January 12 - Happy Birthday

We were up early packing up the groceries and getting ready for a five-hour drive to the Haut-Savoie region of France. We had rented an apartment near Annecy in Veyrier-du-Lac. 

We had agreed to get started around 10 AM. Just at that time our doorbell rang, but instead of Mike and Pat, there was Frau Luthardt. She said she had heard it was Ron’s birthday and wished him a happy birthday. She then had many more things to talk about, so we ended up speaking with her at least 30-minutes, so started later than planned.

We finally departed about 10:30 or so, managing to exit the garage without further scrapes! It was snowing as we drove out of Baden-Baden, and very beautiful. But, of course, it made the roads a bit treacherous with temperatures slightly below freezing. Frau Luthardt had advised us to take the autoroute through France rather than the parallel autobahn through Germany due to major construction delays. We crossed the Rhine River at a very wide part – passing over a large lock. We then went along the French autoroute and saw numerous emergency vehicles on the opposite side of the road, and as we passed by saw that several cars had slid off the road into a deep ditch. Not easy driving on icy roads!

We stopped at an auto rest stop near St. Hippolyte and I looked at a map and bought a small book about the wine villages of the Alsace. This is in the Vosges Mountain Range, a low range not at all like the Alps. We then exited the autoroute at the next possibility and made our way on small roads through some of the adorable villages of the Alsatian Wine Route. We stopped in Ribeauville and parked the van, and walked to try to find a place for lunch. We ended up in the Hotel Ami Fritz. It was a cave-like building downstairs with an open fireplace.

Ron's dozen snails

Christmas Decorations still up in Ribeauville

We left the village and Ron stopped shortly afterward, and Mike took over the driving and drove us through Switzerland (via Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Geneva) and into France. Ron was trying to use the mobile phone to call the landlady in Veyrier-du-Lac, and the phone would not work in Switzerland. As soon as we crossed the border, he was able to reach her, but her English was very limited (as was our French), and she was upset that we were arriving a couple hours later than originally planned (due to snow conditions and long lunch).  She was caring for her grandchildren and said she could not come at 6:30 when we would arrive. Then we lost the signal and could not seem to reach her again. We stopped in a rest area with no facilities to change drivers again. Finally Madame called back, and I was selected to speak with her - not that I have any more skills with the French language than anyone else. We had many problems understanding each other, but she did agree to meet us in about ten minutes.

Ron drove us into Annecy  – we apparently missed a GPS instruction, as we should have been routed to the opposite shore of the lake. Anyway, Annecy is called the Venice of the Savoie, and the old town is lined with canals along the pedestrian streets. As it turned out, we never made time to walk in the beautiful town. We had to make yet another u-turn and head back out of Annecy. We were having a difficult time getting the GPS to recognize the name of the street in Veyrier-du-Lac. The sun had set, and driving in the dark was not so easy.

We finally arrived at our destination, a pharmacy where we were to meet Madame DeBuys, and she directed us to follow her up the hill in our van. She actually ran up the hill. The garage (again) looked very tight, and she said it would be OK to leave our van on the driveway to the apartment for the night. We then had to walk along a sidewalk and up a flight of stairs. As Madame was giving us a tour of the apartment, Mike went to start bringing in luggage. While he was occupied with that undertaking, the rest of us learned that the hot water in one of the bathrooms was out-of-order and could not be fixed until Monday at the earliest. We also learned that in Europe, the number of bathrooms does not necessarily equal the number of commodes. There was a downstairs powder room, but no toilets in the two upstairs baths - only one toilet in a separate room. This fact, along with no hot water in one bathroom, caused us consternation, and we told Madame we wished to think overnight as to whether we would stay for four nights. She agreed and said she would return at 10 AM the next morning. Meanwhile, she carried several of our heavy bags up the stairs to our bedrooms. The interesting part of that is that she is a grandmother, but with a figure and clothing of a much younger, very fit woman. The spiral marble stairs had NO hand railing and were quite a challenge to the rest of us! Should have taken a picture of the stairs.

Waterfall in apartment

Small fireplace (gel and candles) 

Modern Kitchen with induction cooktop

Ron and Madame DeBuys trying to make WI-FI work

Yamaha Piano and dining area

Madame said we could probably not have dinner at the local restaurants since we didn't have a reservation. We were all too tired and stressed to go into Annecy, as parking is such a problem. So, for our "gourmet" meal that evening we whipped up tuna melts. Not exactly what we had planned for Ron's birthday celebration!

Tuna Melt Dinner