Spring Break in the Alpes

Last Saturday, March 3^rd, I headed to Les Deux Alpes, France with seven other friends. We were going to be skiing in the Alpes for our “Spring Break.” We took the train from Paris to Grenoble and then took a bus to Les Deux Alpes. Stephan met us there with his car because he was in Lyon for a skating competition. We all arrived at our apartment, which was awesome to say the least. There were three bedrooms, a living room with a couch and trundle, a dining room, and a fully equipped kitchen. It even had a dishwasher! We were so excited to finally be in the Alpes and the apartment made it that much better. Because we got there so late, we headed to bed and would get up early Sunday morning for our first day of skiing!

We chose Les Deux Alpes because the apartment we found came with a 6 day all inclusive ski pass for everyone. It was a great deal. Due to the location of the town, situated in the valley between two Alpes, there were tons of different slopes to do. Les Deux Alpes started at 1650m and went all the way to 3600m. You could go all the way to the top and ski down! It was so awesome to be that high up and you could see all the peaks of the other mountains as well as being at eye level or above the clouds!

On Sunday we went to the grocery store while it was still open and then headed out to the slopes. We all had to rent skis and Stephan and Grace rented snowboards. I went skiing the first day, but seeing as I have not been skiing since I was 10, it took me a little while to get used to it. After sliding down half the slope on my back with my skis pointed in two different directions, I decided to call it a day and moved onto snowboarding for the rest of the week. We all ate lunch at the lodge halfway up the mountain. Again, the view was breathtaking.

For the rest of the week I snowboarded with Grace. We had a lot of fun and definitely a lot of laughs. We were pretty sore by the end, but it was definitely worth it. One of the kids on the trip had a hi-tech video camera and caught some awesome footage of us skiing, snowboarding, and wiping out.  The weather was also fantastic while we were there and we had great conditions every day. It was the first full week of sun I have had since being in France I think!

Every night we made dinner at home and the usually had enough left over for lunch the next day which worked out perfectly. We made chili, steaks, wild rice and chicken soup, and the Swedes made a traditional Swedish meal one night. On Friday night, our last night, we all went out to dinner at a local restaurant and had fondue. It was delicious. Some nights we went out to the bar, and others we stayed in and watched movies. One night a couple of us went ice skating.

Altogether the trip was a relaxing week filled with skiing, snowboarding, drinking, and just hanging out with friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better “Spring Break.”