Skiing in The French Alps

So, a quick update before I move on the 2nd week of vacation. My meal for my host family went really well. I made Caesar Salad, baked Macaroni and Cheese, and Apple Pie. For the Macaroni, I used big tube noodles, so that when you took a bite, a big burst of cheese rushed into your mouth. I used cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, and Comté(my favorite French cheese.) My apple pie also turned out really well, which I was proud of since it was the first time I had ever made an apple pie all by myself. For the crust, I even used the old-fashioned technique of using two knives to cut in the butter, afraid to break my host mom’s equipment with the frozen butter. She tried to convince me to soften it first, but I have made enough pie crusts with my aunt Lisa that I knew what I was doing and knew I had to cut and freeze my butter and have ice water with ice cubes in it for when I mixing.

The baked macaroni and cheese, and the caesar salad.

My apple pie

Ok, on to the skiing...

Well, I’m back from a great week of skiing in the French Alps, which was an incredible adventure. We left Saturday morning around 8:30 am and got back Saturday morning around 7:00 pm. Coming from Sacramento, where I can get to Heavenly and all of the other Lake Tahoe resorts in less than 2 hours, it was very weird for me to get in the car at 8:30 am and not get to the ski area until about 6:00 pm that evening. It was a fair amount of traveling to the ski area where we stayed, but it was totally worth it.

We drove to Lille where we would catch the TGV(high-speed train) all the way to Bourg St. Maurice, at the base of the Alps. Our train stopped at a lot of different places, picking up lots of other people who, like us, were headed off for a week of skiing. We all know the story of the Polar Express, right? All of the kids in their bathrobes and fuzzy slippers who are drinking hot chocolate while zooming to meet Santa Claus at the North Pole. Well, I like to think that I was on the “Ski Express.” Everyone on that train was heading off to go skiing(North Pole), they were all wearing their ski coats and snow boots(bathrobes and fuzzy slippers), and they were all eating sandwiches for lunch as the train sped across the countryside(not quite as cool at hot chocolate, but still.) Since we had assigned seats, we weren’t fighting for seats; we were fighting for space to put our huge ski suitcases. My host family had put all of the ski stuff(gloves, hats, goggles, jackets, ski pants, ect) into two huge sacks, and every family had at least the equivalent, so space in the luggage racks was tight.

Once we got to the Alps, the train stopped multiple times right after another to let people off at each of the ski areas, but the majority of people rode the train to the end of the line, like us. Once we got off the train at Bourg St. Maurice, we took the funicular to get to Arcs 1600. The funicular is like a monorail that climbs right up the side of the mountain. The floor was slanted so that as we climbed, it felt flat. Once we got to Arcs 1600, we took the free shuttle up to Arcs 1950. The whole area is called Arcs, and there are multiple villages around the mountain, named by their altitude. There is Arcs 1600, Arcs 1800, Arcs 1950, and Arcs 2000.

The train at Bourg St Maurice, with the signs for the funicular. As you can see, it was easy to go straight from the train to the Funicular, especially since everyone was doing it so you could just follow.

Waiting for the shuttle and enjoying the stunning view of the mountains.

Arcs 1950 where we were was really cool. It was right smack in the middle of the mountain, with ski lifts above us, ski lifts below us, and even a ski run that went right through the village. Cars weren’t allowed, so we could walk or ski through the village with no worries. There were restaurants, a grocery store, a ski school and rental store, and a creperie right in the village. There were multiple buildings, connected to each other by “passerelles”(passages, usually on the 4th floor) since the ski run went between the building. There were even indoor/outdoor pools which were lots of fun.

The village

Me in the village

We had 6 great days of skiing, with snow for 2 days and great weather all of the rest of the time. The mountains were just stunning and the runs were so much fun. There was even one run that was 7 kilometers long, from the top of the mountain all of the way down to Arcs 1600. Every single chairlift had ski rests, even the old, slow 3-seaters, which was a shock for me coming from California where if a lift has ski rests and seats 6 it is a "flying couch." Here, there were lifts that seated 8, and even a lift called arcabulle which had a bubble you could pull down if it was cold and snowy or windy.

After finishing the really long black run full of moguls behind me. One of my favorite parts of the trip was that my host dad taught me how to ski moguls, and since he skied so much better than I do, I was really pushed to improve.

The Arcabulle chairlift

There was even a sled run that started at the top of the arcabulle chairlift and went to the bottom of it. I didn't get to do it, but it sure looked like fun as we saw the people under us sledding along.

After a long day of skiing, we would go get crêpes from the amazing creperie in the village. It was so convenient to put our skis in the ski locker in our hotel, put on our shoes, and then get warm crepes. Since it is lent, our choice was limited to butter sugar crepes, since we couldn’t have chocolate our nutella, but they were incredible.

Nights were low-key, with dinner, chilling out, some cards, and watching TV. We watched “N’oubliez pas les paroles”(Don’t forget the lyrics) and The Voice(a version of American Idol where the auditions are done blind.) I was usually so tired that I would be in bed sound asleep by 9:30, trying to have enough energy to be up at 7:45 for another day of skiing.

The meat grilling away. It only took about 2 minutes to cook each one, and with enough space on the grill for about 10 pieces, there was never much waiting but it was always great and hot.

It was funny to hear the English speaking tourists all around me. On the chairlifts or in lines, they would talk as if no one could understand them. At one point, there were two guys behind me in line complaining about the system of lift tickets here and how they were too easy to lose here, continuing on to talk about how, surprisingly, the resort had been really nice about helping them and that for once, the French people had proved to be friendly and helpful. Another time, I was in line for the bathroom and a man behind me asked “Speak English?” and I responded “Oui, I mean, Yes.” However, I still find it frustrating that my accent is so bad that people no right away that I’m American. Like when I was getting my skis and the man asked a question and I responded in French and his next question was “Would you prefer to speak English?” I guess that means I still have a long way to go with my pronunciation.

It was a super fun vacation and I am definitely less than thrilled about the prospect of going back to school again tomorrow. I really hope that someday I can go back to Arcs 1950 with my family to show them the incredible beauty that I got to experience during this week.

The amazing snow-covered mountains

The incredibly beautiful French Alps. The mountain you see in the background that kind of looks like Half Dome is the Mont Blanc, nicknamed the summit of Europe since it is the tallest mountain in Europe.