Off-Piste

Goodbye 2011 and Hello 2012. It is crazy to me that we have been here for 8 months now and just celebrated Christmas and the New Year in Europe.


We celebrated Christmas with our friends Michelle and Mike on the ski slopes in Chamonix, France.  After a quick hour drive from Geneva, we arrived Thursday night to a snowy, festive ski town.  We stayed at the Hotel Faucigny, right in the center of town. It was recently renovated and was run by a nice husband and wife and their staff.


After getting settled, we put on our warmest clothes and walked around town in search of a fun place for dinner. We explored the small town, which was decorated in sparkling lights and decorations, and found a nice place for dinner called Munchie, which served a sort of fusion of foods, from sushi to ribs.  After dinner, we wandered down an alley that all the popular bars are on, and found a small bar with no one inside except the bartender, called Boogie Woogie. After a couple beers by ourselves, we wandered down the street some more to a bar we dubbed "Smelly Bar" as it had a slight beer-sweat-something unidentifiable smell to it, but apparently it was where all the people were hanging out that night.

View from the top of the gondola

The next morning we got up early to go skiing at The Grand Montets, one of the ski areas of Chamonix.  After a few mishaps of forgotten gloves, forgotten ski goggles, and ski boot rentals, we finally made it to the slopes. We took a gondola up from the base and after breaking through a low layer of fog, we came to the top of the gondola with blue skies, sun, and gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.

Looking back into the fog below

Mountains across the valley

I'm ready to ski!

Travers is ready to board!

We skied for a few hours, stopping to have some fun in the snow along the way, and breaked for a brief lunch, then headed back out for a few more hours of skiing.

Travers' favorite 

View into the chamonix valley

After the long day of skiing, we found an outdoor restaurant with heat lamps so we could enjoy some apres-ski drinks to warm us up before returning back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and another night out on the town.  We ate at a restaurant called Chez Yang, the only chinese restaurant in town. It was delicious and the perfect meal to make us feel strong again after a long day of skiing. Then we went to a bar/lounge called Mix, where the music was good and we got a huge lounge area to hang out at.  We topped the night off at The Y Bar, another lounge that had some good music and a nice couch area to hang out at.

Travers launching me down the slope

Christmas Eve, we woke up to clouds, snow and a general overcast sky. Instead of putting ourselves through a rough ski day, we decided to take it easy, have a nice breakfast, and then drove to a nearby town to go sledding!  It was so much fun, sliding down a slope and running back up to do it all over again. We were definitely the biggest 'kids' out there, but we all had a fun time, even when we would fall off the sled, or go sliding into the padded wall at the bottom. Here are some good action shots of our day.

Mike almost falling off the sled.

Travers after getting a push from Mike

Shelley going slightly too far to the side

I made it all the way to the end!

I'm ready!

Travers & Mike ready to race a mom and daughter

Looks like Mike won!

We eventually got tired of our tiny sled, and Shelley went to rent a larger one!

Big sled time!

Travers flying down the slope!

Its more fun sledding together!

Mike & Shelley getting a push!

We tried towing Mike behind the sled!

And didn't go very fast

I think he's still hanging on back there.

But we ended in a pile of snow, sans Mike.

We eventually called it a day, and went back to town to have some tasty crepes for a late lunch, then hitting up the hot tub and sauna at the hotel. We had the hotel staff make us a reservation for Christmas eve dinner that night at a local, traditional French Savoyarde restaurant called La Caleche.  We ate delicious steaks and appetizers, and topped it off with a caramel waffle dessert. Yumm.  We then went for an after dinner drink at the "Smelly Bar" where Shelley and I beat the boys in a game of darts!

Christmas morning we woke up early to a gorgeous day so we decided instead of driving back to Geneva right away, we would get in a half day of skiing at Le Brevant, another ski slope in Chamonix.  So we packed up the car, checked out of the hotel and drove the 5 minutes to the slopes!  We skied for 3.5 hours straight, with few people around us, and spent a good hour or more on one slope that had some great off-piste skiing/boarding with lots of powder. Travers was loving playing in the snow there, and I even tried a little of it, making a few small jumps here and there.










We finally called it a day, and drove back to Geneva. We were exhausted by the time we got back home, but were still able to make a nice Christmas dinner, and skype our families so we could wish them a Merry Christmas and open presents together.  Our families definitely outdid themselves with sending us presents for us to open here. It was the perfect way to end a wonderful weekend with snow, skiing and Christmas!