Aix les Bains, France

What a whirlwind of a vacation but it's been very interesting and fun! John & I were talking tonight how that there are definitely things we'd do different but it's been quite an experience.

Attempting to learn enough of two languages to get along has been 'challenging' to say the least....
When we left Comogli on Monday morning, we thought we left in plenty of time to get to Genova, which is only about 20-30 minutes away by car. We didn't, however, bank on Monday morning traffic which was at a standstill quite a bit of the time. Our train left at 9:21 and we arrived at Avis at 9:00. At 9:05 we grabbed a taxi and asked the cab driver how far - and he informed us 15 minutes. John began to twitch, to put it mildly, and we were in for the run of our lives. We arrived at the train station about 2 minutes before the train left and began running through the station. We actually made our train - I couldn't believe it. We were both hunched over gasping for breath as the train took off. The main problem was that if we missed this train, we'd miss our connection and wouldn't get to France til close to midnight instead of about 6:00 p.m.

From there on our travels were uneventful, thank the Lord.The first thing I did when we got into France was BREATHE. Everything was so open and just beautiful that I could hardly stand myself. It looked exactly like the tour de France pictures you see when you watch. Just these rolling, green, lush hills and then in the distance snow-capped peaks of some huge mountains. It was amazing. The city of Aix les Bains was very very cute - strange and stressful traffic but our hotel was this huge old building in the middle of town.

The first thing we learned was that this beautiful hotel had no a/c, but did have a fan so we were heartened. After a great dinner we headed back to be greeted by an incredibly stifling room with no airflow even with the fan on. It was a long evening.....John took Ambien so he was happier than me.
Stage 9 of the Tour! We decided to catch the stage a little over halfway in a little town called Albertville. It was a great place! We met a great family that we had lunch with and hung out with them for the remainder. The riders came through on a down-hill and they FLEW. It was something. You do wait around for about 4 hours but there are great "parades" that come through while you're waiting and they throw goodies and food to you. ;>)
That evening was probably even worse for the heat in our hotel. We did find out that two of the Tour teams were staying in our hotel - Cofidis and Sky and we saw some of them at breakfast! Of course, both John & I were exhausted from being out in the sun all day but there was this really bad bad thumping away til midnight right next door to us, so that coupled with the heat meant that we didn't get much sleep.....even Lance Armstrong commented on Twitter that it was "possibly the hottest night's sleep I've ever had."

Because of our location in Aix les Bains we were actually able to catch the beginning of Stage 10. We're both soooo glad that we did because it was incredible! Of course, you do wait around for HOURS but we got right up next to the start so we were able to see the main riders (jersey riders) up close and personal! It was amazing! Here are a few photos - you can pick out Lance in the last one! I stood up on the railing at the very front and got some great shots!
From there we headed to Geneva - only about an hour or so, and our hotel here has a/c, thank God. We both fell asleep immediately for almost 2 hours......

Tomorrow is a day in Geneva and then we head to London to visit Amy and Karl. We are ready to come home - it's been great but we're missing everyone.....