Pierre & Vacances Residence Le Mont Soleil La Plagne

... the week but on Saturday we leave for St Anton - apparently it's an 8 hour drive so up at 6AM.... when we get there we get to go to our permanent accommodation - we're living with the other couple and apparently our appartment has en suite bathrooms and a washing machine so sounds pretty good to us!

attached a couple of pics showing the view from our window when we arrived and the view now...

speak to you all soon!

Gemma and Dave

... a glimpse of a massive glacier on our way to the mountain and later got a great view from a peak further down the ridge. I saw a glacier this summer in Montana's Glacier Nat'l Park but I have to say that despite the parks breathtaking views, its glaciers were hardly impressive compared to Chamonix. This was a legit, man eating, climber scaling, cavernous abyss kind of glacier. We were able to take a gondola that ascended the peak parallel to the glacier some 12,000 feet. After nearly ...

... br>Normally in Europe I don't eat lunch as after a large breakfast at
the hotel, I am good until dinner. In France, unlike the most of the
rest of Europe, breakfast is not included in the room rate. My hotel
wanted 15 euros ($23) for a croissant, juice and coffee, so I have
given up breakfast for this trip. I was looking for some soup and
the one place I looked had french onion soup for 11 euros ($17) so
once again I passed. So I did something I almost never do, I
Chamonix, Rhône-Alpes, France nedk

... was somewhat harrowing, driving a stick shift and
using the GPS as my sole way of finding my way around. I would have
been literally lost without it. Finally out of Geneva and on the
highway on my way to France and Chamonix and up into the Alps.




It took about an hour to get
to Chamonix and upon arrival I checked into the hotel, within walking
distance of the city center. I was tired so I unpacked and then
started taking a nap until about 2:30 ...

... 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 ...

... for Jon... he said he was so nervous he forgot how to speak French. Anyway, the next day we wanted to go mountain biking but by the time we checked out, all the shops were closed from 12-3 and we couldn’t rent anything anywhere. I think everyone closes up shop and goes out to play... sweet jobs.

http://picasaweb.google.co m/Jonny.D.Lawrence/7AroundTheWorldChamo nix?authkey=Gv1sRgCPGlpbm6oq3dywE&f eat=directlink

... 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!!

... to allow some deserted passenger (myself) back on. Well, after finding Peter and managing to radio to the driver that there was no further problem, we were off for the final leg of our trip to Bourg St. Maurice. I have probably never been so relieved to be back on a train before, especially when you live a life of commute in London... Saturday - 24 February 2007 On our arrival we were welcomed by our driver, Mike, who was going to take us up to Les Coches ...

... admitted he spoke no French and was not at all familiar with the resort we were staying at, and had only been in La Plagne for a couple of weeks since finishing his training somewhere else. We eventually arrived in Belle Plagne, the village in La Plagne we were staying at, where the check-in staff tried to charge us, even though we'd paid for the package in advance through Crystal. Her English was worse than my French, and she didn't or chose not to understand ...

... of the last word) but it is pronounced meadie, then when u get to the top ur guide will find you and will take you on a 150 ish metre walk along a norrow part of the peak to a place where you will be able to put ur skis on and get on down the hill.
this run's length depends on how much snow they get. but it took my group about half the day.
I loved it. I stayed in a very confortable motel as well. everything was great.
Definately do it.