European Vacation- Lookout Chevy Chase

As a graduation present for Jaimie, we all decided to jet across the pond and spend some time traveling in France and Switzerland. "Why France?", you might well ask. Well Jaimie has been studying French in school for 4 years, wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and assured me many times that her proficiency in the language was sufficient to ensure flawless communications under any circumstance. More on that last point later.

In order to "save money" our itinerary took us on a milk run from Denver to Philadelphia to New Jersey to New York to Reykjavík (Iceland) and finally to Paris. Paris was where the money savings came to an abrupt halt and the bankroll got busted in a big way. Costs in this part of Europe were actually quite astonishing to me. $12 milkshakes, $6 cup of tea, $20 entrees on the breakfast menu. Be sure to take out a loan before you go out to dinner.

What can I say about Paris...it's old and every building looks the same. Seriously, for all the talk about it being an artsy kind of place, there's not a bit of color anywhere. It's all old, weathered limestone, or stucco as far as the eye can see. The Louvre was interesting but so large you can't possibly see the whole thing in a reasonable period of time. You must be prepared for plenty of Madonna and Child portraits, and lots of small breasted Rubenesque women, but for a welcome change I recommend the archaeological sections. The Eiffel Tower is quite a engineering marvel. I would highly recommend seeing it at night when it's lit or else it's just another chunk of iron. Definitely be prepared for queues. This was supposed to low season...I'd hate to see high season. Versailles Palace is over rated in my opinion especially with the crowds. I was surprised at how aggressive the old European women are in a packed space. They throw elbows and horse their way through the masses like the place was on fire. (Ask Jaimie about fighting off a German lady for a toilet in the women's room.)

I almost forgot about Jaimie and Cathy's highlight visit to the French Open at Roland Garros stadium. Cathy and Jaimie managed to get their picture taken with Rafael Nadal. Hmmm... he looks a little stiff in this shot.

After four days in Paris we rented a car and started driving towards Switzerland. Luckily I had the forethought to buy a Garmin GPS navigation device before heading over there. The signage is terrible, the road numbering is poor to non-existent, and asking directions involves a bunch of hand waving and over simplifications. It didn't take us 10 minutes after getting in the car to get hopelessly lost (we asked directions at the rental place) and if not for the GPS I think, like Chevy Chase, I would still be driving around traffic circles trying to get out of Versailles. The countryside was a welcome change from the city, but watch out for the toll roads. (Did I mention things were expensive.) Next up was a couple of days in the Loire Valley...Frances wine country.

This may actually have turned out to be the highlight of the trip. By shear chance, Jaimie had picked an inexpensive Bed and Breakfast by searching the Internet before we left. We voted this the best place we stayed, and the folks that ran the place were fantastic. Extremely friendly and personable this retired Swiss couple are still in the process of remodeling an old country vineyard in a tiny little town in the middle of no where -Oisly (pronounced Wall-E). Without doubt, this was also the nicest room we would have during the whole trip. High beam ceiling, spacious, and elegant interior design like this were not to be had at triple the price for the remainder of the trip. Surprisingly there's a 5 star gourmet restaurant a block away and after being invited to sit and taste local wine with Eduard and Sue we headed down there for dinner. It turns out that just about everyone in Paris can communicate to some extent in English, but that was bound to change when we got out in the country, and sure enough the proprietor of the restaurant didn't speak a lick.

Dad- "Jaimie, what's this say on the menu."

Jaimie- "I don't know!"

Dad- "Jaimie, what did she say about the cheese."

Jaimie- "I don't know!"

Ahhh...the flawless communication. Definitely money well spent. I still don't know exactly what I was eating that night but it was pretty good.

We stopped in Chamonix for a couple of days. It's a cool little ski town in the French alps surrounded by some historical peaks like Mt Blanc, and L'Auigille d'Midi. We took the cable car up to the top of L'Auigille d'Midi for some great views and a close up of Mt. Blanc, and then got off half way down and did a hiking traverse below the peaks (the Balcon Nord) over to the glacier Mer de Glace. Our luck had changed on the weather, and unlike the constant rain over the last 6 days, we were now experiencing some clear sunny sky's. Great hike, great views....it's good to be back in the mountains.

After crossing into Switzerland, Zermat was the next stop. It's another cool little ski town that is only accessible by train. The locals haul gear around on small electric carts so the town it quiet, traffic wise, but of course it's still overrun with tourists. The Matterhorn is the main attraction here and with the weather still holding we got some great views right off the roof of our tiny hotel roof. I really wanted to take the trams up to the base of the Matterhorn, but costs were prohibitive so we opted for a less expensive cog train to get up on the other side of the valley and into another nice hike. Most amusing sign of the trip was found here on the micro 3 person elevator. Switzerland also had a gas station brand called Combustia.

The weather changed after that and so we skipped our next scheduled stop near the Eiger and continued on to the Interlaken area for lunch and then continued to Gruyeres for the night. Gruyeres is known for it's cheese and so we did the mandatory cheese factory tour. It was actually pretty interesting. Turns out there's something like 75 different identifiable favors in the cheese based on all the flowers and herbs that the cows are dining on. We got a sample pack of 6, 8, and 10 month old cheese with the tour. I was able to identify one flavor...cheese.

That was pretty much the highlights. After that it was a sprint back to Charles de Gaulle airport and a short driving epic in Paris due to some errant programming on the Garmin.

Trip highlights: food, Loire valley B&B with Edouard and Sue, wine, Chamonix/Zermat. Lowlights: cost, tiny elevators, tiny spiral staircases (every hotel has one), driving on poorly marked roads. Paris- must miss (unless you're really into old noisy cities and have more money then you know what to do with).