Chamonix - Skiers eat your heart out!

If you look hard - right at the top is a building! This is where we went!

Easter Sunday:
Breakfast the next morning was Ok- accompanied with a chocolate rabbit! The day looked promising and we headed off to Chamonix- back in France. It is the infamous and deluxe ski resort in France. Surrounded by the snowy alps it sits in a beautiful basin with Mt Blanc rising above the rest.
The scenery on the way there was “jaw droppingly” beautiful – very hard to describe but absolutely amazing – I really don’t have enough adjectives to describe the area or the atmosphere. We were all amazed and the girls loved to spot all the natural waterfalls we passed on the way. Chamonix is only 1 hour from Geneve and it was the most outstanding scenery all the way. We passed through tunnels in the mountains to get there – it is called Mt Blanc tunnel but I am not sure we actually went under Mt Blanc!
Chamonix is where world class skiers, boarders and climbers push themselves to extremes on Europe’s most challenging, adrenaline pumping pistes and rock faces. This is the stuff of James Bond movies – stunt riddles ski chases were all filmed here!
The first winter Olympics – 1924 were also held here.

The highlight for us and the main event was to ascend up the Aiguille du Midi – Europe’s highest and scariest cable car. Certainly not for those who are afraid of heights or for those with faint hearts!
A jagged pinnacle of rock rising above glaciers, snowfields and rocky crags. It is only 8 km’s from the domed Mt Blanc summit. Somehow it seemed much closer!
The idea of a floor to peak cable car was first born in 1909 – but the technical challenges proved too much and they had to settle for a lower altitude version – however in 1955 the original dream was completed.
Climbing from the valley floor to a terrace beneath the Aiguille at 3777m in just 20 minutes is an amazing feat of engineering.
From below the Aiguille looks like a single peak – in fact it is 2 spires connected by a gravity defying footbridge!
The final few metres to 3842m high summit are reached by an elevator! From the top you get 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and a great view of Mont Blanc. Mt Blanc is 4810m - in case you were wondering.
We were higher than Mt Cook 3754m!

We caught the cable car down the bottom in the middle of Chamonix - €120 later, but well worth it! The cable cars are huge and can hold 72 people maximum. Luckily we only had about 20 in ours. We bought the tickets at 10:30 and along with a few skiers with all the climbing gear we headed off at 11:00. WOW!!! Straight up – we managed to get right to the front of the cable car so we got the full gravity defying effect!
We reached the first transition point and disembarked and headed to the connecting cable car for the next part of the journey. If I thought the last was straight up – this was damn near vertical! The scenery of jagged rocks, crevasses and the odd skier braving this side were impressionable. As we came into dock the cable car was swinging a little and we (being at the end) were not over solid ground until we walked down to the door!
As we came out of the cable car we had choices of direction but we followed the skiers who were all getting roped together and heading out on the ridge. We walked over the footbridge into the other spire. That is right we were in the mountain! Looking down at the footbridge.

To walk over the footbridge and look down was in particular quite scary! The weather up there would cloud over in seconds and then be brilliant sunshine, however it was at least -9 without the wind and we were all wrapped up with double jackets, snow boots, scarves and gloves. Felt like a “weeblel wobble” but can’t fall down. (Remember those?)
I was so impressed – couldn’t believe I was so high and that we were really there.
One of those very tender and emotional moments.

We took the elevator to the summit – it counted up the altitude in metres as we watched!
To be 3842m high was incredible and breathtaking – literally. The altitude effected us all but in particular Hermione and Nev who both had dizzy spells and could only walk a few paces before being out of breath!
This is definitely in my top 10 things we have done – amazing and unforgettable.
I am sure the photos that I have attached do not do the vista and atmosphere justice – but believe me it was well worth the trip!

Naturally there is a cafeteria and souvenir shop up there and even a post office! We had morning tea (at lunchtime) sitting beside a window with a straight drop down. Awesome!!

We stayed up there for about 2:30 minutes – I couldn’t get enough!
The descent was just as thrilling – again we made sure we got to the front for the full effect.
Halfway down we had a wait for the connecting cable car – so we enjoyed our time at the ‘bar’!
Once we were back on the valley floor we looked around the beautiful Chamonix and then headed for home.

We were going to go back through Switzerland but as we entered at the border we were informed we needed to buy an Autoroute ticket – this is valid for a year but it is 30 CHF (Swiss Francs) about €25 or 60 NZ$. (Luckily we were not caught yesterday without it - however the man at the border yesterday never mentioned it!)

This stops having péage everywhere like in France but as we won’t get our money’s worth we decided to turn around and go back through France a different route to what we have been before. Thank goodness for being able to programme in what we wanted into the Navigation system. i.e Avoid toll roads!
We wound our way back slowly stopping in cute little villages and playgrounds – the whole trip back was only 3 hours but we took our time. The Jura – area of France where Besancon is situated, is incredibly and vividly green. The fields were lush and bright. It does have the reputation of being the greenest area and city in France – I think it would have to be true!

Pâques: Geneva

The Swiss francs!

The answer to our clock on the hill - A flower clock !- Not really all that exciting.

Saturday morning we were up and ready to pick the car up at 8:00. After programming the G.P.S.(A kind friend has lent us his Navigation system till we leave) we left at about 8:30 and headed to the Swiss border. It took us about 1 hour to reach it – I had packed our passports just in case we needed them but the man just stopped us, (I had been taking a photo of the border) and said not to take any more as it is ‘interdit’ –forbidden to take photos of the border. I did think this was slightly strange as I took only photos anyone can see easily anyway.
We headed to Lausanne, had a quick look around and saw the first glimpse of Lac Leman. We then followed the road up the side of the lake onto Genève (Geneva). The scenery was beautiful, snow capped alps surrounding the lake and lush green grass with lovely little villages on hillsides.
We arrived in Genève at about 10:45 – what a fantastic thing the navigation system is, punched in the address before we left and taken straight to the door.
We had booked into an Auberge de Jeunesse, youth hostel – not that they are only for youths nowadays. There were all sorts of people, families, older couples, large groups, singles and groups of youths! We had a room for just the 4 of us with our own little balcony, had to share bathroom facilities but it was immaculately clean. Better than the facilities at Glendhu!!!
We then left our car and wandered off to the lake – 1 block down, the Auberge was well situated. We strolled along the promenade and headed for the Office de Tourism. This is always our first stop - armed with a map and some information we were off to the Veille Vieux – the old town.
We stopped for lunch as we were pretty hungry, everyone (well it seemed like everyone) was eating outdoors on the terraces and big plazas. We found a little restaurant “The Spaghetti Factory” – very Swiss! Actually everywhere in France and even in Genève there is a huge Italian influence – without fail you can always find a pizzeria. Anyway Seph is always constantly eating when we travel – we have learnt to pack the backpack full of food before we leave. Her favourite phrase “I’m hungry” even though it was 15 minutes since she last had something!
The food is incredibly expensive - not just food – everything is incredibly expensive in Switzerland so to find bargains was a non event.
Being Easter we were keeping an eye out for the infamous Swiss chocolatier so we could sample the delicacy that it is renowned for – after many tries we couldn’t find any open!! Buggar!!! We could have made do with Toblerone but it is not the same.
The day was beautiful and we wandered around the lake out to the famous Jet d’Eau! People were out and enjoying all the sunshine. We had seen ‘everybody’ eating ice creams so I gave in and got the girls one – 2.50€ for one tiny (baby size) scoop. That is $6:50 each!
We found an outside bar on the lakefront and many people lying on picnic rugs, playing cards and having fun. It very much reminded me of New Year’s Eves in Wanaka on the grass outside Barrow’s and the THC!!! Those were the days!
For tea we found a Pizzeria near our hotel but the pizzas were very disappointing and unmemorable.
Genève is a very international city with many foreign dignitaries and forums being held here. I heard so much English – it was quite reassuring, also conversations between different nationalities but using English as their common language. We are very lucky that we speak this as our native tongue as it really is the universal language.

This video is a bit grainy and really doesn't do the place justice but you get the idea. The girls are playing in the background!

Avril 8-10 - Good Friday!

The week passed relatively quickly with nothing in particular happening. Nev and I went shopping for birthday presents on Thursday, nice to be able to do this alone!
We have become a very tight family unit as we are all so dependent on each other for company and entertainment – this is all good but some time without the children is healthy and really appreciated.
What is really amazing – in this great country that has heaps of religious holidays - you work on Good Friday! However at school the classes had a special lunch - the children were asked to bring 5€ and some fruit/jams (confitures) and cheese to eat at school along with the bread they will be given. For those of you who are not religious -You don’t eat meat on Good Friday! So all the children had for lunch was bread and you pay 5€ for the privilege – all the money goes to the Nuns! This is Seph's classroom.
Hermione's room.

However - a huge surprise arrived for in the mail - a parcel - on Good Friday - perfect timing!!! Yummy Easter Eggs - especially creme eggs and marshmallow ones - You can't get these here! Plus some reading material -a few mags and the local rags! Thank you so much Crawfz!!! It is amazing the effect this has on your self esteem - nobody could stop smiling! We are still rationing the eggs.

Avril 1- 7

April hasn’t started off so flash, I have been battling with a nasty head cold (rhume) and cough. The weather though has decided to grace us with beautiful clear days and heat behind it.
We started day light savings a week ago and I love having the longer nights. Bring on summer! However we are still exactly 12 hours behind as NZ has changed over too.

Friday night Nev was invited to go and play soccer for a small village’s team. He was picked up and off he went for the night. The game started about 7:45 and the pitch was a fine sandy/ gravel pitch, orangey in colour. This pitch can be a bit unpredictable and you certainly don’t want to slide in for the ball! He got about 25 minutes game time and loved every minute of it – he had forgotten how much sprinting was involved! His inner thighs were a bit sore for a few days! The team won 5-3!
After the game a meal is supplied, cooked by one of the team member’s (not his wife), appetizers, pate and bread, baked potato with raclette cheese and a local saucisse. The meal was accompanied with red wine, beer and some pastis (a 40% alcoholic drink, common in the south of France with an aniseed flavour) then gateau for dessert. Not bad for a soccer team tea. All alcohol is supplied by the club and you don’t buy your drinks. The meals are on a roaster system. If you are playing away everything is provided for you by the other team. A very social event and of course because it is French it consists of food!

We spent the weekend enjoying the weather and went to a park in town, along with every other family! On Sunday we went out to Christelle + John’s, the boys went running and after we had aperitifs. Nev enjoyed the run, on the outskirts of a village, no pollution, no cars just the countryside. It beats pounding the pavement in the city!
We wandered around the village and went to look at their new house – they get the keys in 2 weeks time. The weather was beautiful and before we knew it, it was 9:00!
We didn’t get home until 9:30, Seph was too tired for tea and went straight to bed missing out on soup and bread.

Seph has handed out her birthday invitations – she can’t wait for her “party”. We have to give some serious consideration to her presents this week! Can’t believe my little baby will be 9!