We have been in Chatel for a week. It has been exactly what I wanted. Minus the occasional complaining child. We've read, played cards, cooked meals, and watched a lot of World Cup games. Pat and Chuck are here for a couple more days. I think Brian is taking them to Annecy today.
Our biggest adventure in Chatel so far has been getting a rental car and finding a real grocery store. There are a couple small stores here but they are expensive and don't have a large selection. We were told we could take a bus to a bigger store a few miles outside town. The buses weren't running the first couple days we were here. Once they started up we decided to see how the bus works and check out the store. We waited where we thought the bus would stop for an hour before we gave up. I asked at the tourist office and discovered we were in the wrong place. We were in front of the church and the bus we wanted stopped at the back. By this time Penelope was over the adventure so we let her walk home. Reilly was at home with Pat and Chuck. Brian and I waited (in the correct place) for the bus. We saw the bus we wanted but it was going the wrong way. We decided to wait for it to come back the other way. It never did. After another 30 minutes we gave up.
Yesterday Brian went off on his own to get a rental car. It was an hour taxi ride to the rental car place. We were told it was at the train station. Brian took a taxi to the train station to discover the rental car was 5 miles away. Thankfully they sent a car to pick him up. 5 hours later he was home, with a car and groceries!