There's a whole lot of snow in the Alps.
The snow has arrived in the Alps...well, it had already arrived on the top, but this week it decided to join us on the ground! But as quick as it arrived, it left again, and has been teasing us all week with little smatterings here and there. As we have been driving around and visiting local places though we have seen a lot of snow!
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| The fog the day before the snow hit, it created a ring around the mountain |
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| Hello snow! |
About an hour away is a small village called Bonneval. We decided to drive out there this week to check it out. It is on the border of a national park but seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The snow had already hit Bonneval a while ago by the look of the ground when we arrived. Even though it was snowing, people were still doing work on their buildings, with one guy on his roof, removing the snow so he could replace the tiles. Made me feel like a fair weather DIY-er...although I suppose if needs must, I'd rather do that than have a constant leak all winter.
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| Noisy sheep with big bells tied round their necks |
On the way to Bonneval we passed a collection of 8 forts perched on the edge of the cliff which looked pretty impressive.
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| Fort Victor Emmanuel |
A couple of weeks ago we had Marilyn and Malcolm round for dinner, some friends of John's, whose house we are currently staying in. This week we went to visit them for dinner in their cosy house a few villages away from us. They cooked us a lovely meal and gave us some good tips on places to visit in the area. They have been living in the area for the past few years and gradually doing up their house which is really nice.
We also discovered Lac Bleu this week, a lake that's just outside La Chambre which is pretty popular for swimming (I'm assuming in the summer) apparently. We enjoyed a walk around it, and a play in the playground...
We attempted to drive up a couple of mountain passes to see what we could see from the top, only as the weather also decided to turn that day we didn't make it the entire way (we decided it was best not to test the escort too much as we still need it to get us home) - but we still got some amazing views and snowy vistas.
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| This is about where we decided we should turn around... |
The snow inspired us to get Christmassy, so we may have started watching a few Christmas films...the French definitely don't market Christmas the same way the UK does. Only in the last week have we really started noticing the music in the shops and the larger Christmas displays...I feel like it starts in September at home!
This weekend we travelled to Morzine, a large ski resort a couple of hours north of where we are, to visit Ali, a friend of Alex's who lives and works there. It was a bit of a culture shock as soon as we arrived. As it is a tourist place and full of international skiers and snowboarders throughout the season we were greeted in English everywhere we went (a little different to being the only English in the village for the past month!). We also noticed the sheer amount of people there compared to the villages we have been to recently. The official ski season starts in Morzine in a weeks time so there were lots of new faces arriving getting ready to work the season - so most people we met assumed we were amongst these budding sporty types. Not quite.
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| Ali's flat (the one on the left...) |
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| The view from Ali's flat |
Yesterday we returned to Annecy to visit the Christmas market, have a bit of vin chaud (mulled wine) and generally get ourselves in the Christmassy spirit! As well as the market there was quite an impressive light show projected on to the Hotel de Ville (town hall).
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| Part of the light show projected on to the town hall |
Great blog Hazel, loving all the snowy pics and the pics of the town hall with the light show! As u Essex ppl say i'm 'well jel!' x
Totes loads of snow here today...thanks Lynn. Hope you're all well! I wonder if the snow will follow me home for Christmas...