Bonjour de la Suisse: How do you beat the heat?!?

Can you say HEAT WAVE?!? Europe was plunged into one of the hottest Julys on record just when Chica landed for her four week vacation! What's a girl to do? Hit the beach of course!

The day I returned from my two week journey with J, Chica had already been in Geneva for a couple days, hanging out with G and getting over her jet lag. I was happy to take it easy and try to cool off, so when G suggested we go to Bain des Pâquis (our local beach) I was all for it! I had only been there in bad weather (there's a good restaurant out there that is open all year) so I was happy to actually use the beach. The only problem was, about half the population of Geneva had the same idea. It was absolutely packed! We squeezed in a bit away from the water, but it didn't matter because in no time we were swimming in the lake.

The next day, Chica & I drove to the French Alp town of Annecy. This adorable lakeside city has amazing views of the mountains, cobblestone streets full of flowers and a castle! As soon as we arrived we realized the plage (or beach) was quite a walk away (with no shade) so we decided to rent a paddle boat (complete with sun deck) and paddle ourselves out to the middle of this beautiful, translucent lake. We only paid for an hour, but lost track of time and had it for almost two hours. The guy at the dock didn't seem too worried about it, so we were happy!

After a very relaxing dinner (& ice cream), we figured we should probably drive back. Geneva is only a 45 minute drive away, so we should be home in no time. (Not so!) I knew I only had a small amount of change for the plethora of toll roads, so we tried to stay on the side roads as long as we could. (At night there is not always a person in the booth to break our 50 Euro bill and the machine sometimes only takes French credit cards!)

Inevitably, we accidentally found ourselves on an onramp to the toll road and the machine wanted money from me, but I had no idea how much!! It didn't take any of my credit cards (or Chica's), so I did what anyone would do and backed up. I almost made it to the beginning of the onramp (did I mention it was a single, narrow lane that curved and was flanked on both sides by cement barricades?) then a car turned in behind me. Dang it! I drove forward again and waved the motorist on to pass me. Too bad it was the French police. I rolled down my window and started blabbering on in English. "Are you British?" he asked me. "Uh, no, American." I said with a weak smile. He explained that I have to pay the toll to continue on. No kidding!! I used up almost all of our combined change to get onto this road (that I knew we would have to pay for again in the not-so-distant future!) and we were off.

I spent the next hour or so trying desperately to get off the toll road (which turned out to be impossible... I took every exit, but it always forced me back on the darn thing). I didn't go into complete panic until I threw our last 10 cents into the toll change basket a few miles down the way. I can't tell you how happy I was to see the Swiss boarder! The Swiss do not have the love of toll roads like the French do! Thankfully there are NO toll roads in Switzerland.

So we made it home, much later than planned, but without a French police record! In the morning we were off to Nice (yes, the same Nice I just came from) for a few days of fun in the sun. Even with the heat wave, at least we will be by the sea...