LES CHALETS DES ALPAGES ET LES LODGES DE BERGERIE La Plagne

... in terms of getting free wine in the chalet so far so got pretty drunk - went out to a bar which had opened up specially for us lot and got pretty hammered. it closed at 12 so went back to the chalet and finished off the rest of the wine.

did our food hygiene level 2 today, sitting in a bar now having a few beers, still snowing a little bit. got cleaning training tomorrow...... hmmm....

anyway, enough for now - will try and update towards the end ...

Rainy and cold has replaced sunny and warm in France but it has not curbed ambitions... Well, I guess any ambition to exercise has been exhausted but we saw that one coming.

Travel is still high priority. Last week the GEP cohort was treated to a day trip to Mt. Blanc in Chamonix. A three hour bus ride west took us into the steep peaked, deep valley-ed Rhône-Alpes. The landscapes only got more impressive as we wove through the valleys and eventually reached the base of Mt. Blanc. We ...

... seen no TVs at the Sports Bistro, I
was intrigued when about 8:30 the barkeep unfurled a screen on a side
wall, not unlike in old school days, then turned on a projector and
turned on the French equivalent of ESPN and the bar watched an
Australian rules football match between two French rivals. Good
fun!!!



Back to the room, had some
left over Pringles and off to bed for the next part of the journey,
Annecy in the morning.

... him
during my stay!!! Back to the room and then out for dinner at a very
nice restaurant near the town center. A lot of wood and cuckoo
clocks made up the ambiance and I had a nice meal of meat and cheese.
The French dining experience is like no other. In the finer
restaurants, they take the dining experience very seriously and they
turn meals with ordinary ingredients into something very special.
Back to the room to end up a
very full day.

... room and its nice with a great view of Mont Blanc..the kind of view that you get only in postcards. We were going to have dinner at the hotel, but it wasn't open for dinner so we wander into town.
Town is a 3 min walk away and the main street is easy to find, there is many italian/fondue places, an asian restaurant and then other general/fondue places. Seems like a fondue is a fav here, so we pick Le Monchu..where you can have fondue, racelette at the table and other delights ...

... and that if he fails, he will have to spend the night in jail. Awesome... So I wait with the car for about 20 min thinking crazy thoughts in my head.... Jon finally comes back and had only blown 0.007. The cops finally admit that the balloon is never accurate and yes, the construction is blocking the sign, so they didn’t even give us a ticket and told us we were lucky they liked Canadians! Still, it wasn't a fun ...

... from 1250 to 2360 meters in the morning, and then walked all the way back down to Chamonix. Wonderful views, but we were shattered in the evening, so we treated ourselves to a fondue savoyarde, mmmhhh!!

The next day was slightly shorter, but we still walked for 5 hours. We even did a bit of 'trail running' when we realised we were half way up the mountain and had a train to catch to get back to Geneva!!

My main goal for the little trip was 'The tour de France' in Annecy. But before heading home I couldn't resist to go to Chamonix. Being so close to the highest mountain in Europe I had to go there. So I did. It was early morning when I was there. Not crowded (yet).

... I could honestly use the word "fun" on the slopes, and it was. Headed back to our side of the mountain at lunchtime to join the rest of the group for lunch. Though despite happily reciting our stories to the rest of the team, it did seem a bit silly to lug our asses such a long way back for lunch instead of spending the rest of the day over at Belle Plagne. But despite that still a really good lunch, despite yet again almost losing people due to ...

The reason I went to France was to go skiing at chamonix/Mont Blanc, which i did and it was fantastic and i will be doing again very soon before i get tied up.. while i was there i did the world famous ski run Valley de blanche you ski over a glacier. which is amazing, the veiws you get on theis run are spectacular. definately take a camera.
to start this run however you take a gondola up to the summit of Aguille de medie (i'm unsure of the correct ...