Hotel La Grande Eperviere Barcelonnette

... 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 ...

Vandaag trekken we er met Ludo en Jeroen op uit.
We zetten koers naar Beuil met als doel de Challandre. Of we er effectief in gaan slagen om deze te doen, is nog maar de vraag. Het is de hoogst gelegen canyon die we deze week doen of gedaan hebben en boven de 1000 meter is er het risico op sneeuw... Aangezien deze canyon vertrekt op 1300 meter, is dit een gokje.
Waarom ...

... 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 ...

... the best dinner I've had all trip. View from my hotel window: Dinner conversation turned to why it was called 'Route Napoleon' and it was decided that he had to go the twisty way as you can't reach the toll ticket machines on a horse. If only he'd had an elephant.

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.

Eh eh ! Back on the snow! As unforgettable time with Sophie...Isola 200, here we come ! Early morning wake up..direction Isola 2000, what a best way to spend the last day of 2007 than go for some skying! Early arrival and got to say that this was probably the best day to go for some skying! nearly no one, fresh snow and an amazing blue sky! Looking forward to more skying!

... politically neutral...Geneva Best Italian food; Cleanest canal city; Most expensive public transportation...Venice Best ice-skating rink; Most social hostel; Coolest Australians; Most nuts about the Austro-Hungarian Empire (tie with Budapest)...Vienna Best temporary museum exhibit; Most nuts about the Austro-Hungarian Empire (tie with Vienna)...Budapest ...

... news, I've decided what I want to be when I grow up...and then changed my mind about three billion more times. A small sample of the careers I've chosen, in no particular order: 1. Famous actress (Key word: famous. How else am I going to put food on the table?) 2. Linguistics professor 3. Dialect coach/consultant (For famous actors, of course. See #1.) 4. English teacher (10 points if you can name the song I'm thinking of!) 5. Foreign ...

... I said something like the following (in French, mind you): "In America, people start by being friends, and then after a while if they decide they like each other a lot, they'll go out. It's very different in France. People here suddenly become boyfriend and girlfriend without knowing each other at all, and they show their affection with each other in public, even without being serious with each other. You seem to be very serious about me, but the culture of dating is really ...

... I think she's been successful but I have been slightly less so. The first was an Evangelical church located in what appeared to be a storefront, and the service was uncomfortable. The second was a Reform church located in what appeared to be a garage, and it was hard to pay attention to the pastor (who wasn't the normal pastor) because he sort of droned on and because the organist (who appeared to be suffering from dementia) talked to ...