the market to get picnic supplies, plugged the address into the GPS and took off.  That is when the fun began.

All we can say is THANK GOD FOR GPS.  With all the one way streets and twists and turns of the older parts of these towns there is no freaking way we would have not just turned around and gone back if we had to use a regular old map.  It was bad enough that you have to deal with weird turn lanes, bikes, motorcycles and scooters that come out of nowhere and watch your GPS all at the same time.  Nick did great and by the time we got back he seemed much more calm with all of it.  I just kept giving him water and snacks and trying not to back seat drive....I do admit there was more than once where I was telling myself to shut up.  He is such a patient man...:)

We had planned on going straight thru to Geneve but on the way we stopped in the most beautiful city called Annecy.  It has a huge blue/green fresh water lake and the older part of town has a canal running thru it that feeds into the lake.  I would come back here in a heartbeat - I loved the charm of it.  Think Leavenworth with a canal and tons of outdoor cafe's and shops.  There were boat cruises on the lake and paddle boats you could rent.  So we found a shady spot in the park on the lake and had our picnic.  The entire drive there and back was so beautiful - mountain peaks and rolling hills of green fields below. 

Then onto Lake Geneve.  We crossed the border without even having to show our passports.  All they did make us do was buy a Swiss highway pass for 40eur.  Total rip off since we were only going a few miles but after paying all the tolls in France to go from Grenoble to Switzerland and back we decided that 40eur was not bad at all.  We hit 3 toll stations on the way to Switzerland and 2 on the way back and really lost track of how much it cost - the machines do give change which is nice but we do remember one of them was 8 eur and we swear it was only a mile long stretch.  The roads are really nice though so I guess that is how they pay for them.

Lake Geneve was cool - it's huge and the area is very nice - like super rich it seems.  We were in a very fancy parking garage were we saw a Ferrari, multiple Porche's and Mercedes - our rental Renault looked pretty sad next to them.  The coolest thing about it that makes it stand out was they lit up their stalls so if you saw a green light it was an empty stall.  Nick was quite impressed!

They had the weirdest traffic signals though - one signal is for cars, one for taxis, one for buses and one for bicycles all on the same pole.  You had to be really careful and pay attention to which one was turning green because they are not all at the same time.  We are so used to seeing green and going - yeah you can't do that here or you will smash a bicyclist.

The Lake itself is beautiful -  We were mainly in the marina area so we could see all around town but our hearts were back in Annecy where the pace was just so much more relaxed.

It was cool to say we went to Switzerland and we would love to go back someday and really visit the country more.
We got back to Grenoble just in time for our dinner reservations we had made the day before.  It was beautiful up on the hillside watching the sunset but we are not as impressed with the food so far in this outer area.  Probably because the food in Paris was so amazing.  I think the best thing we have had here is our picnic lunch!

The time seems like it's flying by but we are loving the fact that we have many more adventures ahead of us!

Oh and yeah we have walked another 12 miles in the last two days - it adds up fast!

Tomorrow we head off for Antibes for 3 nights and then Venice..:)

More later....