La Suisse!

We left London on Friday evening. The ferry from Dover landed in Calais at around midnight. After a night of driving clear across the north of France we finally arrived in Champery, Switzerland at around noon.

Being Canadian, it might surprise some of you to know that a) I have never seen the Rocky Mountains and b) I had never skied before. So, you can imagine (if you've seen them) the awe that came over me when I spied the Alps for the first time.

We came around a bend and there they were, looming above everything else, with Lac Leman sitting serenely below - if only pictures out car windows were any good... oh well, next time!

We climbed up, and up, and up, until we (had there been any at the time) were in the clouds. Luckily, the weather was brilliant. Having driven through the night we sat on the balcony of our 100-year-old farmhouse and cracked open the beers. It was such a beautiful day that we could have been tanning in our bikinis.

Our farmhouse.

The view from our balcony.

At dusk.

The view to the south of our chalet (called the Gallerie).

At dusk.

The next day the weather was great again, which was good, since it was the first time I was going to ski. I booked a lesson the night before with the Swiss Ski School... it was set for 10:30, but we got there 15 minutes early - or so we thought! We were meant to change the clocks forward one hour for daylight savings that morning! So we were actually 45 minutes late! oops!

It was fine though and the instructor brought me and my bud A down to what he called "the nursery". It didn't look like a nursery at first but after an hour of learning how to snow plow I was zooming down the itty bitty hill. The only problem I had was with the mini lift, which kept grabbing my leg and dragging me (on my ass) halfway up the hill! If only there had been video cameras!

By the end off the two hour lesson I was deemed a natural and felt like one too.

The Telepherique up the hills...

and we thought we were already in the clouds!

The rest of the skiing throughout the week (another four days of it) went pretty well. I think I pushed myself and there were some points where I really wasn't comfortable, but I made it down the hill anyway. I only walked down one bit and that was on my first day... I just got into a place I couldn't get myself out of!

Zooming down the hill!

On Friday, the real challenge came when we skied to France for lunch in Avoriaz. Yes! That's right, I SKIED TO FRANCE!!! I had a spot of trouble when we were over there... got on a lift that brought us up and up and up and up and I got freaked out by out... getting down again wasn't easy on me (and I did something to my groin ;) but I did it!

Setting off for France...

Ski bunny Liz on the border of Switzerland and France (in the background).

I was knackered at the end of the day, but a long shower and getting in bed at 9 helped. the next day we got in the car at 6 AM and hit the road to get back to London in time for dinner.

What I saw of Switzerland was beautiful. The mountains, the sky, the snow, the people, everything was fantastic. And I've discovered a love and a talent for a new sport, which is the best part. Champery, watch out, I'll be back!