2004 - France and the Alps
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| 2004 - France and the Alps
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 Introduction Places to Visit Timeframe Transportation Planning Itinerary Lodging |
The two of us spending a week in France and a week in Italy, with a brief final stop in the Appenzell, including a visit with my niece, Anna, a meeting with a new Internet friend, and a visit to a lovely new hotel opened by a good friend to replace our beloved Vigiljoch, which closed in 1999.
The Dordogne region of France (Beynac-et-Cazenac), Provence (Moustiers-Ste-Marie), the Italian Lakes (Orta San Giulio), the Dolomites (Santa Cristina), the Italian Alps (Merano and Resia/Reschen), and the Appenzell (Schönengrund).
We went the last two weeks of May. The weather was beautifully sunny and warm - even hot - while we were in France the first week. The second week we got some clouds in northern Italy, but it was still very pleasant. The only real rain that fell was the very last day of our trip when we were driving to the airport in Zürich.
We flew United non-stop from San Francisco to Paris where we rented a car for the duration. Everything went very smoothly and we didn't have to wait for anything. It was probably the most uneventful trip we've ever taken when you simply consider the transportation aspect, and in that regard, uneventful is GOOD.
Our return trip was out of Zürich, or so we thought. It actually ended up being a short flight from Zürich to München (Munich), then München to San Francisco. These were both on United's partner, Lufthansa. I had Zürich on the brain when I made the reservations, knowing we'd be coming from the Italian Alps and thinking that was the closest place to catch a United flight home. The short hop to München didn't even register in my brain. If it had, we'd probably just have flown home from München, possibly saving some money, and definitely saving some time. München is a much shorter drive from Merano than is Zürich. But we wanted to return to the Appenzell area we had glimpsed a few years back, so we didn't worry about the little extra driving time. As you'll see, in retrospect we would definitely have done it the other way if we'd known what the Appenzell was going to be like. It didn't live up to expectations, unfortunately.
We used a trick we've gotten to like for transportation TO the airport from home and then back home from the airport on our return. We live about 70 miles from the nearest international airport (San Francisco or Oakland - they're about equal in distance from us). Leaving the car in long-term parking is prohibitively expensive, even in the off-airport lots (which are also inconvenient). Taking the airport bus from our town isn't cheap, ($20 per person each way), but we have to get to the pick-up point, so that means a taxi, and another when we return, jacking the price up. It's also inconvenient in that they run less frequently than we'd like (every two hours) meaning you either have to get to the airport earlier than you wanted for your departing flight, or you have to wait at the airport a long time when you get home on your arriving flight, or both. Our solution is Hertz's neighborhood rental program. We rent a one-way car from our town to the airport, then another from the airport to home. The cost averages out to about the same as two bus tickets plus two taxi rides, we get the car the night before we leave so it's there when we're ready to go, and when we get home from our trip it's waiting for us in the Hertz parking lot. VERY convenient. We're sold on that approach and use it every time now.
As we were buying our air travel tickets this year (saving our miles for another First Class trip next year), we didn't have to get them as far in advance. We found a pretty good rate over the internet, but called United to do the final booking because certain combinations of departure and arrival flights just wouldn't come up for us on the computer.
We made our car reservations over the phone through Hertz. We've always had good luck with them - no surprises - but this time the pay-in-advance price was considerably higher than the price for paying over there, so we decided to give it a try. Iit worked out just fine, but I'm generally more comfortable to have it paid up front - we've had nasty surprises with other car rental companies when we paid over there.
Lodging reservations were made by a combination of telephone and e-mail. We originally planned to stay a night in Carcassonne, but could not find a single room available within our budget (~$100 per night) and 50 miles of the place, so we decided to skip it. That ended up being okay, as we had ample opportunity to visit other mediaeval towns while in France. We were lucky enough to secure reservations at our first choice of places for the areas where we did end up staying, and were not disappointed, except for the Appenzell (more below). One place required a deposit check in US$ that they ended up throwing away when we arrived and paid our bill. Another wanted a check in Euros, but when I explained that it was costly to get one they said they would just trust us to show up. One place asked for a credit card number, and the rest took us at our word that we would arrive as promised.
For cash during our trip, we used our ATM. Machines were available everywhere, including the small towns where we stayed, and the exchange rate isn't bad. Plus you don't have to worry about bank holidays, lunchtime closings, etc. Be sure your card has a 4-digit PIN - the machines in Europe don't work with 5-digit codes.
This is a brief listing of where we went and when. For a description of each location, read the highlights page for that area.
Day 1 Sunday: Arrived in Paris, drove to Beynac-et-Cazenac on the Dordogne River (a VERY long drive).
Day 2 Monday: Spent the day around Beynac, visiting the Castle, walking around the town, and enjoying a scenic boat cruise down the river.
Day 3 Tuesday: Drove to the mediaeval town of Sarlat, then visited the villages of Castelnaud and Domme before returning to Beynac for dinner.
Day 4 Wednesday: Went to the town of Les Eyzies, where we toured the Font de Gaume cave and were impressed by the polychromatic cave paintings.. Spent the afternoon and evening back in Beynac.
Day 5 Thursday: Drove to Roussillon in Provence. It was another long drive, and we were exhausted when we got there.
Day 6 Friday: Spent the morning in Aix-en-Provence with Anna (my niece), then the three of us drove to Moustiers-Ste. Marie.
Day 7 Saturday: In the morning we went to Lac St. Croix and rented a pedal boat that we took up through the Gorge du Verdon and back. In the afternoon and evening we walked around Moustiers.
Day 8 Sunday: Left Moustiers and dropped Anna off at the train station in Nice, then continued on to Orta San Giulio in the Italian Lakes Area (another very long drive). This is a beautiful small town on the edge of Lago di Orta (Lake Orta). We spent the evening strolling through its narrow streets and relaxing at a sidewalk cafe.
Day 9 Monday: Spent the day with an Italian Internet friend, first hiking up on Mottarone mountain, then strolling along the shore of Lago Maggiore in Stresa. We returned to Orta for dinner and a leisurely evening.
Day 10 Tuesday: Drove to the Val Gardena in the Dolomites. We took the "scenic route" through the Eggertal valley, so it was yet another long drive, but we didn't mind this one. Part of what made it so long was stopping every 5 minutes for a photo. Finally made it to our B&B in Santa Cristina in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day and evening walking through the somewhat deserted streets of that village (still too early for tourist season).
Day 11 Wednesday: Drove around the Dolomites, through several mountain passes and valleys, eventually ending up in the beautiful Val di Funes. We spent the evening back in Santa Cristina.
Day 12 Thursday: Drove to Merano in the Italian Alps, stopping along the way at a castle restaurant, Schloss Fahlburg, for lunch. Even the scenic route was relatively short and we arrived in the early afternoon, spending the rest of the day in Merano.
Day 13 Friday: Took the cable car up the mountain from Lana to Vigiljoch to see what had been done to our favorite hotel. It was a shame to see the old chalet torn down and replaced with a modern wood and glass structure that looked like it was under scaffolding. We quickly went to the chair lift for a ride to the top and a short hike in the rain to the Seespitz guest house for some hot cocoa before turning around and going back to Merano.
Day 14 Saturday: Drove to Switzerland, stopping along the way at the Reschen Pass, just south of the Austrian border. We had lunch at our friend Karl's new hotel, the Reschnerhof, then continued on our way through the tunnels of Austria to the Appenzell area of Switzerland, arriving in the late afternoon.
Day 15 Sunday: Drove up to the Schwägalp Pass and took the cable car to the top of the mountain, then back down for a short hike through the hills. Spent the afternoon driving aound the Appenzell, looking for a decent place to eat (not much there for non meat-eaters).
Day 16 Monday: Took our time getting ready, then made the short drive to the Zürich airport where we turned in our rental car and started the long journey home.
| Beynac-et-Cezanac Café de la Rivière | A lovely stone restaurant with rooms, overlooking the Dordogne. Would we stay here again? Definitely | Beynac 24220 Aquataine, FRANCE Tel: +33 553 28 35 49 Fax: same E-Mail: cafe-de-la-riviere@wanadoo.fr |
| Roussillon Maison Côté Sud | A sprawling country home with panoramic views over the hills of Provence. Would we stay here again? Yes | Chemin de la Mutte 84220 Roussillon, FRANCE Tel: +33 490 05 72 98 E-Mail: de.pauw@club-internet.fr |
| Moustiers-Ste. Marie Les Relais ** | Nice hotel on the main street of Moustiers, with windows opening over the rushing waterfalls. Would we stay here again? Yes | 04630 Moustiers Ste. Marie, FRANCE Tel: +33 492 74 66 10 Fax: +33 492 74 60 47 E-Mail: Le.Relais@wanadoo.fr |
| Orta San Giulio La Contrada dei Monti *** | A lovely hotel in the heart of the old town of Orta, with all the modern conveniences. Would we stay here again? Definitely | Via Contrada dei Monti 10 28016 Orta San Giulio (NO), ITALY Tel: +39 0322 905 112 Fax: +39 0322 905 863 E-Mail: lacontradadeimonti@libero.it |
| Santa Cristina Garni Walter ** | A small, privately run B&B with optional kitchenettes and stunning views of the Sassolungo group of Dolomites. Would we stay here again? Definitely | Str. Val 6 39047 St. Christina, ITALY Tel: +39 0471 793 337 Fax: same E-Mail: garni-walter@val-gardena.com |
| Reschen/Resia Hotel Reschnerhof *** | Beautiful small hotel on the northern edge of the lake, with a fabulous restaurant. Would we stay here again? Definitely | I-39027 Resia South Tyrol - ITALY Tel.: +39 0473 633169 Fax: +39 0473 632297 E-Mail: info@reschnerhof.it |
| Schönengrund Gasthaus Krone | Homey guesthouse in the Appenzell region. Less than 2 hours from Zurich airport by car. Would we stay here again? Probably not* * We were not thrilled with the area this time - it wasn't as inviting as we had remembered and the people running the Krone were not really into it anymore. | Postfach 35 Hauptstr. 43 CH-9105 Schönengrund SWITZERLAND Tel: +41 71 361 11 66 Fax: same E-Mail: hotel.krone.schoenengrund@bluewin.ch |
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Last modified: 07/06/2004 11:48:33 AM
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