Activities Planning - the Saga Continues

(A picture of us at the town cenotaph on Remembrance Day, waiting for the two minute silence at 11am. We were on our own, sadly, since the town's ceremony started, unbeknownst to us, at noon. So we observed the silence on our own, with a few other random Brits who clearly had made the same mistake. Oh, well. We at least had a thoughtful moment with the girls.)

So the pressure of planning the girls' activities - for the winter ski season this times - begins again. Life in a ski resort dictates that there's a lot of options, of course.There are ski clubs in Chamonix and Les Houches (the former very competitive and by invitation only I believe); there's a mini-club in Chamonix (which actually skis in Les Houches); there's 'ski samedi' which is Saturday afternoons only; there's the Sport Loisir again on Wednesday afternoons... the list goes on.

We've already missed the sign up for some, not sure when the sign up for others happen... And I was originally told that Zoe could do the 'mini-club' too, but now it seems she can't... My head is spinning.

I also don't know what level the girls are at, since they've never taken official lessons, and the French levels don't seem to match the Canadian levels anyway.  I'm sure if we were here for longer than a year it wouldn't feel quite so important to get it right first time (also keeping in mind the girls are only 7, 6 and 4, not exactly competition material yet) but we've only got the one shot...

So... drum roll please... we've plumped for 'mini-club' for Anna and Indie, which will be Saturday afternoons in addition to two weeks' of ski camp (before xmas and the feb holidays), Zoe will do 'Ski Samedi', and then they're all going to do the Sport Loisir skiing on Wed afternoons. That is the highly subsidized activities courtesy of the town - it will work about to about 4 euros per 5 hour session, per child! So the girls will be skiing at least two afternoons a week, plus hopefully skiing with us on Sundays. Plus they will do a week of skiing with their school in January, in addition to their ski camps. Skiing is taken VERY seriously here.

My ambition this year is to improve my skiing - my 'joke' of last year that I couldn't keep up with Anna and Indie anymore sadly is no longer a joke, it's the truth. (The fact that they have no fear probably has a lot to do with it). So since I'm now in danger of being overtaken by Zoe, I think I'd better up my game. (This is the problem of taking up a sport in your 20s, as opposed to when you're three...). I've found a very nice woman who gives private lessons, and I'm determined to get stronger, faster and more confident. It's also a real social handicap here not to be a good skier - there are lots of back-country ski touring outings etc. that involve off-piste skiing and hiking up glaciers and cols with 'skins' on the bottom of the skis (I bet I didn't even get that terminology right, demonstrating yet again my novice status...). Oh well, Zoe will hopefully concede to keep me company on the easy runs.

Now all we need is snow! They had a terrible season last year with very little snow, and people are already starting to mutter about how this year is going to be the same... it's been such a mild, dry autumn (I'm not exaggerating when I say we've only had three days of rain the three months we've been here) that people here are worried it's going to be the same again. And what's a ski resort without snow?? I see Montreal has already had its first snowfall - beating us to it.

In the meantime, we're still enjoying the sunshine and warm weather (in the afternoons, at least, when the sun finally hits the valley, more on valley living another time...). Here's some pictures of a recent walk to Les Praz, where poor Anna, while jumping from stump to stump across a stream, fell in and soaked herself. The result? A very fetching ensemble of fleeces to get her back to the car. She was very good humoured about it, because it was a little embarrassing.

 When things were still going well..

 The fateful slip?

 Indie made it across safely

Trendy fleece dress and skirt ensemble

Uncle Neil Comes to Visit

My brother Neil came to visit for a long w/e on his way to a conference in London, and we had a fab, fab time with him. I think we showed him a pretty good Chamonix time - we did a really long hike on Friday while the girls were in school up to Bel Lachat at over 2000m (we definitely didn't cut Neil any 'newbie' slack), then we did the market on Saturday morning, some climbing at Les Gaillands on Saturday afternoon and fit in another hike on Sunday. We also introduced him to the joys of raclette on Saturday night - and trust me, that's a meal that really sticks with you for a long time. We were extremely sorry to see him go, of course, and the girls are missing him already, he really is the best uncle in the world. Neil has confessed to relying on his lovely wife Ellen to relay the blog updates (shout out to Ellen - we missed you! Wish you could have come too) - so Ellen, tell Neil, this one's for him.

 Brother and sister

 Toby and Neil

 Lesley set a cracking pace on the hike

 Our picnic companions

View from the top

Then it was climbing at Les Gaillands - we almost had the place to ourselves, since I don't think it occurs to people to go climbing in mid-November here, despite the sunshine. The girls' weekly climbing lessons are really starting to show - Toby purposefully chose what he thought were pretty challenging routes, and the girls still managed to run up them. Good on 'em.

 Zoe climbing, skirt and all

 Anna on the rock

 Neil belaying Indie

 Indie on the way up, Anna on the way down.

 Indie at the bottom

 Refuelling

Toby and Neil even got in a few routes

Lucca and Barga

(Ready to cycle round the walls in Lucca)

So we were on our 'quiet', 'off-season', 'calm' little holiday in Italy, looking forward to a peaceful little foray into the beautiful old walled town of the region, Lucca, only to discover that a) Lucca was hosting a mammoth Comic and Fantasy convention, and was packed with geeky Italians (yes! Italy has geeks too! Poorly-dressed geeks no less!) outfitted in very tacky costumes, playing very loud heavy-metal music and doing odd activities like pretend jousting with wooden swords etc, all totally at odds with the beautiful old walled town atmosphere, and making it almost impossible to walk down the streets, I had never seen it so busy and b) the one and only place in Italy (we were told) that actually celebrates Halloween is Borge e Mozzano, and for two nights running was over-run with goths, again playing very bad, heavy metal music (OK, maybe I'm mixing my sub-cultures here, but the music certainly sounded bad and heavy metal as we listened to it from a distance in our cottage). So much for our peaceful get-away.
Still, we managed a fairly sane morning in Lucca by going early (inadvertently, even earlier than planned since we still hadn't changed our clocks) and enjoyed cycling round the old city walls. Then we beat a very fast retreat. I love Lucca, but without the costumed crowds, thanks.

 Old amphitheatre in Lucca, now a market

 Another beautiful autumn day

 Zoe enjoying the ride

Finally away from the crowds

Our final day trip was to the beautiful hill town of Barga, about 1/2 an hour up the valley from Borge. Another beautiful day, another beautiful town - this one a warren of warm colours, old, steep cobbled streets and hidden staircases. It was a national holiday in Italy - all saints again - that day, so I expected crowds, but the town felt very quiet and peaceful and we had a great lunch in a little sunny piazza.

 Views from the top

Lunch! (Very excited about the 'prodotti locali' - even I know that Italian)

Viareggio Loves You Back

(The beach at Viareggio)

So one of our great days out on our Italian holiday was to Viareggio on the coast of the Med, only about half an hour from Lucca. My parents recommended it as a nice seaside town, and it was a lovely old seaside resort, even more charming since it was off-season I think. It had everything we could have wanted - a long seaside boardwalk with lots of shops, cafes and restaurants, and a huge beach with some good waves to jump. I think we also loved Viareggio because we found great parking almost immediately (a minor point you say? You obviously haven't tried finding parking in some of these Italian hill or coastal towns, good parking is a jewel beyond measure), and we serendipitously parked, not only beside the beach, but beside a fabulous cafe with terrace and gorgeous pastries, including the house speciality (local delicacy?), a kind of custardy rice pudding in pastry. And of course, I had my morning 'cappooch' (what the Italian barista called it, and my new favourite word).

 A picture of THE fabulous parking space - we'll be back...

Two cappooches please

Then it was off to the beach just behind us. We were the ONLY ones in the water of course (and by 'we', I mean the girls) - the Italians, all wrapped up in their woollen jumpers (cashmere, no doubt) and stylish padded jackets and scarves, thought we were crazy. One lady even stopped to check that we were in charge of the poor neglected girls in the water (and in charge of our faculties), as she huddled deeper into her down jacket and turned the collar up a little higher. To be honest, after PEI beaches in mid-July, a Mediterranean beach in November was positively BALMY.

 Indie, Wave-Jumper

 Possibly the best game in the world?

 The boats were going nowhere fast in their race

Toby on the beach

We went to Viareggio on a Sunday, which is the time-honoured day for the 'parade' - there is an actual expression for this in Italian - an opportunity for everyone to dress up in their finest clothes and walk up and down the boardwalk, to see and be seen. I wish I'd had the courage to brazenly take pictures of some of the fabulous outfits we saw - mini-skirts! furs! five-inch heels! We were, of course, the scruffiest lot on the boardwalk, and it's a wonder we were let into a restaurant for lunch at all. I think it helped that the clocks had gone back the night before, completely unbeknownst to me and Toby, so we actually went for lunch at 11am, not 12pm, and wondered why we were the only ones in the restaurant. It took us two more days to actually twig that we were an hour out. Ah, holidays...

The boardwalk

 Palm trees

And what Italian day out would be complete without gelato?

 Zoe and Anna with chocolate

 Indie, with her stracciatella (chocolate chip)

Just some of the choice

And Toby finally found his favourite - affogato, which is vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso poured over top. Happy man.

Ah, Viareggio, we love you back.

Viva Italia!

(The main house at Catureglio)


Ah, Italy. Really, what's not to love about Italy? The food, the wine, the coffee, the old towns, the scenery... For the second half of our Toussaint holiday we went to Italy, near Lucca in Tuscany, for five days, where Toby's aunt's and uncle's have a beautiful place Caturelgio and they not only really kindly let us stay, but also left lots of food and wine to welcome us (including the most gorgeous homemade lasagne). Pure heaven, and thank you again Auntie Patty and Uncle Mike.

Sadly, a few days before we left the Ligurian coast suffered horrendous flooding and mudslides and some of the areas we had hoped to visit, like the Cinque Terre, were devastated. Our route from Chamonix took us past Genova and the coast, and we saw some of the damage they were talking about and the clean-up project. So, sadly we didn't make it to that area, but hopefully they'll be recovered next summer and we can visit then. So instead we did some great day trips closer to home - Via Reggio, Lucca and Barga. Although, to be honest, the girls would have been just as happy staying put and puttering about the cottage. There is a pond with goldfish at Catureglio, and they provided hours of entertainment (trying to catch them, at least). And the girls were also hardy enough to swim in the unheated pool - in November! That's good Canadians for you.

 Enjoying my buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and fresh foccacia 

 The terrace of our cottage (that's Anna on the Juliet balcony at the top left)

 Toby and Anna, braving the pool

 "cold, cold, cold, cold, cold"

Just hanging out

The closest town is Borgo a Mozzano and we finally made it over the local attraction, The Devil's Bridge. It's not the only 'devil's bridge' in Europe - it's supposedly applied to dozens of ancient bridges, many medieval, and so-called because they were considered beyond human capabilities and therefore had to have been built by the devil. I found it rather hair-raising because the walls were pretty low considering the height of the drop, so the girls and Toby enjoyed themselves making me very nervous by sitting on the walls and leaning over the sides. I eventually had to leave them to it.

Happier back on land