Considering the fact that our very first vacation in France was indeed a very French vacation, I thought it appropriate to entitle this blog entry in French. I have been meaning to write about our wonderful week for days now but the days somehow escape me. Robert left this morning for Florida (and although I am having significant regrets now about not joining him on his business trip - I had made the decision shortly after our return from Toronto, which also happened to be shortly after our jetlag from hell!) In any event, I am going to try to make good use of the time by a)catching up on my blog b)catching up on my mail/passport app., etc. and c)catch up on all my favorite tv shows that I have just recently figured out how to download onto a CD and watch in the DVD player. (must say, I'm most excited about the latter activity!)
Our ski trip began on Saturday morning; while Andrew and I attended his 8:30am swim class, Daddy loaded the car, made the picnic lunch, and closed the apartment up for the week. We packed ourselves into the car and with the help of mapquest (or whatever the French equivalent is), we were on our way. The first 3 hours were smooth sailing...then we hit traffic...i.e. everybody else in French and their six children packed into vehicles smaller than Honda Civics heading to the mountains on Spring Break for a week of skiing. We didn't realize at the time we booked our trip that it was Spring Break, but in the end it worked out well as Andrew had lots of children to play with in the daycare. We made it through the traffic and a couple hours (and a few wrong turns) later, we pulled into the village of Orcieres. The scenery was breathtaking. Our room (though modest and typical of a non-fancy ski lodge) had the most amazing view of the mountains. The resort itself was perfect; and included everything but the kitchen sink. We did not spend one dime while we were there, and thanks to the subsidy provided by the Employee Club at Amadeus, we did not have to spend much on the trip itself.
The first day, we woke up early (with Andrew's assistance) and headed down for breakfast. Very French indeed. The French do not eat such things as bacon, eggs, sausage or toast for breakfast. Instead the buffet was full of delicious pastries (mostly chocolate flavored/filled), wonderful cheeses, ham, baguettes, croissants, yogourt, fruit, cereal (chocolate flavored of course) and the most delicious coffee we have ever drank. (the coffee part is unusual as I have found little desire for the French stuff I've had in many cafes so far, and I must say, I am very glad it was a serve yourself coffee station as the cups that are generally provided for coffee hold little more than a sip) After breakfast, we registered Andrew for the daycare but they recommended that we only do a half day for the first time. So we had some cozy downtime in our room, got our stuff prepared for the slopes, had a family lunch and off we went to the dreaded day care facility to drop off my little baby. I think I was actually shaking and am glad that Andrew did not notice. Since parents were not permitted inside, I had to hand him over to one of the ladies (who did not speak English) and fortunately, he eagerly went. It was not until the door had closed behind us upon exiting that we heard him shrieking his lungs off. That was hard. Though we did say that we wouldn't be gone for too long and to be sure and call our mobile phone if Andrew did not settle down. Robert and I jumped on the two minute shuttle to the mountain and were on the chairlift desperately wondering how our little guy was holding out, and checking our mobile phone every five minutes for any messages or missed calls. We got in a few good runs and decided to head back to the resort to rescue our boy. We saw him before he saw us and we were happy to see he was busy reorganizing the toy shelf by pulling every single toy off the shelf and onto the floor. The next couple of times, I put Daddy on drop-off duty and though it got progressively easier throughout the week, he still freaked out when he saw the big scary purple door that lead to the day care. Almost every time we picked him up, he was busy playing or having a snack (chocolate flavored of course!)
Robert and I thoroughly enjoyed the skiing. Blue sky and sunny every single day. The ski conditions were perfect, the snow was incredible and the scenery surrounding us was to die for. We enjoyed some quality together time, the first of which we've had in a long time. We requested a picnic lunch the night before each ski day which we brought along and ate at the chalet section of the mountain that was owned by the resort we were staying at. My biggest laugh of the entire trip was when Robert lost his lunch. To begin, Robert is someone who likes to take many stops down the mountain...he needs to adjust his goggles, fix his ski boot, put on or take off clothes, blow his nose, etc. I couldn't complain as I am much slower descending the moutain than him. So, here we are in the line up to the lift and Robert needs to find a place to store his lunch. (you bring it up the mountain with you and store it in the chalet until you are ready to eat) So, he's fiddling and fussing, trying to find a place to put his lunch, so that he could hold his poles with his hands. He decided to shove it down the front of his jacket, nestled in his chest underneath the top of the ski pants. Well the lunch was causing some significant discomfort as by the time we got to the front of the lift line, he declared that his lunch was sitting on his balls. So...of course we need to fiddle and fuss some more, and let people behind us in line go ahead) and I'm already laughing. He gets his lunch in a more comfortable position and up the mountain we go. We were on a chair that held six people and there happened to be a dad and two younger children on with us. Well, as we are doing the typical scurrying to get off the chair and out of the way so as not to bump into anybody else getting off, one of the children PLOWS into Robert. Robert goes flying, the skis falls off, and of course the lunch (god knows where it was stashed) goes FLYING, the plastic baggy breaks and the contents go everywhere...and I am absolutely going to pee my pants laughing! Robert found no humour in the situation at first, was rather annoyed, and said "the hell with my lunch", abruptly put his skis back on, and took off down the mountain leaving sandwiches, cookies, salad, water bottles, etc. dispersed throughout the snow. Through my tears of laughter, I picked up as much as I could, stuffed my pockets and ski pants and followed him down the mountain. I had several laugh attacks that week reflecting on this incident, and Robert joined in on most of them as he found it much funnier after the fact!!!
Our week was filled with many yummy meals and glasses of red wine, quiet, cozy and early evenings (in bed by 9 every night), swimming in the glass-enclosed indoor swimming pool, lots and lots of playtime with Burbujitas and some much needed sleep for all three of us. We are so looking forward to doing it again, and especially cannot wait until Andrew can join us on the slopes, which will be less than two years away.
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