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  • Day 5

    Travel Day to Chamonix, France

    March 18, 2023 in France ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Today we traveled from Como to Chamonix France. The drive took approximately 3 hours. The drive was easy, all highways and several tolls. Round trip this excursion will cost approx $200 in tolls. We stopped at our first Auto Grill. Its supposed to have great convenience store food. A smaller gourmet Buckeys. There is a tunnel through the mountain that connects Italy to France. It was over 7.3 miles long. It took 19 years to dig! We were talking about Oceans 13 and wonder if that’s the same “digger” they are referring to. We found our way to our apartment. It was a little smaller than expected and the location was not what Gabe was wanting. We have decided to stay here for 1 night and then we are moving locations. We went into downtown Chamonix and walked around. We decided on a place for dinner after looking at several menus. I of course wanted Onion Soup. We decided on a place and had our first cheese Fondue. The area of France is known for their Racellete cheese. We decided to wait to have that at another place. I got soup and mussels. Everything was ehh…checked the google rating and its a 3.3. We don’t really like to follow those rankings but probably going to have to rely on them more during our trip. So if you’re keeping track that 2 restaurants that were a HANGRY choice. The kids got gelato again but I got my first Crepe. Sugar and Lemon. It was amazing. Better than my dinner.

    I was very excited because this apartment had a washer / dryer como unit. Dryers are a luxury in Europe. The cycle options were in French, as expected. I translated them with Google Lens on the Google translate app. So handy. I know I only have 1 college degree and its not as Masters but I think I should be able to operate a washer in another country. WHY!!! Does it have to be so difficult ??? Yes, I looked up the manual. There was not an English version. Yes, I looked for YouTube videos. The dryer setting is for 2 hours and 20 minutes. I wanted to stop the cycle and check the clothes. Not possible. The auto lock won’t release for 3 hours according to you tube, if you stop the cycle before it’s finished. This morning I fought with the machine for 45 minutes trying to get the auto lock to disengage before I just yanked the door open. ERRRRRR….The saga will continue.

    *Editors Note- On the drive to Chamonix, we were very excited to stop at McDonald’s. For some reason European McDonald’s are better than the US. The kids were very excited.
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