Weekend Update

Thursday:

Woke up this morning to find the mountains covered with snow! So gorgeous.

Mary and the kids picked me up around 2 o'clock. We went grocery shopping and bought a bunch of food for the weekend. There was a dead shark on display in the fish section. So strange.

After our shopping adventure, we went to Mary's house, where we ran around packing things, doing laundry and cooking the potatoes for dinner. We left around 6 I think, and we drove to Christophe's work. I then moved to the back of the minivan with Madeline and William and watched Return of the Jedi dubbed in French. It was very bizarre.

We arrived around 9 PM, ate a delicious raclette with Christophe's father. His dad owns two little ski apartments down the hall from each other in a small town called Argentiere, about 10 minutes away from Chamonix. His father (Papi Claude) lived in London for most of his childhood and so his English was flawless, and he had some interesting stories about his contracting polio and biking around France.

After dinner we went to the other apartment, put the kids to bed (they slept in two bunk beds) and I set up my bed in a little nook near the kids. Then Mary, Christophe and I went back to Papi Claude's apartment for a cup of tea before bed.

Friday:

Woke up this morning to Amelia crying "Maman! J'ai eu un accident!" Great start to the day.

I played Polly Pocket (they've gotten a lot bigger since I was a kid) and Legos with the kids while Mary got things together. When everything was set we went for a walk through the town. Not much was open, but the mountains are gorgeous and there wasn't only snow on the slopes, there was snow on the ground! It really felt like winter.

After our walk we came back to the apartment, ate lunch (delicious ravioles) and then I taught Madeline and Edward rummikub while the grown-ups took a nap with Amelia.

After everyone had rested, we went down to Chamonix. It was really cute and the view of the mountains was incredible.

On the way home, we stopped at the micro brasserie, a Canadian-themed brewery/restaurant. It was decorated for Halloween, so the kids were souped. The waitress gave them (and me!) a mask. And the best thing of all was that the food was all American (or Canadian, I suppose): nachos, fajitas and chips w/ salsa. Wow, okay, that just sounds Mexican, not American, but you know what I mean-- no baguettes, no cheese course, etc. It was like what you'd get at Applebee's or Chili's. It was awesome.

After this we were way too stuffed to eat dinner (we had just stopped for apperatifs), so we just went back to the apartment where Mary had a little something planned for Halloween. She had the kids put on their masks and grab a hat and then I took them to Papi Claude's apartment, where Christophe opened the door, wearing a dishtowel as a shawl, pretending to be an old woman. The kids were delighted and he gave them some candy and then they scampered back to the other apartment, where Mary opened the door and gave them some more candy. This went on for 5 minutes or so, until the kids had amassed a pretty decent amount of bon bons. Then everyone settled down with their treats and watched Star Academy, which is pretty much the French equivalent of American Idol. Miley Cyrus and Akon were guest starring. It was bizarre to see them on French TV.

Saturday:

Awoke to Mimi shouting, but luckily there had been no accident. Excellent.

It was William's birthday. He was pretty excited about this.

We decided to go into Italy for the day! We just drove right in, through the Mont Blanc tunnel. Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain in the Alps, and it's right on the border between France and Italy. I'm not a huge fan of tunnels so it wasn't such a good time, but Mimi kept distracting me by asking me to play with her. All weekend she kept asking me "T'es ma copine?" and it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

It was William's birthday.

We just went to a little town right over the border, called Aosta (Aoste in French). It was nice and we walked around for a bit and then ate at a pizza parlor. Now I can say that I've eaten pizza in Italy, but to be honest, I've had better pizza here in France.

It was William's birthday.

We found this sweet chocolate market in a huge square, but it was kind of overwhelming and I can't speak Italian, so I didn't get anything. Kind of sad. It all looked so amazing.

Did I mention it was William's birthday? You might have forgotten.

After walking around a bit more, we headed back to France. The drive back through Italy was incredible. The views were gorgeous and every five seconds you would see another castle plastered against a cliff. And there were hundreds of vineyards on the mountainsides, all changing colors. It was amazing.

When we got back to France, we wandered around Chamonix a bit more. Since it was William's you-know-what, the kids got to go to the little arcade in town, while I went shopping for a little gift, because I hadn't known that this special special day was this weekend. By the time I returned, the kids had won 10 stuffed animals from the little claw game, and everyone was super excited. I bought William a round of DDR and we both were pretty terrible. But it was very fun.

William really really wanted to go back to the Brasserie with the amazing "American" food, and no one seemed to mind. We ordered onion rings and then Mary and I split the most mouth-watering cheeseburger. It was my first cheeseburger in France and it was probably the best burger I've had in my life. Such a good choice. William then opened his presents and got a piece of chocolate cake. It was lots of fun, but it made me miss my family a little bit.

Sunday:

Last day of vacation! We woke up and decided to go swimming at the town pool. It was such a good idea! The pool was amazing. It was a kids pool, max 4.5 feet deep, but there were sweet things such as a current hidden behind a little wall (we timed ourselves swimming against it, my best was 15 seconds), a bubble shelf and some geysers. It was super fun.

We stayed at the pool for a little over an hour, and then we went back to the apartment where we ate lunch (tartiflette, kind of), packed up the car, cleaned the apartment and then headed out. The drive home was gorgeous. The mountains in this region are absolutely breathtaking.

I have a lot more pictures on my Facebook account, but after working for the YMCA, I have become really paranoid about posting photos of children on the internet, so I've restricted them to friends only.