Pick up French hire car Thu 14 Sep 2023

Up at 6.45am. Breakfast at 7.10am. Packed and left the Hotel Vallee Blanch in Chamonix and caught the bus at 10am that Karen had previously booked to Geneva airport. There was impressive road engineering after Chamonix as we descended from the mountains. The bus dropped us at the Swiss side of Geneva airport. We planned to walk to the French side of the airport to pick up our hire car, but could not as we did not have a boarding pass for a plane trip. Airport staff advised to get an Uber however, we did not think to walk to the arrivals exit of Geneva airport. Uber charged us for a no show as we were outside airport departures and the car was at arrivals. We then tried to use a French taxi whose driver informed us we were required to use a Swiss taxi as we were in Switzerland. Then we walked to Genva Airport arrivals and packed into a Swiss taxi Prius which drove on a torturous route around the airport, then under the airport to the French hire car garage which was under an airport runway. This cost 50 euros. We were then able to pick up the hire car. Richard drove the Hybrid Ford Kuga to Annecy where we had lunch and walked down to the lake. More motorway tollway driving after lunch at 110 to 130 kilometres per hour. We had 3 GPS navigation systems to guide us. Karen’s phone and Google Maps, the Tom Tom I brought and the car GPS. Passed a nuclear power station as well as a truck carrying radioactive material. 2 nights at the Hotel West at Le Pont just north of Avignon. Dinner at a local pub in Le Pont with wine and excellent hamburgers with staff who spoke little or no English. The French menus were a challenge. Back at the Face West Hotel before 9pm for a shower and bed.Read more