Ouvrez La Voie

Hi! Happy Winter, Happy New Year! Winter came early to Chamonix with some big dumps of snow in November. We spent most of the month of December sick with various colds and flus but came out of it just in time to celebrate Christmas with a tree our landlord brought to us and to start skiing when the resorts opened! The girls had a festive holiday time at school–Zosia performed in a dance show that her friend and classmate choreographed. Every Thursday afternoon during the school day, the dancers practice and put on a new show every quarter. Her class also organized a handmade Christmas gift market where we scooped up some Christmas ornaments, bracelets, and macrame key chains made by the kids. 

There are six ski resorts in the Valley and 4 different nordic tracks, so we are all getting lots of time on the slopes.  The girls don’t have school on Wednesdays, so on Wednesdays and weekends, we hop on a bus in our ski gear with lunches packed, and ride to one of the resorts where we spend the day. The girls are looooooving skiing and are having lots of fun skiing moguls and the long, hard runs that their mother won’t go near! 

Dominik had one of his favorite ski adventures when he skied from the top of Aguille du Midi, which involved taking a gondola to the top of Aguille du Midi, donning his climbing harness, crampons, and ice axe and traversing a highly exposed ridge by foot to get to the top of the ski run, skiing down and over the Mer du Glace glacier, and coming right back to our doorstep by an old rack and pinion train, circa 1910. When he’s not skiing or working, he’s been studying chess (to teach the girls, who have developed quite an interest in the game), and he became a member of the French Alpine Club (CAF) and climbs a few nights a week with French and Polish climbers so he’ll be ready to get on rocks again come Spring. 

Anne spent the month prior to Christmas in Yoga Teacher Training and is now a Yoga Teacher! She happily taught her first class out of our apartment this past week to one eager student! She got inspired listening to all the French gals at the training and has upped her commitment to learning French. She’s doing a weekly French group class, a weekly private lesson, and lots of time on Rosetta Stone. French films help, too! (C’est Tout Pour Moi and Fahim highly recommended).