Another Day in Paradise
Our days are settling into some type of routine... school work, coffee and fresh bread, skiing, reading, and long walks.
The constant is the skiing. The mountain actually has three ski stations: La Féclaz, Le Revard and St. Francois. It takes 25 minutes for us to get to first station, Le Revard, where unless Kate is skiing with the team, we park and ski. It is another 10+ minutes or so to get to La Féclaz by car and another 15 or 20+ to St. Francois but by ski it is only 3 kms from Revard to Feclaz... our pass is pretty wonderful. We can cross-country ski on 150 km of trail, downhill ski, snowshoe on even more kilometres of trail, dog mush or toboggan. There are even carpet-lifts for the sledders. You simply go through the turn-style, your pass buzzes you in and off you go. Paul and Kate even discovered a cabin way back on the trials, 'in the middle of nowhere' that serves wine, beer, soup and snack. Oh so French.
The only two downfalls are the darn road, which I have already told you how awful it is and the fact that the trails were all designed by Escher. Or at least were inspired by him. I swear you start out of the gate going up and you have to climb to get home. How is that even possible!
The other constant in my days is the hiking. I have 'discovered' a whole mess of trails between our village and the mountain. There is ancient railway that was originally constructed at the turn of the century to bring skiers to the top of the mountain. It functioned for almost 4 decades and then stopped with the war and construction of the road. There are old stations that dot the trail, viaduct bridges, historical plaques (I love that stuff) and one day I will get to the top - the old hotel at Revard. I am getting very close.
I start off at the bottom in greenery. The forest is so different from the Boreal forest at home. There are oaks, chestnuts, pines, and green vines that climb up the trees. The forest is enchanting. The streams flow down; the creek bed is devoid of soil it is just smooth limestone - it looks almost fake.
The trail climbs: at times 20% grade. I have walked by a working monastery where the sisters live in silence, an abandoned mill with its wooden wheel rotting off its moors, old farms and working farms.
As I get up there, the snow gets deep. There are always folks about though... walking with snowshoes, walking sticks, running or just rambling along like me.
Other times I go for walks from village to village...
Town near Mouxy; it too has working water troughs in town.
and a communal bread oven.
Kate and I discovered folks growing Bamboo in their yard. Mild down in the valley and cold up top.
I enjoy my rambles; they are working my legs and lungs and getting me out to discover the area.
We had 30 cms of snow the other day... Kate and I got creative.
Kate had her first ski race. We drove to Peisey-Vallandry. It was blowing new snow and Kate had been on her classic skis only twice before the race. It was so much fun to see such a big field of 40+ fourteen year old girls. She held her own! The weather forced us off the mountain early but it was a great day.
Go Yukon Go!
