I thought I could beat jet lag. We had a plan. We stayed awake all day. But here we are at 3am local time, watching a music video, with the weirdest, cheesiest video EVER (picture this: a middle aged french guy with the mustache and everything, and several backup dancers, all in leopard striped outfits, dancing (badly) and singing in front of changing 80's-style backgrounds. It's called Sexy Cool. Seriously, I'm not making this up.) All I can think about is having dinner, which is what most of you are doing right now. We're looking forward to tonight because we will be eating in the specialty restaurant here in Valmorel, which serves fondue!
Let me back up... Our drive from Geneva was successful except for a small hiccup within our first several miles of the airport, undoubtedly due to not knowing a thing about the road signs here. But that was short-lived and we were back on track in no time. We made our way to Annecy, France and wound our way toward the lake through the main part of the city, on roads that we weren't sure our teeny car would even fit through. Wait til we go back at the end of the trip and I get pics... I'm excited because I was trying to navigate our way to a parking spot on our map (didn't work out) and barely looked up. I saw literally just a few seconds but the town is absolutely charming! We totally lucked out and found a parking spot closer to Lake Annecy than we planned and sat on the shore, eating Triscuits and cheese from Trader Joes (yes, we are a bit embarrassed by that) and just enjoyed looking at the lake and the mountains rising behind it.
Then we were off to Club Med Valmorel. Bryan decided to take us along a different route than we originally planned, up through the mountains toward the resort, a move that could have ended badly, but turned out to be the most amazing drive! The roads were skinny, mostly one lane each way, through tunnels, twisting and turning, and in some cases were downright dangerous, especially at 50 or so mph. We tried to keep up, and kudos to Bryan for driving like a local... at one point, we were headed directly toward a flatbed truck, before it swerved back into its lane... damn near sandwiched us against the wall. The French are insane drivers. Maybe not so much as Romans, but if you're not going as fast as they want you to, they get on your ass until they can pass you, and make no apologies for doing so. That must stem from having such small, maneuverable cars. We got passed by a little Peugeot on the curvy mountain roads at about 50mph like we were standing still. Long story short, glad we made it.
We drove through dozens of little towns along the way, some made up of thirty or so houses, barely deserving a name on the atlas. Then we started getting into the ski towns with their chalets and hotels...
I have never been in a ski village or to a ski resort, being deathly allergic to snow. But off-season, they are absolutely charming and I can only imagine how peaceful they would be, covered in white. My dad was a big skier when I was young, but I never took it up, and if we hadn't had to complete this trip before the year was over, this would have been Bryan's dream vacation (no doubt he belongs in the snow) and my first time on the slopes. Second, actually, but one day on the highschool ski bus doesn't really count.
Valmorel is beautiful, covered in green. I've been missing what I call "real" trees, not pine or olive, but Christmas trees. And they're everywhere! Too bad we've only got 2 full days here before the drive to Provence... every chance we get will be spent outdoors. One day hiking and one day in the little town of Valmorel, down the hill. We also have to take a ton of pictures (duh) and I have to be detailed about the shots of Club Med because Bryan is the first from his office to visit and wants everyone to be able to see it from every angle... I'm in heaven :) Maybe we'll even poke around the private chalets, which are also timeshares - now THAT is money!) For being the home stretch for this resort, there sure are a ton of people here... and it seems like we're the only ones without kids. There's nothing cuter than a small child speaking French. And EVERYONE here is French. I'm sure in a few days I'll get used to hearing it like Bryan is (some of his coworkers are fluent), but right now, it's still disconcerting to me.
Club Med is the highest on the road up the mountain (no surprise there) and is only a couple of years old. It's absolutely beautiful. The pics on the website don't do it justice. You will all have to be patient with the posts and pics. We will only be getting internet every few days, so we'll likely be publishing a few at a time. It's truly easy to take easy internet access and fast download speeds for granted.... ;)
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