Courchevel - Part II

On Sunday the weather was absolutely beautiful. Here’s a picture that I took from our hotel room in the morning.

We bought the Trois Vallées pass in order to explore the whole resort area and basically spent the entire day trying to see ski as much as possible. The snow was great, but the weather definitely brought out more skiers. Fortunately, we were able to avoid the crowds fairly well as we crisscrossed the mountain.

Here are some pictures...

Here’s where we stopped for lunch. Given the beautiful weather and fantastic view, people were definitely taking their time (and in some cases, siestas).

Given the great weather and snow conditions, Sunday ended up being my favorite ski day of the year. I guess that’s both a positive and negative given that it was our last day of skiing for the season. While it was nice to end on a high note, it definitely left you wanting to head up again soon.

By late afternoon we were pretty exhausted and decided to call it a day after skiing back across the resort area to our hotel. Here’s a picture of our hotel with the mountains in the background.

Joyeux Anniversaire

 This weekend Emilie and I headed back to Morez for her mom’s birthday. On Saturday we all went cross-country skiing and it quickly became apparent that the season was nearing its end. For most of the trail the snow had basically turned into ice, which was a bit dangerous at times.

We stopped for lunch at Le Refuge des Prés d’Hauts, which is a rustic lunch spot in the hills along the ski trails.

Highlighting the danger of skiing in such icy conditions, a man sitting at the table next to us had fallen and skinned up his arm and leg pretty bad. He seemed okay, though, so it probably just looked worse than it really was given all the blood.

If there were any questions of how rustic the refuge in fact was, the bathroom should put an end to them. I can’t remember the last outhouse that I saw. In fact, I’m not sure if I’ve really ever seen one aside from in the movies. And if there were any questions with respect to its purpose, the nearby sign answered them (loose translation: “Pee here”).

On the trail back we passed a large property where sled dogs are raised. The outdoor kennel must have housed 30 – 40 dogs, each with his own dog house. They were running all over the place and enjoying the cool weather.

Here are some pictures during the final stretch when the snow was really bad.

And here’s the sign from a couple of weeks back, only this time it actually was appropriate.

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On Sunday we went out to lunch at Auberge du Coude in Labergement Sainte Marie to celebrate Emilie’s mom’s birthday. While the area and restaurant are known for grenouille (frog), I definitely got my fill last year and decided to instead go with some fois gras for the starter and meat for the main course. Both were very good.

Emilie and her sister decided to stick with tradition, though, and selected the frog legs.

The lunch definitely served as a French exam. I spent the whole time trying to keep up with the rest of the group, which consisted of Emilie, her sister, her mom and her mom’s friend. Overall, I think that I did okay, but it took all the energy that I had in me.

Portes du Soleil

Today Emilie and I took a day trip to the Portes du Soleil ski area on the border of Switzerland and France. It’s about an hour’s drive from Lausanne, which makes for a fairly easy trip. Once again it felt like spring on the mountain and a light jacket was more than enough to keep you warm. The downside was that the snow at lower elevations was extremely slushy on the Swiss side.

We were actually a bit worried about whether we had made a mistake in deciding to go skiing, but once we got to the French side the snow was far better and allowed for some great overall ski conditions when combined with the sunny weather.

We decided to stop for lunch near Avoriaz, which is one of the many resort towns of Portes du Soleil that is right off the pistes.

Some More Cross-Country

 

This weekend Emilie and I went to Morez to visit Emilie’s mother and do some cross-country skiing. We weren’t quite sure what to expect from the snow given the relatively warm January temperatures. Fortunately, there had been some recent storms so there was a lot more snow cover than during our previous visit.

On Saturday it was overcast with some scattered flurries. The snow actually ended up being very nice and we did 13km.

The conditions on Sunday were much more difficult as it ended up snowing non-stop from Saturday afternoon onwards, resulting in a thick powder on all the trails. To further complicate things, one of my poles broke 1km in, which required us to double back for a replacement. As a result, we ended up doing a total of 15km.

At the end of our route we came across the following sign. Perhaps a week ago it would have made sense, but after the significant snowfall it clearly seemed out of place.

The rough English translation is “Attention: Missing Snow”, which definitely wasn’t the case.

Weekend Update

 

Work has been quite busy lately, so I spent this weekend catching up on some much-needed sleep and other miscellaneous to-dos around the apartment. One such to-do was laundry, which led to an interesting encounter with one of our neighbors.

In our apartment building, there is a sign-up calendar for laundry. It went up around New Year’s Day while Emilie and I were out of town, and by the time we returned it was completely filled out for the full year aside from a few miscellaneous Sundays. People literally claimed all their days for the year in one fell swoop.

As a result, on Saturday Emilie and I decided to take our chances by doing one load of laundry “illegally”. It was early in the morning and the laundry room was empty, so we figured that we’d go for it. And everything was going according to plan until about five minutes before the wash cycle was done. The person who had actually scheduled the day caught me in the act when the finish line was in sight.

She immediately started explaining the laundry rules to me in a condescending tone and acted as if we had completely thrown off her schedule for the balance of the day (apparently these five minutes were critical). And in response to her lecture, I decided to respond with the only excuse I could come up with under pressure: my girlfriend did it and had simply told me to go down and pick up the clothes from the washer. Shameful, I know, but it was the best I could come up with.

Adelboden

This weekend Emilie and I made another return trip to a ski resort that we had visited last year – Adelboden, a mountain village in the Bernese Alps a couple of hours east of Lausanne. We were joined by Emilie’s mom and sister, and drove up early Saturday morning in order to get two full days of skiing in.

While the weather wasn’t quite as nice as the weekend before in Gstaad, it was still borderline spring-like and far from the typical conditions in early-February.

 

The snow conditions held up relatively well for most of the day, though it definitely got pretty icy in the late afternoon and took away a bit of the fun.

After finishing our day of skiing and heading to the hotel, we decided to take advantage of the spa facilities, which we were familiar with from our visit last year (see our encounter with the nude Dutchmen in the sauna). I think my favorite part was the outdoor heated pool, which offers the following view.

For dinner we went for the staple of Swiss ski resort dining – fondue moitié-moitié (half Gruyère and half Fribourg vacherin) and some charcuterie.

 

While I enjoy fondue, I don’t think I’ve ever left a fondue dinner where I haven’t felt like I’ve grossly overeaten. Rather than stopping once I’m full, I always feel obligated to keep shoveling it in until only the charred cheesy remains linger in the fondue pot.

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On Sunday the weather was absolutely beautiful, with plenty of sun and hardly a cloud in the sky. The conditions were a bit icy in the morning and late afternoon, but otherwise allowed for a nice day of skiing.

Le Ballet du Bolshoi dans Giselle

 

Tonight I went with Emilie, her sister and her mother to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform Giselle. While I’m extremely ignorant when it comes to ballet, I was definitely excited to see the Bolshoi perform given its history. Plus, I think the only ballet performance that I’d ever previously seen was The Nutcracker when I was a kid, so it had clearly been a while.

While driving to the venue, we were stuck in perhaps the worst traffic that I’ve ever seen in Lausanne. We hadn’t anticipated this at all, which led to a bit of anxiousness in the car given the punctuality of the Swiss. Fortunately, though, we arrived on time (barely) and we were definitely not the only ones impacted by the traffic. I actually think that the powers that be delayed the show a bit as a result of the delay (something that I didn’t think would ever happen in Switzerland).

The performance ended up being very impressive – I really think that even those like me who literally know nothing about ballet could definitely appreciate it. I was particularly impressed by the overall choreography and the beauty of the dancers’ movements.

Gstaad

 

This weekend Emilie and I went to the resort town of Gstaad for some skiing and the annual Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, a music festival that takes place in the area. We took a similar trip last year and really enjoyed it, so we decided to come again this year for a second visit.

We made the couple-hour drive Saturday morning and were on the mountain by around 11am. The weather was warm and absolutely beautiful, which made it feel more like Spring skiing despite being early February. Fortunately, the snow held up fairly well.

The relatively warm winter overall, though, had definitely already taken its toll on the snow in the surrounding mountains. As can be seen in the following pictures, it had already completely melted in some areas.

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On Saturday night we went to a concert at the Église de Saanen -- the same venue where we attended the concert last year (several churches in the area serve as venues). The church dates back to 1604 and allows for a very interesting musical experience.

The performance consisted of three pieces: one by Bach, one by Rachmaninov and one by Beethoven. Though all of them were interesting, I enjoyed the pieces by Bach and Beethoven the most. The one by Rachmaninov was a bit harsh for me.

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On Sunday we were again treated to beautiful weather. A light ski jacket was definitely more than sufficient to keep you warm.

 

Such weather probably doesn’t bode well for the balance of the ski season, but for the time being we were willing to take advantage of it.