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July 3, 2013 - France
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They were right about rain in the forecast. Woke to the alarm at 7:55 to a steady rain. The sky was totally socked in. No sign of Mt. Blanc. We were lucky to have the past 2 days with good weather. Now how to kill a day in Chamonix before we escape tomorrow in our rental car. Another spartan French hostel breakfast (am looking forward to German breakfasts). We had 3 objectives for the day; to confirm our rental car booking with EuropCar, buy a bar of soap, and go swimming at the public pool. The Europcar office is directly across from the train station, only a 10 minute walk from our hostel. There was one customer in front of us, and it took a solid 20 minutes for him to transact his business. It then took us a solid 1 minute to confirm our reservation. It seems to take a very long time in France to do things like rent a car or buy a train ticket. Then, on to the grocery store to buy soap. Bar soap is uncommon in France, and not knowing the word for "soap" it took us a bit of time to find it, but finally success. The pool wasn't supposed to open until "mid-day" according to someone we talked to, so Evan talked me into going running. I haven't run for the sake of running in decades I think. We set out through the park were we threw discs the other day. I ran much further than I expected I could before resorting to run-walk-run. It felt good. Maybe I'll do this more. Ran until sweat started happening, which was my goal. Evan was nice to hang back with my slow pace. It was close to noon, so we headed to the pool. It looked like a great facility. Multiple indoor pools, one big outdoor pool, a weight room, etc. While in line we saw some signs indicating that street shorts, or shorts that were in any way baggy and with legs were not allowed. Speedos only. It took many minutes for those in front of us to buy tickets (naturally), and when it was our turn I pointed to my shorts and was told in no uncertain terms that they were not suitable for swimming. Evan had on surf trunks, I had on nylon shorts with a mesh liner (no underwear). And to think I actually considered bringing my short-legged jammers swimsuit on this trip. We left. Sheesh.
Evan was hungry and we wanted lunch, so we found a brasserie that had pizza. I had brought 30 euros in cash with me and no wallet, thinking that was my limit for swimming. It would have been 7.80 euros had we gotten in. So we had 30 euros for lunch. Pizza and a beer for me, spaghetti and water for Evan. It turned out to be bottled water and she opened it before I realized it. 5.40 for for a bottle of water, nearly $7! When we got the bill it was 30.60 euros. I told here all we had was 30 euros and she haughtily said that she'd have to pay the .60 cents. Evan ran back to our hostel to get my wallet, which is probably about a 2 mile run. While he was gone I said that I would have said table water had I known she was going to bring bottled water. In every restaurant so far in France we've never had to specify eau de table. She scolded me saying that I must be clear about that. Evan finally got back with my wallet. I paid, and resolved to not spend another cent in Chamonix. Back to the hostel. Showered. Found out the hostel's internet was down. For lack of anything better to do after reading a bit we walked into town with the iPad and keyboard to catch up on email, and Facebook for Evan. Chamonix is a really boring place when it's raining. Will be glad to get out of here. Interesting to see all the frustrated mountaineers in incredibly expensive boots and clothes walking around in the rain. Our French roommate who speaks no English is back in our room again, driven off the mountain by the rain. He also has crampons, an ice axe and all the gear. Am really looking forward to getting behind the wheel of our car and hitting the highway.
White water rafting through downtown Chamonix.
Chamonix on a rainy day with clouds obscuring Mt. Blanc.
Macorons.
A climbing wall being set up.
A cloudy view towards Mt. Blanc from our hostel window.
Our hostel, Le Chamonix Volant.
The front office room of the hostel.
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