The Plan

Yesterday Cathy and I went to a travel agency (Luc came to help) to try to put a 'plan' together for the next part of our trip; it was driving us CRAZY trying to do it ourselves (I didn't think it would be so difficult). At first I thought we would just be able to look at schedules and maps online and book our tickets, but being peak season most places and many trains are booked and prices are very expensive. Also, you can't just book a train from Nice, France to Interlocken, Switzerland and go, there are a few different connections and a bus ride you have to take to get there. Coordinating times, places to sleep, reservations, etc... is a headache and best left to the travel agency to figure out; I am very glad we did this as we were in the office for 3 hours!!

However, we now have our plan that takes us up until July, 25. We will leave Cagnes-Sur-Mer early Sunday morning to make our way up to Annecy, France.  This is a place where the Jaujous stayed and said it was pretty amazing (the pictures they showed us were great!). We will be there for two days then make our way up to Switzerland. Our first stop will be in Bern (hopefully we can see some Bernese Mountain Dogs) via Geneve for one day, then on to Interlocken. From Interlocken we will make our way up into the mountains to the SMALL town of Gimmelwald (we hope there is room for us for a day or so- there are only two places to stay in the town).  I am really excited for this place as the pictures I have seen are unbelievable!

After these few days in Switzerland we will head to Paris to watch the last day of the Tour on the Champs Elyese, but only after a 4-5 hour train ride. We leave Interlocken at 6:30am and arrive in Paris at 11:30am, giving us a few hours to squeeze onto the barrier on the Champs Elyese before the riders arrive. My hope is to get some sweet video and pics of the riders as they do their 8 laps before finishing.  After this I am sure Lance will want to hang out and share some Champagne with us, but I think I will hang with Petacchi (Ali Jet) instead and talk about him winning the green jersey and how Cavendouche had to pull out of the Tour because he didn't have Renshaw to lead him out (HA!).

From here we spend the night in Paris and check out the city a little, then make our way to Dublin, Ireland for about 6 days (we still have to form this part of the 'plan').

That's it for now, later.