Val d'Isère

.

Emilie and I took Friday off and headed to Val d'Isère, France, for a three-day trip to finish off the ski season. The resort area is near the border with Italy and just over three hours from Lausanne by car.

We arrived arround lunch, which allowed us to get in a half-day of skiing. The slopes basically funnel down into the center of town, so we only had to walk a couple of minutes from the hotel to get started.

The weather was beautiful and definitely gave the feeling that Winter has officially come to an end and Spring is now fully upon us. Nonetheless, there was still snow pretty much everywhere given the above average snowfall this year.

If you include the adjacent resort of Tignes, the Val d'Isère ski area includes roughly 300km (180+ miles) of pistes. And while we covered a lot of ground on our first afternoon, we barely scratched the surface and had a lot left to explore on our remaining two days.

By the time that we finished up we were famished and decided to cap off the day with a crêpe. The purchase fit the definition of an impulse buy perfectly, as the crêpe stand was right at the bottom where we took off our skis and we couldn't resist.

***

For dinner we ate at a traditional Savoyarde restaurant in order to indulge in the local cuisine. And while France is full of great food, I have to say that la cuisine savoyarde has to be among my favorites that the country has to offer.

We both decided to go with the tartiflette -- potatos, reblochon cheese and bacon -- and it was delicious. It's definitely something that you can't eat every day, but after a day of skiing it's hard to find something better.

During our much needed walk back to the hotel after our gluttonous devouring of the tartiflette, we passed the city's 18th century church.