Dana arrived from Slovakia today.
Despite a flurry of emails and texts back and forth after we returned from Italy, until this morning, we were still unclear when or where we needed to meet her. Around mid-morning we received a text to say that she would be waiting for us at the border between Switzerland and France. She was travelling with a Czek friend on a tour bus on its way to the Three Valleys ski area.
Great we thought! We know how to get there! Or so we thought. The ever geographically challenged Oxley's missed the relevant auto-route exit and we found ourselves on the way to Paris!! Major swear words!!**?@!!
These autoroutes are all well and good, but if you miss an exit, you are stuck on the road for what always seems like an eternity. When this happened to us in Slovakia, we ended up travelling nearly half way back on our tracks. Ooops! I didn't mean to admit that! Dana is reading our blog!!
But even worse, when you do finally exit the auto-route, there's a toll, and to add insult to injury you have to take another ticket and pay again when you finally exit at the right place. I think shares in the French auto-route system has got to be a winner. Think of all those other directionally challenged tourists out there travelling through France in the busy summer season! Surely there are others out there, like us?????? Please tell us reassure us, it's true!
Arriving at the French/Swiss border near Geneva, the Swiss bureaucrats were out in force. Throughout Europe, Saturday is "change-over" day. The roads, train stations and airports are always jam packed. Saturday's are the worst days to travel, particularly during any holiday period. We shudder as we remember our German autoroute nightmare on the way to visit Dana last month.
So here we are on a Saturday, joining the queue at the Swiss border. We only want to do a "U- Turn" and go back and pick up Dana who has been dropped on the other side of the border. But of course, with our bright red number plates, we attract the unwelcome attention of the ever efficient Swiss border guards. They are wanting us to buy an annual Swiss road pass - about SF40 Swiss Francs (NZ$62). How to get out of this one?
Forget the french! I think the "seriously dumb Anglo tourist" routine is the way to go! So I lean over Graeme and sweetly explain to the officer that "we really wanted to be in Italy but we took the wrong auto-route exit somewhere back there!" I wave my arms wildly for emphasis! The guard fixes me with his steely gaze...hmmm? "Definitely a loopy Anglo tourist" he is thinking. "Is it worth the paperwork?" And....luckily for us, he decided to let us off, do a U-Turn and pick up the ever patient Dana back in France!
For such remarkably loose plans, Dana's pick up has gone relatively smoothly. After 20 hours on the bus(!!) she only waited 20 minutes for our arrival. Understandably, she is a little shattered from such a long trip on the bus. But this lady is seriously tough and she so wanted to come skiing with us that if she'd had to hitch a ride in the back of a cattle truck all the way from Slovakia, I think she would have!!
A quick stop for some French coffee in Cluses and a visit to an outstanding Patissiere for cake and we were on our way back to Le Refuge and the start of our ski week with Dana. Her first time in the French Alps for 14 years!!
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