France 2011 - Meribel

On to the skiing part of our trip. This is our third time with this group, in this town, staying at the same chalet. Why? Because it has been wonderful. French food. Jaw dropping scenery. And some mediocre skiing. Oh well.

This sign says it all for this year. Our trip two years ago had storm after storm of wonderful powder. This year was a warm sunny year for Meribel. Their base was weak and the weather had already kicked into spring skiing.

Eventually we discovered that this was a poor translation for "thin cover". As you will see later, I translated it to "Thank God for rental skis".



While the skiing up at the highest elevations was ok, here is a look at what we came down through every afternoon.



... and a close-up. This can be tough on the knees and leg muscles. You don't ski on it. You ski through it.



One morning we woke to the biggest enemy of snow: rain. Eventually it changed to snow, and then stopped.



As a photographer, it provided some fun things to capture. I was trying to convince my pocket camera to do the right exposure to capture the snow melting into a puddle.



A simple picture taken from within our chalet, but it actually packs quite a few stories.

The woman on the left is Jennifer. She was hit by a snowboarder last year and shattered her leg. She had surgery in France to pin the bones, and later had surgery to redo that, fixing it correctly this time. Now she is riding horses again and was skiing wonderfully.

In the middle is Norman. He is the one who has set up every ski trip we have done in France. We are at 5 now. Norman is a great trip planner and makes it so easy to be a part of the expedition.

On the right we have Paul Simson. Paul is the president of an insurance company in Raleigh. In his spare time, he plays a little golf. This year he won the Canadian, US and British Senior Amateur Opens. He won the Canadian by 15 strokes! Quite simply, in the golf world of senior amateurs, he is kicking global ass.

And finally, on the table, we have our afternoon cheese and wine serving. I gained several pounds on this trip.



The food was awesome and the wine never seemed to stop flowing. Dick decided to document all the food we were served, so this odd ritual was a nightly experience.



And this is the key to our love for our chalet. This wonderful couple, Sam and Alice, were our hosts and chefs for the week. Sam was a great cook (breakfast and dinner every day) and Alice was a great hostess, helped cook, and was of the nicest, sweetest, cutest people you have ever met. Sam is a very lucky man.



And yes, we did get out and ski. Meribel is one of three valleys, all interconnected with lifts. We could easily ski into Courchevel or Val Thorens.



Our lift passes got us access to about 200 ski lifts. They ranged from huge trams to the antiquated torture device you see below. As a contrast, most big US ski areas only have 15-20 lifts.



Because of the thin snow base, we did very little skiing off-piste. Ginny (Norman's wife) is always the most adventurous of our group. If you look closely, you can see her picking her way through the rocks and cliffs.



Sometimes you find things that are major cultural differences. Over at Park City, they only put 3 little kids with one ski instructor. With the bigger kids, classes can go to 4 or 5. In Courchevel we saw 22 little kids with one pair of instructors. It was amazing! One falls down and won't get up and you have to somehow bring the whole train to a halt.



Even on a bad snow year, the scenery in the Alps is incredible. If you look very closely, there is a 4-person ski lift running through the middle of the picture. It gives you some idea of scale.



Just wow! I love the view from our house in Park City, but damn!



This year I decided to capture some of the tracks people were leaving. This one was interesting because it was from someone who had gotten trapped in a low area and had to step out to escape.



Very nice lines. Everyone was making good, consistent turns all the way down.



You can see the people in a line up top, waiting for their turn to head down.



Friday, our last day of skiing, was by far the nicest. It had snowed 6-8 inches up at the highest elevations. Down where we lived, the runs were socked in with clouds. Up top, a sunny cloudless day.



And what happens on a sunny day? Everyone and their brother comes out to ski. For the French, a good day of skiing involves quite a bit of sitting in the sunshine, eating something light, and drinking a big beer. The French definitely do this better than Americans.



And we end with the rental skis I mentioned earlier. I think it was a bad omen that the ski maker claimed "All Terrain Rocker". My skis seemed to interpret that as "Can go anywhere, and find any rock."



This is a pretty serious gouge, all the way to the base. The rock that did this managed to toss me headlong down the hill. Fortunately I didn't suffer as much damage as the skis.



It was definitely a week of mediocre skiing. As Dick put it: Once you have decided the skiing is poor, then an OK day can be GREAT, in a poor category. But as always, the chalet was nice, our hosts were superb, and the wine and food were all French.

On to Paris...

France 2011 - Lyon

We have been on ski trips to France several times, visiting Paris and then skiing in Meribel. This trip we got started with a different destination, Lyon. Neither Julie nor I had ever been there. It's famous for its deep history (a UNESCO World Heritage site) and incredible food.

Four people from our ski group decided to skip the Lyon visit and just fly over in time for skiing. That left us with (from left to right) Julie, Terry (from the UK, and not skiing with us), Dick, Cosette, Ilona and Jennifer. Jennifer was the one hit by a snowboarder on our trip two years ago. She spent her vacation in the hospital and has had two major surgeries on her leg. Nice to have her back with us.



The Rhone and Saone rivers both run through the city. It makes for some great scenery.



We humans just seem to be attracted to water, whether it is a flowing river, a lake, or the ocean. The water obviously provides logistical help, like transportation, but it is something much more than that. For me, the water seems to bring some tranquility and peacefulness, even the pounding surf.



Just like so many European cities are built on the rivers, it seems like you can't have a hill top without having a castle or a church. Rural or urban doesn't matter. Every hill needs a large, impressive, well protected building.



Lyon was actually founded by the Romans, a bit before the birth of Christ. It was became the capital of Gaul, for both transportation and economics. There are a number of Roman ruins in the city, the most impressive of which is an amphitheater. It is still in remarkable condition and a true testament to the building skills of the early Romans.



Dick was playing the role of tour leader. He arranged for our hotel and had done a good bit of research on where to go and what to see. We were mostly happy to just follow along, until you saw a few drawn out conversations like this one.



.... which actually led us to this. There was a walking tour through a part of the city. It followed the path that the Persian silk traders used through the city. The sign to the left of our crowd is the first placard. However, the man with the purple shirt is trying to explain that, no, the tour does not start by going in through the door to his apartments. We eventually got on the right track.



There was a lot of art throughout the city, some in museums, and some out in public. Of course, putting art in public risks additional, unplanned additions and modifications. I'm not sure when this lion took up smoking cigars.



As I mentioned, Lyon is famous as the gastronomical capital of France. Our group definitely likes to sample the finer dining. This impressive display was an Automat where you could buy almost anything, including eggs and milk. Dick decided to buy a big bottle of water, mostly just to watch the mechanism to see if the eggs were likely to get broken.



Next to it was a French Fry machine. You stuck in your 2 Euros and got something back. None of us were even willing to try. The area where the fries were dispensed was disgusting looking. We don't even do this kind of low-grade food service in the U.S.. well, perhaps Denny's.



Ah, now this is more like it. Julie found a restaurant a few blocks from our hotel that was fantastic. The food was so good, we broke our normal rules and went back for a second night. It was a small place, without too much seating. When we arrived, the owners tried to help us with the menu (all in French), but they spoke only a few words of English. We were fine with a few in our group doing well handling French. However, the owners called a local friend, who was out walking her dog. She stopped in and offered her bilingual help in translating everything. Now that's service! Of course in France, while she was helping us, her cute little dog was meandering around the restaurant.



We did a day trip by train to the medieval walled town of Perouges. As I have mentioned already, let no hilltop go undeveloped. This one got started back in the 12th century.



It is a small town, with a fair number of residents, a gorgeous old church, and some dining for the inevitable tourists. We were early for the tourist season, so the town was wonderfully quiet.



The church was old and built by the townspeople, so it wasn't as shiny and glorious as others, but the small stained glass windows were beautiful and positioned well for the noonday sun.



Back in Lyon, the best description for the churches was "magnificent". My little pocket camera couldn't begin to do justice in the poorly lit buildings, but these stained glass windows were just a tiny piece of one church's art.



We also went to a large and impressive art museum in Lyon, the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon. While I could describe the numerous exhibits, ranging from Egyptian artifacts to pop-art, one odd thing stuck with me: the number of paintings where someone of significance (Jesus, Mary, ...) was standing on the heads of babies.



I think the idea is that they were cherubs and not just wayward children, but it kind of gave me the creeps.



It was repeated over and over again throughout the museum.



And then we end the Lyon trip with some special art. Just outside a preschool, they had apparently been holding the art class on the sidewalk. Now the class was back inside, but apparently the art work was there for the public to admire, or step in. I wish I could have gone to a school where you wouldn't get in trouble for doing this.



Lyon is fantastic. It is easy to get to with France's vast, well-connected train system. You can walk everywhere, check out 2000 years of history, and dine as you go. Wikipedia has a nice description of the city here.

More on the trip later.

Heading for France

Probably won't be blogging for the next two weeks. Julie and I are traveling to France and I am not taking my computer. In summary:

First we are visiting Lyon for a few days. I've never been there before. Thank God for a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Paris. Perhaps more important, thank God for enough frequent flier miles to do it business class. It's a long way from NC. It's a good bit further from Utah.



Then heading to Meribel for a week of skiing. The Three Valleys area gives you 200 ski lifts with one lift pass. That's bigger than all the Utah ski resorts put together. We have skied this area with this group in 2007 and 2009.



Then off to see Paris for a day.

Oops, not Paris Hilton. It's amazing how much she shows up when you Google images of Paris.



Yep, this Paris.



Then back to Park City.

Stories for the kids

I used to love the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. My favorites were when Calvin's dad would take a legitimate question from Calvin and give him a wonderfully creative BS answer. Some great examples

I was driving by the Benson's house this morning and couldn't resist grabbing a quick picture of the footprints on the roof. What were they from? If I had a kid with me, I definitely would have told him or her that this is the time of year that Santa is out scouting houses, making plans for next Christmas. He doesn't have the reindeer with him because he doesn't want to be seen.



You could go on with:

• so watch at our house and you'll probably see him
• if we don't have footprints on our roof, he probably isn't coming this year.

Just millions of possible stories. I guess that's why I don't have children. They would probably be pretty warped.

Proud moments at Park City Mountain Resort

It continues to amaze me that PCMR is a mutli-gajillion dollar resort, but is all to often run like a dump. This is what the ice skating rink has looked like for quite a while. It is a nice mix of snow, ice and concrete. It can be embarrasing to work there and have to explain all the problems to guests, especially when the resort doesn't tell us anything about the problems.



On a more positive note, the resort added a number of "Adventure Runs" for the kids (and adults). At the top of every run is a statue with a giant metal monster. The picture doesn't do him justice. They really are fun (very large) sculptures.



The other day I was working down at the Kids Ski School. PCMR put up some nice large prints of their new monster mascots. Some are skiing or boarding.



Some were apparently around back when Park City was a mining town.



... and then there is this one. No monsters. No miners. No skiers. Just a bulldozer scraping up earth around a ski lift. All I can figure out is that this must be to honor the septic line problems they have every year off the Silverlode Lift. Each year they refuse to replace the sewer lines. Each year, in the middle of winter when the skiers are everywhere and the ground is frozen down to several feet, they send up heavy equipment to try and fix the sewer lines, again.

I'm fairly certain that isn't what this picture was for, but it sure seems like the closest explanation to me.

Loving little allergns

It is tough working out at Friends of Animal's Rescue Ranch when you have cat allergies. The problem is that they are just so cute that you have to go in and play with them. As soon as you sit on the floor, you are smothered with cats and kittens that want to be loved on and nap in your lap.



They have lots of places on the wall to wander around, watch the world, and of course, nap some more.



Apparently this box was specially designed for black cats.



Yes, I enjoyed it. Yes, I was itching can coughing for quite a while. If you live in the Park City area and want to volunteer to give cats (or dogs) some love, click here.