Shopping in Albertville

Tuesday, July 6

It was quite windy in Annecy again so I decided to do some administrative type stuff. I talked to the ladies at the campsite office and they suggested that I head to Albertville to get some of the items I needed. My digital camera died so I needed a new one of those, one of my headphones had no sound and then there’s dealing with Betty’s starting issues. I found a big store and got the headphones, some injector cleaning fluid and starter spray for Betty. I waited forever for a sales person in the electronics department in a store called Geant (giant). Total other end of the spectrum from Future Shop in Canada where they pounce on you. I guess customer service just isn’t a big priority in this country which enables them to pull off the “Closed for lunch from 12-2pm at almost every place” stunt. I guess they need a long time for lunch since the waiters and waitresses are slow as molasses too! Turns out that they didn’t have any more of the Fuji camera I wanted (my broken one is a Fuji and I already have two specific batteries for it so I figure I might as well get another one). I ventured over to another big store but this one looked more like a discount one called Conforma. They had a few Fujis and the prices were lower so I ended up picking up a better one than I had just broken for 99 Euros...not bad. All this time I had left Betty running in the parking lot (almost 2 hours!)...sorry Mother Nature but I didn’t have much of an option. Now that i have the starter spray though, I have my get out of jail card!

I cruised back to the campsite near Annecy and after making one wrong turn, Miss SatNav sent me on an alternate route that took me over a small mountain pass versus the valley highway I’d arrived on. It’s always nice to see some new scenery and I scoped out a potential free camping spot should I stick around this area. There were a number of cyclists on the road...no wonder the French run the Tour de France and usually do quite well at it. On the descent from the hill I had a cyclist on my tail and actually had to run Betty faster down the curvy road than I’d like. Poor fellow must have been loving the noxious blue fumes emanating from my van....

Back at the campsite, I ventured down to the lakeside beach for an hour to catch up on my flight logbook, soak up a bit of late afternoon sunshine and quaff a few beers. Then after supper I watched the Netherlands beat Uruguay in the World Cup. I was cheering for the underdog Uruguay as my cousin’s girlfriend Sonia had them in their pool at work and would be 20 pounds richer if they went all the way. Not surprisingly there was a large contingent of Dutch in the campsite and they were cheering on their country in a large tent with a big screen TV. I unfortunately found out that my web feed was a tad behind the TV broadcast as I heard the huge cheer for the first goal about 4 seconds before seeing it...it was headphones after that!