Last week we took a little family vacation to visit our friends who live in Pontcharra France. I have to say, it was one of the best family vacations we've had. They are great friends who have 2 boys the same age as ours, so traveling and staying with them was so nice. We were also able to really experience France and it's culture by staying with natives. They cooked us wonderful French meals every night, had delicious wine, and we were able to go skiing in the Alps. They actually live in the valley of 2 mountains and it's absolutely gorgeous. We felt like we were in a movie the entire time, driving through tiny French roads and eating things like escargot and frog legs!
On our way to their house from the airport we stopped in a beautiful city to have lunch, escargot, and let the boys run around. They called it their little Venice because it had a canal that ran through the city. It was gorgeous.
The first day the men got to go skiing and the girls stayed home to watch the kids. Zach absolutely loved it and picked it right back up.
The next day the women got to go skiing. Where we went I was able to see Mt. Blanc, where we went skiing 5 years ago with our friends when we lived in England.
I also had the most hilarious (and slightly scary) thing happen while skiing. Sofia and I were feeling confident after mastering the red slopes and decided to try a black slope. It just happened to be an extremely hard black that was not groomed and had moguls (not for me!). We started going down the slope and Sofia turned back around and went down the red one right next to it. I had already started so I kept going. I fell on a mogul and was falling down the mountain and could not stop. Thankfully I was sitting so I wasn't tumbling down the mountain, but I had a brief moment of panic. I finally was able to stop, but I had no idea where my skis were. I sat there for about a minute until a few people came down the slope and found my skis. Thankfully all the French people we ran into were so friendly, even if they didn't speak any English! There was a man waiting in the middle of the slope and I thought he was ski patrol, but turns out he was running a race on the red slope next to us and was keeping people off the mountain. At this point I just wanted to get off the moguls and onto the red slope that was groomed. He said I would have to wait until it was done in about 15 minutes and he would help me. While we were waiting he asked me if I wanted some alcohol. I was a little confused and said no. Two minutes later he was pouring me a shot of liqueur out of his ski pole!! Seriously, who does that? The first pole was actually empty and he had to go to the second one! So I took a shot of who knows what while stranded on the Alps for 45 minutes with a man who kept telling me he could be my friend! He did help me down the mountain, and thankfully Sofia was down there waiting for me. I was very relieved and laughing hysterically at what just happened!
The following day we were able to take the boys up to the mountain and go sledding and Isaac was able to try skiing. It was a beautiful sunny day and the boys were wiped out after!
The adults were able to go out to dinner one night and experience a French delicacy, frog legs. The entire meal was amazing, starting with a salad with duck, frog legs, cheese, wine, and dessert. The French food lived up to the hype!
All the boys played so well together and were sad to say good-bye.
A big thanks to Remi and Sofia for an incredible vacation!
With love,
Janelle
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