Splendid ski semaine Jan.8-15th Montgenevre

The countdown for our ski trip began immediately after Christmas as we had marked it down on the calendar (an awesome Melissa and Doug one that I found at the great kids hair salon in Canada) and excitement was at a peak by the time we set out in the car. The trip started out a little rough, my boys have never been good car passengers, but the excitement didn't help as Andrew was a little out of control, the drive was long (5 hours), scenic, but long, and when we finally arrived in the village of Montgenevre, the snow was coming down hard, the fog was so thick you could barely see 5 feet in front of you and the roads were getting icy, not to mention the parking lot. I got out with Ryan and headed straight to the hotel and when Robert walked in with Andrew about 15 minutes later, we had discovered that we'd left Andrew's winter ski jacket at home! This was a Saturday evening, around 5PM, the snow was coming down harder and harder but we knew the stores would be closed on Sunday so as I checked in, Robert and Andrew took off to go find a ski shop to buy a jacket. As I was checking in, I was advised that the ski school and daycare sign-up were open until 7PM and that Robert and I had to get our ski rentals fitted and picked up by same time. And then Ryan takes a poo. An enormous one that went all the way down his legs to his shoes. And Robert and Andrew are gone, in the car, along with the diaper bag! So there I am, walking around the resort feeling in major need of a glass of wine after the hellish car ride, with Ryan reeking to high heaven, signing him up for daycare, getting my snow boots fitted and ski bindings set and everywhere I walked, people picked up their little ones to smell their bums...and I just felt like putting a sign on me, "IT'S MY BOY'S POO"...but I carried along and managed and it all turned out ok after that! Not sure what was the highlight cuz there were so many. Andrew loved, loved, loved "ski camp". So much so, that he was jumping with excitement when he woke up in the morning and barely wanted to take time to eat his breakfast. The ski/camp instructors were absolutely incredible with the little ones and upon picking him up the first day, he was loudly stating the group mantra, "PUMP IT UP"!!! They did all sorts of activities with the kids in addition to the 2 hours of ski instruction per day. Sledding, building snowmen, games in the snow, face-painting, dances, crafts, toys, movies and on the second last evening, they put together a show for the parents which was fantastic and Andrew loved it and was so proud. He was also very proud when he received his ski diploma and had to stand on the podium and yell, "Pump it Up"! He had such an amazing first experience with skiing and is very keen to go again. Parents could watch their children during lessons but we had to hide so that they could not see us and therefore be distracted from the lesson. It was adorable to watch him...one thing he didn't manage to succeed on was picking himself up after a fall, and I don't think he even tried, he just waited for his favourite female instructor to come along and pick him up. If you ask him the favourite part of the trip, he would say "Alex", who was the female ski instructor and I think it is Andrew's first crush!!! Robert and I got so much time together on the slopes, which was probably the best skiing I've done in my life, in terms of snow conditions, variety and length of slopes and scenery. Ryan went happily, for the most part, into his daycare and it helped that he bonded with a little girl in the group, and that he's already adjusted thanks to the awesome daycare we have for him here. And again, the daycare providers were superb. Our room was very comfortable and even had a separate area with bunk beds for him, where he loved sleeping on the top bunk for the first time. Each day when we returned from skiing, Robert and I had a little more time to ourselves to read or rest, have a glass of hot chocolate, before we went to pick up the boys. From there, we went immediately to the "piscine a balles" which was a little room filled with a jungle gym, ball pit and foam mattresses. We then proceeded to dinner, where we fed the kids in their separate kids dining area and then dropped them off again at 7PM so that Robert and I could go peacefully to the main dining room to eat dinner and drink a couple glasses of delicious wine alone. The food was good, and not cooking it or cleaning up afterwards was GREAT. I think this time around, we were now familiar with most of the French dishes, so we knew what we liked and what we didn't like when choosing from the buffet. Every night, there was at least something that we really enjoyed. The breakfasts were probably our favourite meals of the day though, and we usually prepared a picnic to eat at the lodge on the mountain for lunch while the boys ate with their "camps". Each evening, they had some sort of family entertainment going on, both before dinner and after dinner. Sometimes the four of us listened to the live band before dinner but we chose not to participate in most of the after-dinner events as we were all pretty knackered by 8:30/9PM and went straight to the room with the boys. But one night, I took Andrew to the show they put on, The Beauty and the Beast, (and Andrew corrected me, "it's La Belle et la Bete maman") and it was extremely well done. I would so highly recommend this place to anyone looking for an affordable all-inclusive ski vacation with kids, in France. Of course it came with a few French idiosyncrasies though. Like the lights in the corridors of the hotel were on a timer, to go off after about a minute, so half the time we were walking to our room, all of a sudden it would be pitch black, and I couldn't even see Ryan in front of me, let alone find the switch on the wall. (which is so common here, all lights go off after 30 seconds to a minute, doesn't matter where you go!) And the elevators could hold 3 people comfortably and 4 if you really squished in which was particularly fun on arrival day and leaving day when everyone had all their luggage to shlep in and out! But we came home rejuvenated and thrilled with our holiday that had exceeded our expectations in practically every way. Before we went to bed that night, Robert was surfing the net and when I peeked at what he was doing, I found him searching for cruises...our next holiday!