French Alps - Samoëns

Due to a lack of planning combined with instability in the area, we decided to scrap our Egypt trip and plan a last minute trip to the Alps for some sunshine and shushing.

Our plan was to spend three days snowboarding and three days cross country skiing. After researching the areas to ski in Austria, Switzerland and France, we ended up picking the Gran Massif ski area. Our decision was based mainly on the fact that we prefer French food and because we had friends vacationing there and our trips would overlap for 2 days.

We arrived in Samoens 1600 at 9:30 pm after getting lost in Switzerland for a little while. For some reason the little English woman living in our GPS system has something against Switzerland.

We had reserved a room at a guesthouse right on the mountain called Chalet L'Aéro http://www.aero1607.com/. When we arrived, we were surprised to find the road to the Chalet completely snowed in. We made the smart decision to hike down rather than attempt to drive down to the Chalet. Since there was a bar and restaurant advertised on the website, I figured that our late arrival wouldn’t be a big deal. However, on a Wednesday night all the lights were off and the door was locked. While we were contemplating the unappealing option of sleeping in our car, we found someone on the balcony smokeing a cigarette and they alerted the owners we were there.

The family who owns the Chalet was incredibly friendly and welcoming. The husband had a snowmobile with an attached sled to help us cart our luggage and gear down to the Chalet while the wife put together a cheese plate and fruit soup for us to eat.

The next morning we rented a snowboard for me and got our lift tickets for two days. I couldn’t believe how cheap the skiing is in comparison to the cost at Colorado Ski Resorts. We paid 41euro for a full day of skiing. I think it is around $97 for a day of skiing at Vail in Colorado.

However, the French do have some interesting lifts which might contribute to the reduction of price in the lift ticket. One of the gondolas was a standing room only situation; they herded us in like cattle. Another was a two person lift that looked like those buckets used to fix power lines. And then you also have the complete chaos of the lift lines, which are less like a line and more like a heaving mass of people stepping all over each others' skis and boards.

We met up with Jim’s friends Andrew and Matz to ski. I had a bad feeling about skiing with these three adrenaline junkies who push every sport to the limit. Unfortunately, I pushed my hesitations aside and consequently had one of the worst days snowboarding. I had a bad fall on the first run and jammed my finger. It swelled up instantly, but I could bend it slightly so figured it wasn’t broken. The next run I tried to board in deep powder and ended up with a screwed up neck. I couldn’t turn my head without turning the rest of my body. Since I figured I’d be in pain no matter what I did, I kept snowboarding but took it easy.

When I finally decided I had enough, I realized that we had skied so far from our original starting point that we’d have to do another 3 runs and another 3 lifts. So after another hour of skiing in pain and negotiating the chaotic French lift "lines", I had myself a little mini breakdown. Skipping lunch might have been a contributing factor to the breakdown.

That night we had dinner with our friends from Paris at a traditional Savoie restaurant. I had read a lot about Tartiflette which is a traditional Savoyarde dish so was excited to try it. You had to place your order ahead of time so we ordered while still on the mountain. Jim ordered the Tartiflette while I went for the Raclette Fondue. The Tartiflette was disappointing. It ended up being very similar to ham and scalloped potatoes and was quite bland. The fondue however was delish. Although, how can you screw up melted cheese and bread?

The next day after not sleeping much the night before, I decided against snowboarding and watched a movie in the room while Jim snowboarded. Nothing is better than a few muscle relaxers and the Sound of Music. I thought being in the Alps that would be a fitting movie.

It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the ski so I couldn’t stay in the room very long and ventured out to walk around the resort in search of lunch. I ran into Jim just as I was about to sit down at a restaurant so we had lunch outside in the sun on the side of the mountain. The food was crap but the view was spectacular.

We went snowshoeing after lunch on a pretty short loop on the mountain. It wasn’t a great place to snowshoe but I needed to get some exercise and wanted to be outside so it worked.

Although my first trip to the Alps was a bit disappointing, it was a beautiful place and the ski resorts of the Alps are definitely more scenic than the Colorado Rockies. However, it did make me miss our life in Colorado.