Club Hotel Franou Vars

... Alps, near the National Park of Les Ecrins.
I won't go over every hike and climb we did, that would be boring. My uncle Dominique and my aunt Nicole stayed with us, my uncle Jean-Marie and aunt Marite stopped by for a day (they live in Grenoble, three hours away, in the Northern Alps). Very close friends of the family stay in the same valley every year so we did not spend anytime alone. Hikes for a few hours ...

... was he highest city in Europe and home to one of the most interesting fortresses we had seen yet. The pass must have been very important in order to justify all the rockwork! It helps if the country you're defending 80% rock. With no lack of building materials and as many enemies it is no wonder there are so many walls, castles and churches (you've got to have a place to pray for the outcome) in the area!
The town of Briancon is built on a ...

... before we could even reach to "col du Lautaret" so I didn't even have to worry about the road condition. I woke up two hours later as we were getting close to Lyon and right before we got deviated. The deviation took us near Vienne which is pretty crazy. My father wasn't too happy about it although it was the opportunity for Kristen to discover the French countryside by night (hmmm... not that interesting to be honest). It was a long tiring happy day!

... used my friend's hat. That night we went to a dance club because no one wanted to get in trouble for noise. It was free to get in and we danced to French techno music for hours. We became even better friends with the French people from my school and practiced our French on them. The next day we got on the mountain at about the same time but since it was a Saturday it was way more crowded and cold than the day before. We also got stuck on a lift in the cold for a half an hour ...

Leaving Cannes we picked up the Route Napoleon at Grasse, straight away we could see how good this was going to be. The further we went the steeper the terrain, we encountered a few slow moving coaches which provided a little entertainment (got a video somewhere ...

... in intuneric, nu mai e nicio masina de vazut. Cum am urcat atat de mult de cand am plecat, si cum e atat de intuneric, imaginatia mea bolnava incepe sa lucreze. Fiind un "control-freak" sunt in prag de atac de panica neavand niciun reper in spatiu. Eu am mai zis ca dezvolt rau de inaltime mai nou, si incep iar sa dezvolt simptome. Cand imi dau seama cat urcam, cat de stranse sunt curbele, afara nu se vede nimic, nu imi pot imagina decat ca in partea ...

More information on this campsite can be found here. Beautifully located campsite with quite good facitlities at about 1500m altitude and one of the best views on the Lac Serre Poncon. Located very near the small Lac St.Apollinaire. Start of some great hikes right at the entrance of the campsite. The hikes are rather steep at the start.

... the town - set on a steep hill - great cobbled streets, fantastic Christmas Markets, great pubs (one in particular served beers in towers - yep towers!), and Lausanne is also home of the IOC and the Olympic Museum - the sculptures were awesome. We also headed around to Montreaux, driving along the lake with vineyards growing up the banks. Montreaux's Xmas Markets were equally amazing, the traditional food fantastic (picked up some more Saussi Seau), it's also of the homes of Freddy ...

... was skiing on some fairly icy patches of the slopes. But all together I was proud of accomplishing some pretty intense skiing and only have muscle aches to complain about. Of course after skiing the fun continued with two amazing dinner parties hosted at my groups' apartment. When you get some good cooks and amazing people together you get some of the most entertaining and intelligent nights you could ask for. However, after several ...

... and upload...its heenious! I also pashed another instructor that same night.. he was kinda good looking but still nothing to write home about... The next day we spent all day on the slopes, I lost a bot of confidence from my massive fall the day before and kinda shied away from trying to do turns. That night B, Hayley and I met the boys next door to us - Staffy, Pony, Scabby Dog, Willy and Arron. All kiwi's who have lived in London for 6 ...