Let it Snow

Woowee a lot to catch up on!

I had a great Christmas here in Toulouse and managed to set an eating record among the frogs: 3 Christmases in less than 2 days (and I only had my sights set on a personal best...imagine if 'd really gone for it??). We celebrated the reveillon , or Christmas Eve, with Gisèle's boyfriend's family at his daughter's new home. We had all kinds of traditional seafood appetizers: scallops, oysters, shrimp, plus the requesite foie gras served on little toasts with a sweet champagne jam, and her spin on foie gras macarons. And that was just the appetizers. I can't go on because my stomache is starting to hurt, but that gives you just an idea of what a feat 3 meals in 2 days was. 

Afer all that chow I hauled myself over to the Alps for a week of skiing. I went to Les Arcs in Bourg St Maurice with a colleague who works for a French non-profit that organizes all kinds of sporty vacations all over the country. The morning of I had one of those uh...what am I doing moments as I was going essentially alone (she would be working the whole time) and would be meeting all kinds of people and speaking in French the whole time. I mean, I know I can be incredibly funny and witty in English, but what if these new frogs didn't get my humor?? Then got on the train and was on my way.

In the end I had an absolutely fabulous time. Part of the vacation package was intensive ski lessons from 9am to 5pm. I was in a higher level of skiers and essentially in a group with all men in their mid-30s. Talk about testosterone fest. But really, they were a great group of guys, very nice and quick to make fun of themselves so there was no shame in all the falls we took. They quickly began the trend of teaching me a new French expression every day ( some guy on my train on the way there had jokingly said I had the vocabulary of a French grandmother and since then I was on a mission to up my cool status with more up-to-date expressions). We even did half a day in English since allegedly all ski instructors are required to speak English too and most of the other guys used it for work...it was a good laugh.

Our ski instructor was such a veteran, literally the oldest there, something of a legend (on the slopes as well as at the bar). You know, the one who has been there since the place opened in the 80s, the kind of guy who skis in sunglasses and nothing else even when its dumping snow, who is always retelling a story of the « old days » when they would stop off for a 4-hour Savoiard lunch and finish so sloshed it was a feat to get back down the mountain. He had a penchant for off-trails which I learned right off the bat as I found myself at the top a a 40° slope (I'm talking reach back and touch the moutain behind you on the way down) surrounded by boulders on both sides for our warm up. Our conversations usually went like this:
« OK to today we'll start off nice and easy, just take a blue trail down to warm up....then maybe some off trail a little later this afternoon. »
100 meters later: « Ok well maybe we'll do some off trail this morning since the snows so good; »
100 meters later: « Oh, well, come on, how about some off trail? »
50 meters later we dip off into the woods.

But really it was wonderful as it was stuff I would never have done myself and I feel I progressed a ton in a week of lessons. Three days in we were dumped with 60cm of snow and skiing of trail took on a whole new meaning as I found myself in powder over my knees! At that point the most strenuous part of the skiing was pulling myself up out of the snow after each fall which sometimes required supplemental assistance.

Now I'm back in Toulouse and I must say leaving the mountains and going back to work was rough. Everyone came into the staff room with alarm clock horror stories (snoozing 3 times, missing it completely, and waking up in a confused stupor or under the assumption there was a national emergency to name a few). Here are some photos from the skiing...

A bientôt!