May 31, 2014: Travel Day - Colmar to Chamonix

Before leaving the Alsace region this morning, we decided to visit more chateaux ruins, this time in the town of Eguisheim. It was only a few minutes out of our way and, since our route today was going to take less than 4 hours, we decided we had time for this side trip. These ruins were not nearly as spectacular as the ones we had seen the day before, but it was nice to see more of the countryside. 

Our route today took us through Switzerland, which is a pleasure to drive, but where we had to buy a 40 Euro (@ $50) road pass for the hour we were driving Swiss roads. Halfway through Switzerland (right before Lake Geneva), we had an orange warning light come on in the car. Jerry got out the owner's manual (of course, it was in French) and my rough translation indicated we needed to take it to a dealer as quickly as possible. We found a Renault dealer in the town we were in and headed over there. Of course, today was a Saturday of a 4-day holiday weekend and, although the dealership was open, there were no mechanics on duty. The salesman didn't speak English so I had to cobble together some very bad French to explain our situation. After a bit of discussion, he called one of their mechanics who told him it might be a serious problem, but it might not. Either way, we wouldn't be able to have the car looked at until Monday.

After fruitless attempts to reach the leasing agent in the U.S. and calling the French road side assistance number we were given (went straight to a recording, so we decided they were also on holiday), we decided to drive on to Chamonix and have the car looked at on Monday. All told, what was supposed to have been a 4-hour drive ended up being more like 7 hours, but we got to Chamonix safely with no more problems with the car. Had an early dinner, did our laundry, and went to bed. Tomorrow we take the Aiguille du Midi gondola into the French Alps.

Eguisheim Chateau Ruins

Lake Geneva

Our first view of the French Alps

French Alps at Sunset