Singing (er, Skiing) in the Rain
When we awoke this morning there was maybe a half inch of snow on our porch rail, but that quickly melted down to nothing. It was so warm that it was mostly raining at our hotel. We had hoped to take a train ride to see "La Mer de Glace", the glacier, but they were operating on a limited basis due to the weather. So we opted to ski at a lower resort, Les Houches, just 10 minutes from our hotel.
Les Houches is definitely a resort with a family feel to it; there is nothing too difficult to ski there. It was raining there too, pretty much everywhere on the mountain. We had difficulty skiing because we had to keep stopping to wipe off our goggles! After about an hour of skiing, we stopped at a restaurant at the top, soaking wet, to dry out a little bit. We ended up having lunch there (quiche!) and it was pretty good. We enjoyed talking with the friendly Dutch cashier. We were so wet that we decided to leave early and call it a day.
When you're skiing in the rain, it's not very comfortable to pull out your camera and start taking pictures. That's why most of our pictures today were taken inside!
On the way down the mountain in the gondola, I surveyed the map.
Les Houches is a really cute little town. Brock took this photo as we descended in the gondola.
We frequently run into friendly people in France. We spoke with two nice British men in the parking lot who were also leaving, and they were kind enough to take our picture.
Our ski suits were so wet that we asked our hotel clerk to wash them for us! They definitely needed it any way.
We spent the early part of the afternoon at a spa in Les Houches that is owned by the same company as our hotel in Chamonix. It was a really nice spa. We enjoyed the sauna, jacuzzi, pool, and some water features and super strong jets in the pool.
All relaxed, we returned to our hotel and stopped in the bar. Brock is very proud of his Chamonix Olympics t-shirt, which we bought at the Olympic Museum gift shop in Lausanne, and his hat that we bought yesterday while visiting L'Aiguille du Midi.
Brock enjoyed a really nice local beer that he would like to share with you all. We hope we can find this beer when we return to Nashville!
I have had this shirt for years and wore it often while living in Big Sky, but it absolutely needed to be worn while visiting Chamonix!
It's a small world! Our hotel manager, Andrew, who is excellent, recommended a place for dinner for us called the "Big Horn Bistro". He picked the perfect place for us! It turns out that the owner of this place, Hannah, is an American who used to live in Cody, Wyoming and Bozeman, Montana! The decor is of the American West, and the "Big Horn" is an American bistro. Naturally we felt right at home! Our meal was wonderful, and it was fun talking with Hannah and her Australian husband, Rhys.
We have had a terrific time in Chamonix. It is now dumping snow at our hotel, and the snow is supposed to continue tomorrow, which means there will be more great skiing ahead. We're really sorry but it's time for us to leave. Tomorrow we need to pack up and drive to a suburb of Geneva near the airport. On Saturday we fly from Geneva to Barcelona, Spain, then we will rent a car and drive to Andorra.