September 1st
We flew from Athens to Geneva and rented a car from the French side of the Geneva airport and drove to Évian-les-Bains (about 25 miles), where Evian mineral water is from. Its on the shores of Lake Geneva and very pretty. Lots of tourists. Very cosmopolitan. We spent the night and did a little walking on the French side of lake Geneva.
September 2nd – We drove from Evian to Annecy, Chamonix, then to Courmayeur. We drove under Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, in what used to be the longest vehicular tunnel. It is 7.3 miles long. Enter in France and exit in Italy.
Annecy, France – Had lunch and visited the Annecy Cathedral.
Chamonix is a ski town and reminded us of Breckenridge, Colorado. We were planning on doing a hike there the following day (Sunday), but the traffic was terrible due to the Ultra Tour du Mont Blanc ending there. The race has over 10,000 participants and they run in 8 different events from running the entire 100 miles to fastest up different elevations to relays.
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc is the highest peek in Western Europe at 15,774 feet. It is on the border of Italy and France. The Tour du Mont Blanc is a trail around the mountain taking ~11 days and 100 miles.
We took a tunnel from Chamonix, France to Courmayeur, Italy under Mont Blanc (7.2 miles).
View from our hotel window.
September 3rd – small hike
