Family Madsen Blog: Swoosh Swoosh...Oui!

We had a wonderful winter vacation skiing in the Alps of France! We experienced one adventure after another but had a wonderful time!!

It all started at midnight Friday February 6th. We began the 16 hour drive south. Things were going well as it became light again somewhere in the southern part of Germany. Traffic wasn't bad at all and the road conditions were great so we could just cruise along. Before long we came to the boarder to Switzerland where we had to go through customs and buy a highway pass so we could use their freeway. Søren was driving at the time and after we bought the pass he tried to roll up his automatic window again and it wouldn't stay up. It would go up and then come halfway down again, over and over again. It was quite cold so it wasn't very fun. We finally stopped at a rest stop for some breakfast and found a trick on how to keep it closed, but it remained a problem the rest of the trip but we got a lot of laughs out of it!

A few hours later we were at the French boarder and time to look seriously at the map to find our way to our Ski resort. Well it turns out that where we were staying wasn't exactly big enough to be on the map, but luckily we had printed out directions from Map Quest ahead of time so we decided to use those. We were taking our exit from the freeway with about 180 km to go on our tank of gas (the car had one of those screens that shows how many more miles/km you can drive on the gas you have left). The map quest directions said there were only about 50 km so we were excited to be so close after 14½ hours in the car so far! Well we followed the directions through many interesting and very small French towns and after talking to some teenage boys that spoke enough English to point us in the right direction we were on the right track towards Chamrousse and our resort where we could already hear our beds calling our names.

The road was quite windy and was constantly winding upwards. The longer we drove up the mountain the more foggy it was and it became harder and harder to see. Also the longer we drove UP the mountain, the more and more the KM left on our tank of gas dropped. Quickly we went from 180 km to 80...and from 80 to 50...and then down to 32... We were getting nervous, we had no clue how long this windy road was and there were no signs of people, towns or gas stations! At one point our screen stopped showing 32 km but this instead.

Now we were really panicking, but laughing at the same time! We were going to run out of gas on a deserted mountain in very cold and foggy weather!!! Suddenly like out of a film, there was a gas station right in front of us. We pulled up on the fumes of gas we had left and found the diesel gas. We tried to use our credit card, and NO, it failed. We tried our friends card, and NO, it failed! We had come so close but couldn't tank up. Just then a French family pulled up and we asked them if they would tank for us if we gave them cash. Luckily they were sweet and helped us out! It turns out our resort was only 5 more km away and before we knew it we were checking into our cabin!

We slept like babies the first night and were ready to ski at 9 o'clock the next morning. The fog was still in the air but we had a nice time. Søren was really great and learned very fast, having never tried skiing before and having to start for the very first time using a chair lift! We found some easier runs but the fog was so dense it was impossible to see more than a few yards in front of you. Not quite the best conditions for a beginner but he was a good sport and did very well!

Fog on the first day

However, the next day was a totally different experience! We woke up to a beautiful sunshiny day and when we went outside we saw the most spectacular view! We were surrounded by mountains! There were mountains everywhere and we didn't even know it before!!! We had just a beautiful day in awe the whole time of our surroundings and the beauty of it all!

Moutains all around

View from our window!

The rest of our days were much the same. We would wake up early, ski into the afternoon, come back to our cabin and relax and then eat dinner together and play a game or two before going to bed around 10.30. The couple we went with, Susanne and Peter, were very fun to be with and we had a great time both skiing and hanging out afterwards. The only bad thing, well not bad for us, was that the Madsen family was pretty much unbeatable in any game we played. Each night Søren and I beat them in every sort of game imaginable!! But still they kept challenging us, so it was fun!!

Also we had brought some food with us so that we could have some easy dinners and desserts, etc. Well we bought lasagne and a cake mix, but then we discovered we had no oven!! Lets just say that the lasagne turned into spaghetti with sauce and well the cake we had to make in a pan. Another adventure but it worked to make the cake in a pan! We were very suprised.

In the process

The final product!

Anyway, we had overall nice weather. It was a bit cold some days and foggy two of the days but we felt blessed with the conditions we had overall. By the end of the trip we knew most of the 100 runs and had fun exploring the off-runs in the woods at times! We had also taken our fair share of "good" falls. Me mostly in the trees and well Søren had a few complete snow wash falls! But we kept up the good humor and just laughed at it all!

Søren having to go up the hill to get his ski pole after a good fall!

France was definitely a great place to be with beautiful nature and a good price but in terms of communication, well that was another story. We found that most people had a very hard time with English. They couldn't understand us and if they did understand our question they responded mostly in French. I had a uncomfortable situation with one of the waiters at a restaurant who, when I asked for ketchup in English, responded by saying "I do not speak English, we are in France and we speak French." So I asked him in French if he spoke Danish then, and he just spoke French to me in a very mean tone and attitude! He was very rude and we had to wonder what they do when they are on vacation, can they expect everyone to speak French? This encounter definitely did not help the whole French arrogance stereotype!

Well before we knew it, it was time to go home again. We left early in the morning Saturday and were home again late Saturday night! Luckily we had a relaxing Sunday and were grateful yet again that our church service starts at 3.30 pm! Now we are back into the full swing of things and look back on our trip with wonderful memories!!! Au revoir!!

Here are some extra pictures!