London

Ok…so this is supposed to be a blog about France adventures but we took a side trip (an adventure from our adventure?) the previous  weekend to London to see Jane's family.  It was a lot of fun.  We spent a couple of days re-discovering London (it had been 30 years) and a day visiting with Jane's aunt and cousins (a great crew…lots of fun).  We stayed in a fun neighborhood at the northwest corner of Hyde Park, close to Notting Hill.

It was very different to be back in an English speaking locale.  I was feeling the usual anxiety (will I understand them?) every time I talked to a stranger.  But surprise!  They talked English! That said, I was surprised that I sometimes struggled to understand the British accent.

London was, generally, very expensive. As an example, the metro cost $6 for a short one-way ride.  Wow!  We found ourselves planning our day to avoid transportation.  This was OK because we really love to walk in grand cities.  Paris, New York, London….we can spend all day just walking.  We discovered some fantastic markets too.  Probably the most fun was a street called Portobello Road that we visited on Saturday morning.  A packed market of sort of bohemian/international stuff.  Every language imaginable.  Very cool.  We also enjoyed the Borough market and the neighborhood around it on the south bank.  Another highlight was Speaker's Corner.  I love that concept.

Harkening back to my memories of London, we saw some great entertainment.  My sister, who is in a Sweet Adeline  group, would be proud of us for watching a comedy group that was also a barbershop quartet.  They were hilarious.  Again, a little hard to catch everything at the beginning of the performance but by mid-show we were on track.  

The rest of London was fun but the best time was definitely the time with Jane's aunt and cousins.  So great to have family here.

Skiing in the Alps

We finally got to take "le train des neiges" to the Alps for a day of skiing. This is quite an amazing service.  The train picks us up a few blocks from our apartment and then takes us to a variety of resorts near Gap in the southern Alps. On arrival to the closest town, they provide a shuttle bus to the resort. This only costs 15 euros for everything, round-trip.

The skiing in the southern alps is very warm. The French from these parts aren't very excited about skiing in the "north" in the grand resorts like Chamonix. They prefer their sun. Not surprisingly, with this kind of warmth it suffers the same problems as Whistler in America: rain and thaws in the middle of the season. it rained 2 days before we arrived so the snow wasn't very good. They are actually having problems keeping things open right now because of the lack of snow (it's been extra warm here for a couple of weeks).

We picked the resort of Puy Saint Vincent.   The resort is relatively low (4200 feet at the base and 8100 feet at the summit) so we didn't suffer any altitude issues.  The slopes were mostly intermediate but there were a few more challenging runs as well.  The lifts were simliar to what we have in the U.S. with chairlifts and "tire-fesse" (literally "butt pull").  There was a "snowboard cross" race the day we were there.  Very cool.

There are many, many resorts here but they are generally smaller than the U.S. The price of a ticket is cheap (25 euros with our "train des neiges" discount). Renting skies seemed comparable to U.S. prices.

We're hoping to ski some more. There are several resorts that offer x-country skiing, mostly groomed for skating.

Quelle belle vie

OK...I've been TERRIBLE at updating the blog the last month.  We've been very, very busy (more on that in the next post).   Things have calmed down now and today is absolutely awesome.  It's about 15 degrees (60F) although it feels even warmer. The sky is as blue as it gets.   I had a 2 1/2 hour ride this morning through mountains and vineyards.  Now we are relaxing on the balcony of our apartment.  Here is a peek of life on Rue Cardinale.