Friday, January 21, 2011

French Family Vadeboncoeur

Hello all!
I know - Its been a while...  I have been in France for the past month with my family for the Christmas holiday.  It was really great to see them and we had a blast.  We spent the month in Châtel (portes du soleil region) skiing, visiting other cities, and bumming around.  Most of our time was spent with the crazy locals, and lots of visitors. 

Lukas was the first German to visit - and spent New Years with us.  We spent a lot of time skiing and goofing around.  It was great to see him - even though Hanna and I lost him on New Year's eve for a bit...not our fault though.  See you in Berlin Lukas!
Châtel

After Lukas came the rest of the Germans, Lisa's family.  They stayed for a week and it was crazy.  Not all of them speak English, and none of us speak German - so there was a lot of translating going on through Lisa.  It was quite funny - seeing what gets lost in translation, even though Lisa is a great translator!
hiking in Châtel

Montreux Switzerland
When Lisa's family left - we didn't know any more Germans to invite - so Meagan came!  Meagan currently lives in Luxembourg and spend a couple days with us.  We visited a lot of local towns with Meagan - and killed the car.  Good times!   She may look innocent - but don't let that fool you.  Meagan + Mom + Louise = Big trouble/Big laughs!  Had such a great time with her and hoping to visit her in Luxembourg sometime this year! 
meditation anyone?
what a view - good thing the pirate ship doesn't block it all

Giant fork!  Vevey Switzerland

Château de Chillon, Montreux Switzerland
After Meagan came Chris.  Chris lives in London and spends a lot of time with our family....mostly squatting at our house.  But we love having her anyways!  It was great fun - now I am looking forward to reciprocating the squatting at her house! 

the barf producing drive to Aosta Italy
Aosta Italy, great Pizza - views don't suck either.

That a girl Chris!
 And then there are the Grace's - those are the crazy locals I mentioned earlier.  A great family that we got to spend quite a bit of time with - and I wish we lived closer... We had such an amazing time - and a lot of it had to do with the Grace's.  I am looking forward to visiting them this summer to do some riding. :)
Christmas dinner


Dad's birthday - post chocolat mousse incident

that picture pretty much sums up our time in bars...

Chris, Ben, Hanna

Last day skiing in Verbier Switzerland with Lloyd

If I had to sum up my time in France in one sentence (maybe a bit of a run-on) it would be:
We skied, spent a lot of time in Switzerland, had pizza in Italy, got car-sick, went to the spa, broke the car, went to bars, ate at le Fiacre, finally got into the castle, went hiking, danced on tables, had chocolat mousse, watched a mountain bike race in the snow, sang the sound of music and had a kick-ass time doing it all!

As you can see from that sentence - It was a great vacation.  It was hard to come back to Madrid knowing that I was leaving my family and friends in France - to come back to Spain where most of my friends are leaving or are already gone... But it will be ok, I am much more proficient at Spanish now, so making friends will be a breeze! (fingers-crossed!)