The trip was organized through our program, so about 30 of us went, plus three of our program coordinators and their daughters. We took a five hour bus ride on Friday night to the hotel and went to bed pretty soon after we arrived, but not before taking in the gorgeous nighttime view of the mountains all around the hotel. Even in the dark, it was easy to notice the huge mountains on each side of us.
The next morning we got up early for breakfast and headed to the ski slopes to get fitted for our equipment. I assumed it would be pretty cold, so I borrowed a hat and mittens from friends and brought as many layers as I could to make sure I wouldn't get cold. As it turned out, I started getting hot before I even got my skis on, so shed most of my layers before we started skiing.
Some of our group split off for ski lessons, and the rest of us decided to start out on the easiest hills to get some practice runs in. The first time I ever downhill skied was four years ago, my junior year of high school, in Montana and Alberta, Canada, and that was also the last time I skied, so it had been awhile. Fortunately it wasn't too hard to pick back up, and I got increasingly confident throughout the weekend.
After spending the morning on the easy slope, stripping off layers after every run, we decided to head up to try more difficult slopes. We tried out the blue trail a few times, not too bad, but significantly harder than the first hill, before breaking for lunch. I hadn't realized how much I have been missing wheat bread until I ate the sandwich that was provided for us with three pieces of delicious mountain home-made bread.
After lunch we went up a little bit higher on the mountain to try a new slope. It was pushing 70 degrees and hadn't snowed there in awhile (both my parents were shocked by the lack of snow in my pictures when I showed them the mountains) so the fake snow on the slopes got increasingly slushy and difficult, but the views were still beautiful and it was nice to have warm weather.
After skiing and some relaxing time, we took the bus into the adorable little ski town of Vallouise to do a little bit of touristy shopping. It really consisted of a few streets with two gift shops, a church and a bar, but it was cute to see a very different French town from the ones I have visited so far.
We ate a delicious, though cheesy, mountain dinner and then I spent the evening getting to know some new people in my program, which was a lot of fun. Then we went to bed pretty early since it had been a long day and we had another one to wake up early for.
On our second day, we brought many less clothes and more ambitions. By the early afternoon, a few of us were ready to venture up to the very top of the mountain and brave the red and black trails (there's an extra color in French trail difficulty levels). A few of the boys in the program who are much better at skiing than us, took us up to the top and helped encourage us to get back down again. The view at the top was absolutely stunning. It was amazing every time that we got a little bit higher, but after flying up the steepest part of the hill with just a metal pole to hold between my legs (I was holding on for dear life) the view was absolutely the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I was blown away. I can't even fully describe how crazy it was. Pictures can't even capture it.
After we went down the red trail, we decided to go back up to the top to take a snack break there. Then, my crazy friend who had never skied in his life until the previous day, decided that we really needed to go down the black trail so that we would be able to say we had done it all. Although I did make it down that hill in one piece, it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever done. It was sooooo steep. We were basically just going sideways back and forth across the hill, gaining a little bit of ground at a time. My legs were killing me from holding me in the same position for so long. I actually had to fall a couple of times just to slow myself down and get a little bit of a rest. We did make it down the steepest trail though, so now I can say that I've done it, although definitely not very gracefully.
So all in all, probably the best weekend that I have had in France so far. I got to be outside for two whole days taking in absolutely breathtaking scenery, making new friends and just having a wonderful time. I slept for a lot of the bus ride home - it was a pretty tiring weekend as well - and arrived in Montpellier to similarly warm temperatures!
Wow! looks like an amazing trip
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