Blog Ani i Radka
CERN ski course outing number 3 – Saint-Gervais. Every week I get better and better at skiing. It makes me so happy to see my progress but most of all, it becomes more and more fun on the slopes. Of course, I am still in my „a bit scared” phase when on the skis but I gain confidence with every hour.
Both days were kind of gloomy, Radek had slightly better weather than I did. Nevertheless, it didn’t really matter because the nature still looked spectacular. I just love winter mountains.
Ski adventure continues… This weekend we’re in La Clusaz. Our second outing with CERN Ski Club was a real blast. We had been closely observing the weather the week before as the snow level in the Alps was rather alarming. Fortunately, just a night before Saturday temperatures had dropped and it had been snowing. What a relief 🙂
My turn was on Saturday. I had rather difficult conditions as it was pretty cold and it was snowing all the time. You won’t see many lovely photos from my outing but nevertheless I enjoyed the views even if they were a bit misty. I managed to go down a blue piste for the first time in my life – a challenge that was rewarded by the sunny spells!
Radek had more luck on his day as it was bright and sunny all the time. I can’t really say a lot about his outing as I wasn’t there but I can assure you he had lots of fun. He’s getting way ahead of me with his skills, I really need to catch up!
Longly awaited by us skiing course has begun! The next 5 weekends in a row we will spend on pistes, doing shu shu shu. I am very happy that we get to try yet another new thing for us. It’s a pity that we won’t exactly share this experience with Radek. I mean, we will share it but separetly, as I attend the course on Saturdays and Radek on Sundays. Also, our level is a bit different as my husband already did some skiing last year and I am a complete rookie. This also means that our blog will be flooded by poor quality cell phone photos but on the other hand I promise you lots of beautiful winter mountains landscape.
On our first outing we went to Les Gets. Although the snow is nearly non-existent, for a beginner like me it was just fine. I had lovely weather, some nice views and lots of fun. I already know I like skiing 🙂 Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t break a leg.
Finally, it’s this time of the year, my favourite without any doubt. I am happy we could spend Christmas with family and friends this year. We celebrated Christmas Eve with all our family sitting at one table (17 people children not counted). Before that we had done lots of Christmas preparations like decorating a tree, cooking pierogi or setting up winter decorations. First day of Christmas meant more family visits to us. On the second day of Christmas we organised a meeting to all our closest friends – a traditions that was started 10 years ago and has been cherished ever since. I am grateful that I have so many dear people around me and that I can share those moments with them.
Our visit passed quickly and we never had a moment for ourselves to rest. We had lots of visits, did some walks in the city greenery, went shopping a couple of times, did even more visits… Despite having such a busy time we managed to rest a bit and charge the batteries for the New Year.
On our way back home (by home I mean France now) we experienced a little setback… I mean, it’s winter so it was nothing very unexpected but recent high temperatures dulled our vigilance. And here’s what we encountered…
Fortunately we made it safely to Saint Genis and we are back to our everyday life ready for new challenges. Next on: ski course in the Alps!
It’s already winter in mountains. Maybe not too fierce one but there’s enough snow to go sledging with our baby boy. We decided to hike to a neighbouring Petit Mont Rond which was more of a walk to us. Starting from Col de la Faucille where there was snow already, we mounted our little one on a sledge and followed the now unused ski pistes.
The day turned out to be pretty favourable for our outing. Although the skies have been covered with clouds, every now and then we had a sun spell that would cover the world with a nice yellow glow.
When we reached the top we were stunned by the view. Clouds were high enough not to cover the Alps chain so we saw all of it! Spectacular.
After a while of photo taking, nature gazing and snow play, we went down on a sledge ride. It’s way faster than the way up 🙂
Christmas is coming. I really can’t hide my excitation, I am like a child when it comes to celebrations. And Christmas is like the queen of all celebrations to me. I just love this time. I love everything about it – Christmas songs starting early November, lovely decorated cities all sparkling with lights, choosing gifts for family, sending postcards… And the time spent with family and friends during Christmas is just magical to me. I really wait all year long for this period (and although it sounds like I am exaggerating – I am not!). Christmas markets are a part of the charm and I try to attend at least one of them. The one in Coppet is really nice, situated in an old castle in a little village close to Geneva.
Having tried vin chaud (widely known as Gluhwine or mulled wine) and having bought 3l of it, we entered the castle chambers to submerge ourselves in Christmas spirit. Wow, so many inspirations – for gifts, Christmas decor, dishes… I really had to limit myself and we ended up buying truffle cheese which is the best cheese I have ever tasted, some smoked ham and formerly mentioned Gluhwine.
Today I went with a friend for one of my last raquettes hikes in this winter. Due to high temperatures snow was very wet and heavy and if the weather continues on an astonishing 20 degrees level, soon there will be no sign of white at this height.
Our destination today: 1770 m pour la Bourgeoise – a nice round walk with a magnificent panaroma over an Haute-Savoie massif.
An ascent was very mild with a constant view on the Samoens valley. Pretty soon we reached La Bourgeoise cross where two trails met: for snowshoes hikers and skiers. We enjoyed the views and stopped for a small picnic there.
For a descent, we first came down the same road in order to soon join a different trail that lead alongside a skiers’ route up to le col de Joux Plane where we parked the car. We passed by a lot of families with children, some did the track in backpacks with their parents, some had tiny snowshoes and other slid in sledges. I hope that some day I will do this route with my little Wojtek.
Today I went for a snowshoe hike with a couple of friends – Agnieszka and Rafał. We chose Col de Cenise (1787 m.) for our destination. It was more of a walk than a real hike – with only 500 m of elevation and the temperatures so high it felt like summer up there. In fact, there were people hiking without proper clothing, hoping to get a tan. The route lead through a beautiful valley between the mountains I am ashamed to admit I don’t know names of 🙂 We reached the cross within 90 minutes and spent there some time picnicking and enjoying the sun.
Since we still had some time and a lot of power left, we decided not to end our trip with the col. Instead we went a bit up to see what’s behind the hill and then we headed towards the rocks, off the firm route. This was good choice because the surrounding became less crowded and way more wild and beautiful. Also, the snowshoes came in handy at last. It was real fun to shove through virgin snow, making almost the only footsteps around.
Our way back lead through the footsteps of the hills. We walked practically alone and needed to watch out for snow caps that formed by the wind and could easily drop causing a small avalanche that would be dangerous for us. We tried to keep away from such places although they looked really spectacular. Fortunately, we managed to take a couple of photos of such overhangs.
It seems like the winter is over (with the temperatures ~18 dg C.) so it’s time for a winter photo post. This year there were not so many occasions for taking proper winter shots. The ones that look truly cold and winterish are taken in the mountains. Nevertheless, the springish photos taken in December and January look nice too 🙂
Evian:
Jura mountains:
Le Turet:
Col de la Faucille:
La Chevrerie:
We waited with our trip to Chamonix for a perfect weather. We chose Thursday and we were not disappointed. Chamonix is a marvelous place where you can feel what high Alps mean. So as soon as we arrived on place we bought a day ticket for all lifts and we went to queue for Aiguille du Midi lift that took us on a great height of 3842 m.
I was on Aiguille du Midi in 2010 but this time a new attraction called „Step Into The Void” waited for me. It was a lot of fun for me but some people were seriously scared.
We spent lots of time up there especially that the sun that day warmed us nicely. So when we went down we needed to be hurry to catch up our second attraction „Mer de Glace”. Fortunately after a 30 min ride on a very nice train we were able to see and even lick the longest glacier in France.
After so many attractions we went back home to eat something tasty.
