Short trip to the Alps

Last weekend (right after we got back from Morocco) we went to visit a friend of Elizabeth's in a ski town called Manigod. We took a 6 hour train on Saturday morning to Annecy, which is situated on a big lake, and this was some of the best scenery I've taken in since we've been here - better than Geneva and Zurich! There was a crystal clear stream from the lake running through the center of town, too. The town of Annecy kinda reminds us of Strasbourg (see earlier post).

Mélanie (Elizabeth's host family when she visited France when she was 16) and her boyfriend Thomas drove us around the lake to the side of a mountain where Thomas works in the summer providing tandem paraglider flights. I wished it was summer because you get to jump off this mountain and glide all the way across the lake before touching down!

We then drove another half hour to their cottage and enjoyed some bread and cheese, of course. And we got to play with their dog, Chouia. It rained all the way there. I was getting pretty discouraged because I wanted to go snowboarding the following day. That night was the annual reunion for Mélanie and her friends that grew up in that area. They were gracious enough to take us along. We drove over the mountain to the main ski town called La Cluza. As we went up higher on the mountain the rain turned to snow! All hope was not lost. We met up with their friends at one their apartments. Elizabeth got to chat with some girls she met when she was 16. We also met a girl from Oregon who was living in Paris for the year as an aupair. She does not speak French yet, either, so we got to talk to her a lot.

For dinner we enjoyed Raclette, which I had been wanting to try for a long time. Basically they give you part of a wheel of cheese (that is about a foot in diameter) and you stick it under a heat lamp, and when the cheese starts bubbling you scrape off the top on to your plate full of sliced meats and potatoes. You keep doing this until you can't take it any longer. This part of the country is called Savoie, and cheese plays an even bigger part of their diet. We got out of there about midnight, and went back to the cottage and slept like a rock.

The next morning it was raining, but the ski areas up higher had snow. After dragging my butt all morning, I finally got on the slopes around 11. It only cost about $20 for a day ticket there. Everywhere I've been in the States is always over $50 for a Sunday ticket. Unfortunately, most of the chair lifts were closed due to heavy winds. I had to spend all my time on the lower slopes, which only had Poma (téléski) lifts. NC may have limited slopes, but I'm grateful that the majority of our lifts are chair lifts. Platter lifts like these require you to actually do work to hold yourself upright on the way up. And they are definitely not built to carry snowboarders. So I fought with those all day, but didn't have too many problems. At the end of the day I noticed an open chair lift. Oh well. I got to enjoy the fresh, powdery snow, which is something the east coast doesn't get too much of.

For lunch we ate with Mélanie's family. Now I know how Elizabeth felt when she was 16, because I understood very little of their conversations. But the food was delicious, for which I was very grateful.

While I skied, Elizabeth went around town with Mélanie. She bought some regional cheese which we now have in our freezer for special occasions.





We packed it up around 6 and headed back to Annecy to catch our train home. It was too short of a trip, but we are extremely grateful to Mélanie and Thomas for their hospitality and letting me borrow a snowboard! We wish them well!