Last Monday was my parents last full day in Germany. I took the afternoon off and we were able to attend the Fasching Parade in our town. For the last two years, the Fasching parade has fallen on Presidents’ Day weekend so we’ve missed it and were glad to finally be able to attend. Compared to the previous day’s parade in Weil der Stadt, this one was a little smaller, had much smaller participating guilds, and not as many bands. However, despite the long route around the town lake, it was much more crowded and unfortunately, had a little more pushing and shoving for a place to view the displays from.
The entire parade still took almost two hours to work its way past us and we were entertained by the witches and fools. It’s something we would still return to in future years if schedules worked out, but we will just have to find a less compact area to view the parade from.
On Tuesday, we took my parents back to Zürich Airport and said a tearful goodbye. It will probably be summer before we see them again.
We came home and watched my parents’ flight on the FlightAware app and just like last year, their plane flew right over our house again. After we saw them fly over, we took a nap to catch up on rest after the early morning.
On Wednesday and Thursday, we stayed home and caught up on school, work, and sleep.
Thursday night, the wrestling team held their end-of-season banquet. Brooklyn was honored for her role as manager. We were all laughing to see that her team nickname is “The Antagonist” since she loves to tease everyone. She earned another varsity letter and a manager pin so was quite happy with herself. We were so proud of her too.
Presidents Day Weekend is a four day weekend for us so we got up bright and early Friday morning to head to Chamonix, France, for a full weekend of skiing. We dropped the dogs off first thing and then got on the road immediately to start the long drive. The route took us through beautiful parts of Switzerland we had never scene before; through the foothills of the Alps, past Lake Geneva, and up over the winding road over the huge, Mont de l’Arpille. We were so glad it hadn’t snowed recently or we may not have made it. The road markers for snow plows were over six feet tall!
We made it all the way there in less than six hours, with only one stop for gas. We headed straight to the Montenvers cogwheel train, which would take us up to the Mer de Glace. The Mer de Glace, literally ‘Sea of Ice’ in French, is a glacier on the slopes of Mont Blanc and at over 7km long and over 600ft deep, it is one of the largest glaciers in Europe. The Montenvers railway has been operating since the early 1900s, bringing tourists up the mountain to look out onto the glacier and visit its ice cave.
The glacier was much higher then, having shrunk by a third and receded about 2300 meters since 1939. Prior to the 20th century, the glacier had barely changed in size.
We rode the cogwheel train up in about 20 minutes and checked out the viewing platform, cafe, and gift shop. Unfortunately, we were too early in the year to be able to ride the gondola down to the valley and see the Ice Cave, which is hollowed out every year in the Spring. It was still cool to check out though. Surprisingly, the glacier makes a lot of noise as it is constantly in motion. After the noisy crowd thinned out on the viewing platform, we realized we were hearing lots of cracking noises, some of them really loud snaps. At first we thought we were about to witness an avalanche, but Ryan then explained it was the noise of the glacier moving through the valley. The ice is compacting and de-compacting and cracking as it moves. Apparently, he learned about this in his science class last year.
We rode the cogwheel train back down to Chamonix and passed a mountain coaster on the way. Since we had time, we all took a ride. Before checking into our rental apartment, we stopped at Carrefour for one of my favorite hobbies: shopping at the French supermarket. We all picked out some treats and breakfast for the apartment, and I added some wine to take home.
Afterwards, we got unpacked at our apartment and then walked down to Chamonix town center. Most restaurants don’t even open until 7pm, so we walked around checking out different stores and picking future restaurants to eat at before heading to our dinner reservation at Brasserie L’M.
We had chosen this restaurant because it had Onion Soup for me and a burger that the kids wanted to eat. Unfortunately, after we were seated, we discovered there was no longer a burger on the menu. So, the kids and I decide to have the “Parade of Beef” after the soup. We were shocked when they brought out a cooking platter and a huge plate of raw meat. Apparently, you cook the Parade of Beef at the table in a very similar way to Korean BBQ. The meat was good, and the potatoes it was served with, even better. After dinner, we finished off the night back at the apartment with a round of Phase 10.
Saturday morning, we were up bright and early and headed to the Prarion lift, about 15 minutes west of where we were staying in Les Houches. It has been unseasonably warm the past two weeks and there was limited snow in the valley, so we really had to search for some higher elevation ski areas. The Prarion lift took us up to the St. Gervais ski area and oh my! What a beautiful view directly overlooking Mont Blanc from the top of the gondola. It was gorgeous.
We all took the necessary, pre-ski photos and headed out. Matt was very nervous due to this being his first time out on skis since his accident. Actually, we were all pretty nervous that day. We took it slow, with long breaks in between runs and eventually, we just let the kids go and do their own thing for awhile.
I also somehow lost my phone. I realized it had fallen out of my pocket within about 15 seconds of putting it in there, but when I turned around, it was gone! Phone service was limited so I was unable to ping it, or see its location. We skiied up and down, asking lift operators if it had been turned in with no luck. Finally, we walked up to the highest altitude we could find and finally got a bar of service to put the phone into Lost Phone Mode. Within a minute, the person who had it was able to call me and tell me that they found it and had turned it in at the bottom of the Prairon gondola. Apparently, he was the ski instructor and his group had skiied right past me as I dropped my phone and he picked it up. He didn’t see me drop it or would have just given it back to me. I still just can’t believe we missed each other by mere seconds. Anyways, we took the gondola all the way back down to obtain the phone and then had to ride all the way back up. The whole encounter probably took up an hour, but it was a good excuse for a break. At that point, it was time for the kids to check in with us at the restaurant and they were hungry so we had a beautiful lunch, right on the edge of a terrace overlooking Mont Blanc.
After lunch we did a little more skiing around, taking it easy on some blue slopes. At this point, it was getting very slushy on some of the trails and even some spots where the dirt underneath was coming up through the thin snow. Unfortunately, Matt did have a small fall that hurt his knee in one of these sections, but nothing too serious, Thank God! After that, we decided we were done on skis for the day and headed back down in the gondola.
Despite the lost phone and fall, it was a great day out in the sunshine and fresh air, and enjoying the views. The skiing for us wasn’t that bad and the kids did get an opportunity to go off on their own to seek their own thrills.
When we got back to Chamonix, the kids elected to hang out in the apartment while Matt and I tried out the Chamonix apres-ski scene. We headed down to La Folie Douce hotel. La Folie Douce is a chain of restaurants and hotels in France, known for their lively apres-ski parties. I wouldn’t necessarily call this one as lively as some of the mountain huts with DJs and dancing, but it was definitely popular.
Afterwards, Matt and I took a quick walk around town to take some pictures as all of ours from the previous day in town were taken after dark.
Finally, it was time for dinner, this time at La Paniere. Here, they had an even better onion soup than the night before. I had wanted to try fondue, but most restaurants only serve it for a minimum of two people per table. As no one in my family likes cheese, that meant no fondue for me. This restaurant though, had fondue for one so it was just my luck. I can’t lie though- I didn’t love it. It was just too much cheese (and yes I know thats the point of fondue, I just didn’t expect to be so tired of it, so quickly). The kids and Matt liked their meals though and we finished it off with a Creme Brûlée so I would call it a great dinner overall.
After dinner, we started walking back to our apartment and ran into some friends on the street. It still kind of shocks me when we run into people we know across Europe.
On Sunday, we decided to try a different ski area. This time we headed about 15 minutes east of where we were staying to the Vallorcine gondola, which took us up to the Col de Balme ski area. It was a little discerning rising over the mountain’s edge as there was no snow at all facing the valley. But when we got over the ridge at the top, WOW!! If we thought yesterday was beautiful at St. Gervais, this was breathtaking! It was almost like being on the moon because there were no trees or vegetation, just white snow and black rocks. The only color were people’s clothes. The ski area is huge and you can see across for miles.
One thing of note is that there was only one chair lift in the whole ski area; the rest were individual drag lifts, which require the rider to stand and be dragged the whole way up. These were pretty hard on Matt’s knee. After a few runs to warm up, we set the kids free and Matt and I went to have a coffee at one of the mountain huts.
After the kids got some of their own, more adventurous runs in, we met back up again at the little mountain hut. Then, we skiied a couple more runs over to another valley, where there was a bigger restaurant for lunch.
To my extreme pleasure and surprise, they had Onion Soup, making it the most magical ski lunch I’ve ever had. There was also pizza and pasta for the kids.
After our late lunch, clouds were starting to move in and not wanting to be left on the mountain again, ála Garmisch 2022, we took the only chair lift back up the mountain and made the long trek back across to the Vallorcine gondola and back down to the car, just in time for closing.
When we got back into Chamonix, we all took a short nap, before Matt and I headed back to La Folie Douce for another apres-ski, this time meeting some of our other friends for a drink. Afterwards, we headed to dinner at Satsuki Japanese restaurant.
Matt told us that our reservation was for a low table, but he assured us we would not be sitting on the floor. I’m sure you can anticipate what happened next; we were seated on cushions on the floor at the table! Just what you want after a weekend of skiing and with achy knees! 🤣 It was so funny! The food was amazing and we all had fun, although I think we were laughing a little too much for the French patrons at the next table. 😉
On Monday morning, we packed up and said goodbye to our Chamonix apartment. On the way home, we stopped for food in Montreaux and took in the views of Lake Geneva. It was a calm and clear day, and the lake was beautiful.
We picked up the dogs and were home by early evening, in time to complete a couple of loads of laundry and get ready for the week ahead.
Gilcrests Abroad 