Snow! And other adventures

(our backyard)

Finally! This morning we woke up to snow. It's supposed to snow all day, but sadly rain is already in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon. Still, the good news in the Alps is that even if the snow melts in the valley, it's still snow higher up on the mountains, and the ski lifts open this week-end... Could we finally be seeing the start of the ski season?? We can but hope.
In other news ... the girls have only 6 days of school left until the Christmas holidays. (I don't want to talk about it...). We had fun last Saturday at an outdoor skating rink in Cluzs, which is about 1/2 an hour down the valley. It looks like a very nice little town, worth exploring, but we spent our time at the rink, and scoffed waffles with chocolate sauce on our breaks. (A boy was having his birthday party at the rink, and his birthday cake was a pile of about 30 crepes with whipped cream and chocolate sauce between every layer, and they stuck candles in it to sing happy birthday and then cut wedges out of it like cake - it looked delicious.)
Then on Sunday we went to Zermatt in Switzerland for the day to visit old friends of Toby's (he lived there for five years when he was in his late teens, early twenties). It was a two hour drive and then we parked and took a train up to the village. There are no cars in the village - only small electric buses and horse-drawn carts! The girls loved petting the horses. Another beautiful Alpine village, although with tons and tons of construction, and they are also waiting for snow...

 Zoe at the rink

 Anna overtaking

 Beautiful backdrop, as ever, even on a dull day

 Good waffles

 Appreciative Indie

 On the train up to Zermatt

 Petting the horses

 They come down the streets at a hell of speed - you'd better get out their way

It's only the fancy hotels that offer this kind of service

Then, finally, here in Chamonix they turned on the Christmas lights on Friday night and we walked down into town to ooh and aaah, and had a nice meal out at a friendly Italian place. The cost of eating out here really is prohibitive, even in the supposedly family-friendly places, so I don't think we'll be doing too much of that again, but the girls enjoyed their spaghetti bolognese, and especially the desserts!

 In front of the big tree

 The bright lights of Chamonix

Tiramisu and chocolat fondant - yum!