There is no rain on vacation!!!

This morning we woke up to rain, rain, rain. We had intended to go into the city and climb the Eiffel Tower but the weather encouraged us to hit the road. So, after a nice breakfast (where we carried away a lot of snacks on our pockets) we hit the road.

Some of you may know that we intended to use our GPS on this trip but could not get maps. We still may figure this out but we thought a stop at an electronics store could help. We stopped at what must be the French version of Walmart and learned that the maps are only available online. We will see what we can do. 

The store also had a large grocery where we loaded up on baguettes, cheese, cookies, peanut butter and other snacks for our long drive to Chamonix. The drive was beautiful, when the rain wasn't completely obscuring our view and slowing our progress.  Oh, and the tolls are really incredible - over 40 Euros from Paris to our destination in the Chamonix region. Yikes!

We had found an awesome campground in St. Gervais les Bains, a little mountain ski town in the French Alps. When we arrived there it had been pouring on us for hours and the campground looked soaked. We checked a few places and opted for a small family run pension. 

The lovely woman filling in for the owner cooked us a wonderful meal: steak for Crystal and Bob (lamb maybe? not beef), omelette for me, salad, bread, veggies, dessert, wine and a plate of French cheeses. 

There are apparently over 400 cheeses in France and they have an entire course devoted to cheese.  The woman described the cheese by holding her nose to indicate the stinkiness of the cheese.  We all enjoyed our cheese although Crystal said that one variety tasted like, "your grandma's old shoes".  What Crystal is doing tasting shoes is beyond me. 

We slept well and woke up to a dry day.