Chamonix, France: Days 4, 5, and 6

Once again we awoke to the sound of rain pattering against the skylight above us. It was our last day in Chamonix and we had a huge adventure planned of hiking a couple of kilometers to try out another crag that had some bomber looking multipitch climbs we wanted to try out. Sadly, the weather had other ideas in mind… Once again we settled in for a day stuck in the apartment watching movies. However, we couldn’t stay cooped up. The weather seemed to be clearing around the valley so we altered our plans. We both agreed that hiking a…

Chamonix, France: Day 3

This morning we woke up to the same sound we fell asleep listening to, the rain pattering against the skylight above us. We checked the forecast and were disappointed to see that it was supposed to rain all day. Our plans of hiking an hour to a sweet climbing spot would have to be put on the back burner. We went out to buy a few more final souvenirs and snacks and then stopped at the office of our rental company to pick up a game/DVD pack they rent out for 10 Euros. The pack contains several dozen DVDs and…

Chamonix, France: Day 2

This morning I was awoken by a blazing sun shining through the skylight over our bed. It was only 7:00 a.m. and yet the sun seemed more powerful than it ever has. It was enough to get me out of bed and when I looked out the window I saw something I haven’t seen since the day we got here, clear skies! There were almost no clouds to be found and I hollered at Bobby to get out of bed! Why was this so exciting you might ask? Well, if we could get on the first ride of the gondola…

Chamonix, France: Day 1

Well today I write about the antics of both today and yesterday. Yesterday didn’t really deserve it’s own post considering we basically did nothing. Bobby came down with the flu in the morning and spent the majority of the day in bed. He did his best to put on a happy face and even managed to convince me that he was up to a short hike. I told him I would be okay with it as long as he chose an easy valley hike. He assured me he would and off we went. As we started along the trail it…

Paris to Chamonix, France: Travel Day

Travel Day! Our time in Paris was over and it was time for the adventure portion of our vacation to begin! We met with Phillipe, the owner of the apartment, for checkout at 10:00 a.m. He cleared us to leave, returned our security deposit, and pointed us in the direction of the Metro station (although we already knew… Geesh, does he think we’re newbies to Paris or something?). We used our last Metro ticket to board train #1 and headed to Gare de Lyon train station where we would catch a high speed train that would take us to Geneva.…

Paris, France: Day 7

Our final day in Paris! We had a big day of final sightseeing planned for today but our exhaustion got the better of us! We had planned on spending the morning at the Louvre and the afternoon along the streets of Montmartre. We decided to be lazy and take the Metro to the Louvre and spent the morning amongst the hoards of visitors that were pushy and overly aggressive. Despite the Louvre’s massiveness there were very few corners uncrowded. However, the works of art that we saw were beautiful and wondrous. We spent a large majority of our time in…

Paris, France: Day 6

Today began like many others have on this trip, with morning arriving a little too quickly for us. We were planing a day trip to Versailles, Rick Steve’s guidebook encouraged us to leave Paris by 8:00 in the morning, in order to arrive there by 9:00 (or shortly before) to beat the lines. We didn’t arise until a little after 8:00… The morning was pristine and the walk to the Metro stop was pleasant. We purchased the specialty tickets we would need to get to Versailles and were soon waiting on the train platform alongside hoards of other tourists all…

Paris, France: Day 5

Bobby was under the impression that the tourism booths opened at 9:00 in the morning. So, he thought it would be best if we got up a little early and got there close to the opening time to find out if the strike was still going on. After forcing ourselves to get out of bed a little after 8:00 we made our way to the booth and found it closed. Turns out they don’t open until 10:00 in the morning… After looking over our remaining itineraries for Paris we decided to head to the Musee de Orsay, hoping that it…

Paris, France: Day 4

Last night we had another successful night at a restaurant! We were seated, ordered, got the check, and a box only communicating in French. Our next step is to do it without getting out the phrasebook to double or triple check that we’re doing it right. Eating pizza out on a patio (arcade) with space heaters going (it was a little chilly and windy) was the perfect way to end that somewhat lazy day of ours. We had been told that the tourism employees would be striking today. Our days original plan had been to go to Versailles the only…