Blogs from Chamonix, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe - page 3

Hey everybody! WEll, the past week or so has gone by seriously fast. It was mostly regular stuff, kids were at school and I was working hard to catch up on to do's after Richard went home. I met up with another Canadian aupair, Ian who has family in the Kelowna area so he knew where I actually lived. We met with Kim, the other Canadian aupair I met the week before so it was quite cool and I didn't mind hanging out in the 3 crowd. Generally speaking, I tend to try for one on one or lots of people because usually it is awkward for someone in a 3...just a Chloe thing. Anyways, our waiter at the restaurant ended up being Hungarian despite sounding French so we had a cool chat about Hungary. I ... read more

As I flew into Geneva to meet my Kiwi friend Neil for a weeks snowboarding in the Chamonix valley of the French Alps I couldn't quite contain the excitement, little did I know that the holiday would far exceed all of the expectations I had laid upon it. We drove from Geneva to the Alps at night and the excitment grew as we passed shadows of mountains, heavier and heavier snow falls and noticed great banks of snow piled on the sides of the road. We arrived in our resort - Argentiere - very late and fell straight to sleep with dreams of mountains and fresh powdery snow in our heads. Waking up did not disappoint, it was a winter wonderland directly out of the window of the hostel room. The view was of snow capped ... read more

Here is our FIRST SKI TRIP!!! We joined a group of people in which Mark works with to go to Chamonix, France for 3 days and 3 nights. We flew from Newcastle to Geneve, Switzerland and then drove to Chamonix. The drive was nice because it was lightly snowing and this got all of us in the mood to ski the next day. For those that are thinking of doing this, the drive was about 1 hour with light traffic. When we got there (with the help of our handy dandy GPS unit), we checked in and then went exploring through the town. Wow! The city is incredible!!! Imagine Vail Village (for those who have been...) but actually authentic!! Kaitlyn says that the Village reminded her of Grandpa Marek's Christmas Village he would set up each ... read more

Christmas officially started when Rosy arrived back from the UK on Sunday 21st with still warm homemade mince pies. They had to be opened and investigated at customs but made it through luckily! Monday night we had the office Christmas do, roast turkey dinner followed by the best ever sticky toffee pudding plus loads of free wine and I think secret santa had some inside info this year as I got Bugsy Malone DVD! Tuesday late start in the office with morning after hangovers & gossip but Rosy & Rory had volunteered to go to Carrefour to do the Christmas food shopping. They managed to get most things but we had to do a tour of the supermarkets in town to get the cranberry sauce and sprouts. Christmas Eve in the office, more homemade mince pies, ... read more

At last my first day on the mountain ! After several false dawns when the weather conditions were just too adverse, I set off yesterday finally for some fresh air and fresh powder at La Tour with Suzy and Susanna. It has been snowing loads, about 2m up top so I was glad to finally get out on the mountain as I was getting a bit of mid season blues already, if that's possible in December? My healthy tan has deteriorated rapidly after 6 weeks of sleepless nights in the bunkbed, I now have dark rings under my eyes and the patisserie habit is starting to affect my waistline. Instead of waterproof mascara, this winter I'll be using a lot of Radiant Touch! This season I am making use of my free ski and boot hire ... read more