Molins in the Mountains: Settling In

(The following few blog posts were all written a while ago, but just posted now, so don't be surprised if the dates are out of sync! It's taken a couple of weeks to get the internet sorted out here, so I'm a little behind. But I kept writing, even though I wasn't posting!)

OK, little bit of a jump from T-7 to T+5. Not quite the detailed record I was aiming to keep of our year…but hopefully I’ll improve. So, we’re here, day 5, and it’s just another gorgeous day in paradise. Which isn’t really so far from the truth, as we seem to have landed in the middle of a heatwave and every day so far has been hot and incredibly sunny (see pix). So one of the first priorities, in the midst of unpacking, food shopping, car buying, phone organizing, internet troubleshooting (still not solved, one excuse for the lack of blog and email time), town exploring, school registration, croissant eating etc. etc. has been to scope out the town swimming pool. All I can say is, ‘wow’. It’s an indoor/outdoor pool in a (surprise!) alpine meadow with mountains on all sides, four pools, a huge water slide, shower park for the little’uns and saunas, hammams etc. And once the girls finalize their registration at school, it will be completely free for the kids.

Chamonix is proving quite incredible with their encouragement of subsidized activities for kids. All school-age kids get a free pass to the swimming pool, practically free lift passes for skiing and hiking, and with their school will be doing downhill skiing (Anna), x-country skiing (Indie, Zoe) and skating (all). Plus on their Wednesdays off (yes, it’s only a four-day school week here) there are three services competing to offer the kids sporting activities.

So I think you can see what has been my priority so far: Toby has been concentrating on the car buying (we think we have found a good one), and support services, while I’ve been focused on the chalet, food and the girls.

The pictures probably speak to our experience best – the view from our chalet is unbelievable, and that is also the view from our bedroom (which basically has a wall of windows overlooking the Mont Blanc). The girls are very happy making themselves at home in the chalet, and walking into town for our daily baguette. I can also see that if I’m not careful the girls’ diet could easily consist of baguette and butter, butter and baguette and plain baguette, with a little bit of butter. With the occasional pain au chocolat (chocolate is another food group, isn’t it?). Ah well, we are in France after all.