The place the GPS forgot (St Forgeaux)

Market in Annecy

View across Lac D'Annecy

 We finally made it to our little campsite in St Forgeaux (much more by good luck than good management and with no assistance at all from the GPS). We were warned by other travellers that the GPS has a mind of its own and will take you on the most bizarre path – well now we agree. Yesterday’s adventure paled in comparison to the drama of this afternoon in trying to travel the 32km from Lyon to St Forgeaux. The day started brilliantly in Annecy (more about that later) and the GPS even behaved itself on the trip to Lyon. After that, it appeared to have been taken over by some poltergeist that had an obsession to turn right, whether there was a road or not. We turned right when we were able, usually into narrow one way streets that convinced me that Stephen’s driving skills rival those of the Positano drivers. I definitely think St Christopher had a mighty hand in getting us here alive.  After nearly two hours lost on a voyage that should have been about 14 miles, we admitted defeat, ( I think I was hyperventilating by then) turned data back on the iphone and worked out where the hell we were, thus enabling us to work out where the hell we needed to go.  We think maybe yesterday’s adventure with the closed tunnel was just a foretaste of things to come. Our second revelation was to read the written directions in the Aires de Service book when you get close, they actually do lead you to the sign for the Aire!

Anyway, here we are in another little French village, free camping, free electricity and free water, can’t complain about that. We have one friendly French neighbour (Marie Claire) whose English was OK enough to have a chat and after dinner and a nice little Moscato from the Bordeux region, all is good. We swapped email addresses and Marie Claire I hope your travels continue to go well and you do get to Australia one day.

View down the canal with flowers in
pots on the lock 

I have decided if we emigrate I am moving to Annecy! Snow covered Alps above the shores of a crystal clear Lac du Annecy, little canals running through the centre of town, beautiful gardens of all sorts of bulbs and our first authentic French Market. We strolled around just soaking up the myriad of stalls of all the French delights that I have seen on SBS cooking shows for years. We bought goats cheese Chevre and Saucisson, fresh vegies, good wine and even treated ourselves to morning tea at Le Peche Mignon Patissier- Chocolatier- Glacier, and yes the treats were as good as that sounds! We must have a connection with Annecy – everywhere we looked were Golden Retrievers just like Kally and not to be outdone we then saw an unclipped Shantii! We also found ourselves in the midst of another marathon, after the same thing happened in Florence. Must be marathon season here. We found it hard to pack up and hit the road towards Lyon. Had we known what awaited us perhaps we would have stayed.

See Caitlin - an unclipped Shantii!

Apart from being really lost, the countryside in this part of the world is breathtaking to us coastal Aussies. The day started out cold and sunny with no wind, so we had great views up the Rhone valley on the way here. It is quite heavily populated, but they seem to be mainly small towns and villages. The toll roads, when you get on them are at 130km/hr, but we are finding that the convenience comes at a hefty price. Today’s trip of just under 100km on the toll road cost 19 euro, so about $27.00. Won’t be complaining about the Gateway Arterial anymore!

Tomorrow, we will give the GPS one more chance, perhaps we should change the voice to a bloke! We are going to try fastest route with tolls, after shortest route is apparently a disaster waiting to happen. Heading for the Bordeaux region, hoping to get to Sarlat la Caneda where there are caves and grottos to explore although that may be too much for the GPS as it may try to take us to Quebec.

PS – Photos again for the blog – found the reason for ‘fuzzy’ photos of Marseille a grubby fingerprint on the inside of the zoom lens.

Love to all

S&E