Directions: Driving from Geneva Int'l to Annecy has a "gotcha" when driving a cheap(er) French rental car from the French side of the airport to Annecy. The FR cars have no Swiss vignette (toll pass), and it's 40€ to buy one (not worth it). The trick is to take a no-toll route to the French border and a toll-OK route in France (pay as you go). The lesson learned; do some route study prior to arriving, take a few notes and have an idea of the route through each country separately. That way, you can create two separate routes on your GPS: one to the border without tolls and one from the border with tolls. I screwed up the route "to" the airport and had to buy a 40€ 2013 vignette for the short drive from the border to the airport. At least I have a nice early Christmas present for Sylvain now!
Phones: We went to Carrefour on the NE outskirts of Annecy for our two phones. The sales clerk didn't speak much English and our French was horrible. It was difficult. However, the McDonalds there saved us with free wifi. We made contact with Sylvain and Aurelia who were planning to meet us and were very close. They stepped in and sorted out all the details. There are quite a few options with phones, carriers, and plans, which would be difficult enough with no language barriers. We got one phone with a 10€ card that calls in only for free and one 30€ unlimited in/out for the month. Don got the best equipment/plan (SFR) and suggested buying ALL the monkeys phones all at once next year. That way you can just show up and find Don for your handset. If we were smarter, we would have unlocked two of our older GSM iPhones that are past their contract. It's free and easy, but you have to do it on your home network. Scrappy went through a third party on line to get his iPhone to take a FR sim card (I think $50).
No comments:
Post a Comment