Category Archives: Snow & Glaciers

In Winter Wonder with Pascal and Giselle

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Post by Lauren

It’s an exciting week in our Swiss household! We have guests Pascal and Giselle, in from Richmond, VA. Geneva has been really behaving, showing its pretty blue sky. We didn’t even know that was possible in the winter here.

So, we feel very grateful that while they are here, they can actually see the mountains instead of the perma-cloud layer that hovers above us usually.

When they arrived, we forced them to stay up and took them around to Carouge Saturday market day and then to Annecy, France so that they could be out in the daylight to help with the effects of jetlag*.

Market day was a little quiet in the winter vs. summer, but still very enjoyable as Carouge always is with its simple Italian architecture and colorful artisans:

 

A quiet day at the Carouge market

 

Next, we went to Annecy, France for lunch. Pascal and Giselle had their first savory crepes. Did you know that a crepe can be a dessert and a meal? Kind of like a wrap…with a pancake. They ordered hamburger ones….check them out below. Even though it was about 20 degrees, there were still a ton of people enjoying the Saturday blue skies and even a crew team practicing in frigid Lake Annecy below snow capped mountains.

The next day, we ventured to Chamonix & Mt. Blanc. We took the Auguille du Midi to the top, the world’s highest vertical ascent cable car. Gabe and I had done this back with Henry Birmingham on July 4th weekend, but boy, what a difference winter makes.

Everything was snow covered and beautiful. We were in awe of the off-piste skiiers.

After the dizzying adventure up Mt. Blanc, we had a nice warm raclette meal in Chamonix, the base village. Very soon, there will be a cheese tutorial on The Swiss Watch Blog so you can learn more about this fabulous Swiss dish. It’s soooo good.

The famous French ski town was bumping at dusk and into the evening, full of skiers and snowboarders returning from the mountain.

You are probably wondering why we keep taking Pascal and Giselle all over France when we live in Switzerland. Actually, because Geneva is surrounded by France, the alpine areas of France are much more accessible to Geneva because of the topography. See my ski map, complete with flags, to check this out.

Don’t worry, we’ll take them around in Switzerland soon. Stay tuned….

*When you visit us, we will also do such mean things as to not allow you to sleep and force you to be in the daylight to reduce your chance of jet lag.

Our first Alpine skiing

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Post by Lauren We just so happen to live in the epicenter of the best skiing in the world. Most of these places are less than an hour and a half away from our house.     If you live in the Alps, you are supposed to be able to ski. And well. I have historically not been a good skier, but bought equipment in the US in August so that I could try it out again. I mean, we live in the Alps. How can I not give it another whirl? And, I ended up getting everything used for about 180 USD; not too bad, considering new equipment here is 2000 CHF. So, armed with my new gear and a pack of 8 friends, we set off to La Clusaz in the French Alps for the day to explore the alpine ski action. It was only about a 45 minute drive.

Getting geared up. Thanks to A for getting the group shot prior to lift off. The little specks in the distance are little chalets. So cute.

And….I fell about five times trying to get from where we were to the first lift. I was a bad skier in the US, but a bad skier in the US makes for a miserable skier in the Alps.

My husband is the type of person who says he’s not a great skier but he is. He has gone multiple times with Henry Birmingham at his place in Jackson Hole. He did not marry his match in this department.

We rode an extremely long lift to the top. They don’t have lifts that long in Virginia and West Virginia – the two States where I have skied prior. Everyone said it was a normal hill but it was crazy scary to me. Fear set in. As the group set off, we set a meeting place for lunch. I made it my goal to survive getting halfway down the mountain to this chalet. It had red lounge sofas outside. I just kept visualizing them and basically snow plowed the entire way, 1000 metres. Even with snowplowing, I still managed to fall a dozen more times. One time I lost control and zipped headfirst into the powder. if it was golf, I would have been in the rough.

Taking a break after falling a ton! Did I mention my husband was good at skiing? I must mention that he is also patient. His first Alps run in his life, he had to babysit me as I teetered down the mountain.

And….we finally made it to the chalet.    As the group was starting their next run.

Reporting back to the group over lunch, A commented… “Oh yea…we saw you from the lift. We saw like one leg in the air, face in the snow, skis everywhere. Couldn’t get my camera out in time, though.” So blame her that you don’t have any eye candy. After a delicious French lunch and a glass of Bordeaux (no hot-dogs & chicken sandwiches on this mountain, ladies and gents), I got back on the skis and we headed to the bottom. Still continuing to snow plow. And fall. The group gathered at the bottom to take an enclosed gondola to ascent back up to the tippy top. Even further up than where we were last time. No way in hell I was getting on that thing. I chose to stay at the base on the green we’d found on the map. I ended up being the only one over five years of age who wasn’t an instructor on that particular run. I didn’t care. I was way more comfortable there.

Notice the tiny skiers. This was my happy place.

When A & S tired of the slopes, they joined me and we ice skated. J kept going with her mad snow-boarding skills!

I had a lot more fun on the ice. Don't judge the face we were still wearing our helmets.


It was a great new adventure. However, I will not be getting on a blue hill anytime soon in this region of the world. Going to be sticking to my greens. And perhaps taking lessons soon…. We both slept really hard Saturday night. I woke up a bit earlier than Gabe so made this visual treat about our Ice-capades in my time waiting for him to awake. Enjoy.

First Geneva Snow

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Post by Lauren

Below is the view from our bedroom this morning in Geneva. We were told it usually snows 1-2 times a year in Geneva. It snowed three times this weekend, so we are already above this so called “average”.

I find the snow a lot more pleasant than the monsoon of rain we have had in the last two weeks, so I am très contente with the temperature drop. It makes for a really nice Monday!

Gratitude Friday: Travel

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Post by Lauren

An easy gratitude selection this week. We have T in town from the US. We just returned today from a great overnight trip to Bernese Oberland where we explored the valleys, stayed in a peaceful Alp town, and scaled the mighty majestic Schilthorn. So, simply, this week, I am thankful for our ability to travel here. So many parts of this beautiful world are close and accessible to us during our time here. We are grateful for this opportunity and hope to make the most of it!

Here are some snapshots from the past two days:

Gimmelwald, Bernese Oberland

Murren, Bernese Oberland

Ascending to the Schilthorn with views of the Monk, Eiger and Jungfrau

Bon weekend, everyone!

Gratitude Friday: Witnessing Something Truly Majestic

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Post by Lauren

Some of you may recall the movie The Bucket List. A few years ago, my church did a series playing on the theme of movie – related to being a good friend, a good spouse, a good parent, being a good employee, etc. and not putting those things you wanted to improve before life suddenly “ran out”. I loved the series and ended up seeing the movie in the theatre with my friend Pamela. I specifically remember coming out of the theatre with faces tear-stained and bumping into mutual friends. They were laughing at how hard we must have bawled during it to get faces looking like ours! Nevertheless, we both took lessons from the movie.

At the time, we had lived in Charlotte, along with our friend Randi, about 8 years and always had a list of things we wanted to do but never did. Her’s consisted of hiking Crowders Mountain. Mine was going to Lazy 5 animal ranch. Amongst other things along those lines. We were all off from work the week after Christmas and staying in town so we ended up doing a Charlotte “Bucket List”. We crossed something off every day:

Bucket List Week / Charlotte, NC 2009

At the end of the week, we had always wanted to host a neighborhood bar crawl in the little part of Charlotte we lived in (Dilworth) and that culminated the week. My favorite part of Bucket List Week is that a certain gentleman joined us on the bar crawl and that was the night that led to us dating (and you know the rest of the story) and we moved to Switzerland and that leads us to….

Bar Crawl / Bucket List Week / Dilworth, NC 2009

…..today’s gratitude post. The movie, Bucket List, included a theme where the two main characters who both were dying of cancer created list of things they wanted to do before they “kicked the bucket”. Morgan Freeman’s character had written “witness something truly majestic”. Witnessing something majestic had always sounded really intriguing, and this past week, I think I hit it when we were on the top of Mont Blanc on Sunday.

According to wikipedia, Mont Blanc is the highest peak in Europe, (on this side of Russia) and is the 3rd most visited natural site in the world. We visited in the middle of summer, and it is still snow-capped and amazing. The contrast to the surrounding mountains that are adjusting to their summer climate while Mont Blanc still is glacial, is simply mind-blowing. And, I had never thought I would actually ever see a glacier that close in my life.

So, this week, my gratitude Friday is dedicated to witnessing majestic Mont Blanc and being grateful for the beautiful majestic things we have on this Earth. Bon weekend, everyone!

All photos courtesy of Henry Birmingham