Courchevel

Courchevel!!!

So after a four year hiatus from the snowy slopes for myself and basically the first time for Jenny, we went to the snowy, sunny, alpine resort that is Courchevel nestled in the extremely scenic Savoie. Getting there is a bit of an adventure with a flight to Zurich, then another one to Geneva, then driving into Switzerland from the french side, back into France, then up the mountains ending in Courchevel 1850. It was a pretty long day getting there, but well worth it when we finally arrived. Here are some pics of the place where we were staying.


My parents have some better pics of the chalet on their blog (link to it can be found on our blog).

So that evening our friend Harry arrived from the UK who stayed with us for the whole week. It was great fun having him come along as it meant I had someone to ski with (not that I don't enjoy skiing with the rest of the family). Jenny also had to sign up for ski school and sort out ski and boot rental that night as she had lessons every morning at 9:30 for 2 hours. Here she is on the magic carpet (a conveyor belt like thing) on one of the first days.



We would then return to our apartment for lunch and everyone would be exhausted, except for Jenny (who I'm sure would not even have returned to lunch if she could have it her way... she really enjoyed the skiing. It got to the point where she had trouble sleeping at night as she could hardly wait to wake up and get back on the slopes).

Here are some pictures from inside the lifts. Probably the best time to take them as our hands weren't freezing cold.




In the afternoons, we would hang out with Jenny on the easier slopes (after tackling the the vertical drops and off piste skiing in the morning). To make it more interesting Harry and I would trade equipment, which gave me time to practice my skiing which I haven't done for years.


Harry also gave Jenny lots of pointers on her skiing, and she much preferred having him tell her what to do compared to me.

Here is vivi practicing her backwards skiing.

There were lots of Russians there to celebrate their Christmas and all the ski instructors skied down from the top of the mountain carrying torches as part of the spectacle of the celebrations. As a result of the russian invasion there were lots of gold lame ski suits and designer clothes, Jen loved it.

We also went out to eat, after first visiting a candy stall in the centre of town (the sweets however not quite up to swedish standards, but still tasty after a days skiing).

The raclette was really tasty, however having two heating elements on the tables is really warm, as depicted by all the red faces.
Then one day I came home to find that Harry and Jenny had stolen croissants. There was a wooden bin in the area where the skis were kept, which turned up to be a delivery box for a local bakery. In harry and jenny's defence they did not know what it was at the time and were just bemused to find bread in it and so took some thinking it was for everyone (or at least that is what they say)


The view at the top.

Towards the end of the day when everyone was tired... except for Jenny.

Everyone just before setting off to the slopes.
The last day I had skis and we stopped off in the afternoon for some hot chocolate, with gorgeous views.




On our last evening we went to a small french restaurant which cooks the food on an open fire. We had a leg of lamb which was truly amazing and incredibly tasty. You can see the fireplace they do the cooking over my mother's shoulder. They cooked the potatoes and tomatoes in the ashes under the fire.

Also I took some videos of Jenny's skiing throughout the week. They can be accessed from youtube. (click the youtube to get taken there)

Oh and one final note! We went tobogganing one evening (a picture can be found on my parents blog) on these plastic sleds. It was probably the most fun I had of the whole week. I have also never been so scared in my life. The run goes through some trees and has a drop off on one edge and in total the vertical descent is over 300 metres. There are lots of turns and we would race each other down at breakneck speeds, bystanders would jump out of the way (literally) as we whizzed by. Then we would spend the lift ride up talking excitedly about how the run had gone and wait for the adrenaline to subside. We also crashed lots and I went off the edge and thought for sure I would break my legs. We went down the run at least 5 times (although Jenny only did it once, as she thought we were crazy to enjoy it). Next time we go back I will take a video of the run.

Pre-Christmas, Christmas, Post-Christmas

Finally... I know we have been really poor lately at updating the blog. The run up to Christmas was really busy with Jenny's parents being here, apart from it being a generally busy time of year. And then our computer broke, but now everything is working again so thought I would post some pictures.

So i guess this first post will generally be a few pics of life in oxford before Christmas and then Sweden with the family. And we will subsequently post pictures of our amazing skiing trip in Courchevel and finally some pictures of our trip to Berlin. So please, sit back and enjoy.

So here is our Christmas tree. It was pretty huge and required some trimming. We bought from a hardware store (B and Q). And there is a long and mildly interesting story about the kerfuffle involved in getting to our house. But here it is.

Also all these pictures are courtesy of the lovely new camera Jen's parents gave us for Christmas. We were convinced our old camera was broken (it now turns out it wasn't). Along with the 4 Bannons they also gave us Rock Band. Potentially one of the most fun games on the planet. Have not met anybody who doesn't like it. So here we are with our friends playing. We also got some great 80s glasses for the complete home rocker look.


Jenny also had exams etc... which she did really well on. And to celebrate she bought matching rings with her I.R. buddy dan. Who is also in the picture below (and yes, I am sporting a hobo chic beard).

Now we move on to the wastelands of the north, where the only solace from the cold weather can be found at a korv kiosk (hotdog stand). Definitely one of my favourite foods. Here is the familia waiting for their korv.


We also went for loads of walks when we were in Sweden, which was actually really lovely. Braving the cold was well worth it to enjoy the few hours of daylight we got each day. It was also really cold (-15 Celsius) and it snowed on Christmas eve making it very picturesque.

This was taken at the lake which was starting to freeze.


These next set of pics are from Christmas Eve. This is us getting ready and again trying on the 80s glasses. We went to the Church at Aliske (where Jenny and I got married) for the Christmas service. My dad is a church warden there so we had to help light candles and hand out hymnals. The girls got the easy job of lighting the chandeliers. I, however, had to risk frost bite and oncoming traffic to light the torches that would light the small road leading the church. It looked very beautiful in the end but couldn't take any pictures as I had no feeling left in my hands.


Eventually Christmas day arrived. Everyone is of course looking very smart (i don't think I changed out of my pajamas all day).


And here we are playing with our presents. Vivi and I got radio controlled helicopters (definitely in the top 5 Christmas presents of 08). Vivi also got guitar hero (in the same genre as rockband) with two guitars, hours of fun.

The temptation is now to show you all the nature shots we took. Some of them are truly fantastic, but we will save you the majority of them and show you some highlights. Better yet, why not go to Sweden in the winter and see for yourself.

Jenny was also pretty excited about skiing and here she is trying out her outfit for the first time.
We also went to stockholm and got incontrovertible proof that swedish MacDonalds are only staffed by blond girls?!?
This is us preparing for New Years. We went to this amazing fireworks shop located in the basement of house in the middle of Sunnersta. We then fired them off in the middle of our street along with our other neighbours, was a very nice atmosphere (until we accidentally fired some at our neighbours house) with everyone getting involved and there were some impressive fireworks as well.
Then one day we decided to go for an outing to a nearby lake which was frozen. We made a fire and grilled some sausages and had some hot chocolate. Then we walked across the lake. Got a bit hairy at one point when we could see the water lapping over the ice and heard cracking noises.




Then finally on the last day before we went to Courchevel we decided to go down to the lake where we have pictures of us sailing in the summer, but was now completely frozen. We went out for a walk and saw lots of skaters and these boats with skate-like runners attached to them, sailing on the ice. Apparently quite a lot of people fell through the ice that day, but we were ok. This ice was really smooth and you could almost see the water underneath it. The views, however, were fantastic.