France Day 3 (Saturday, December 27, 2008): Driving to the Chalet

The day started with a scrumptious breakfast, which was included in the price of our room. There was a warm buffet with eggs, sausage, bacon, petit pancakes, mini chocolate donuts, cinnamon balls, fresh bread and other yummy items.

Amanda was the navigator and used directions from Google Earth (which totally sucked). We got off to a rocky start but we eventually found ourselves headed in the right direction. We even navigated the toll roads successfully! Then came the town of Cluses and things again took a turn for the worst. Based on our crappy Google directions, we had difficulty navigating the round-a-bouts so we called Nick and Tina who were only about 20 minutes behind us. We picked a spot in a well-marked grocery store parking lot and waited for them. Nick had been skiing in Les Gets before and I’m glad because I don’t think we would have ever found it if we hadn’t followed him the rest of the way.

We finally arrived at the chalet after encountering the icy road that let up to our lodging. We stayed in Chalet Orlando, which had had four bedrooms, 3 ½ baths (including 2 en-suite baths), heated floors, a fireplace, warming towel racks, lots of patios and fantastic views. We slept in the bedroom that was right off the living room and we had one of the en-suite baths. The Chalet was FABULOUS! Here is a picture of the chalet:

Just a couple of views from the chalet:

The first picture is a view from our bedroom patio. The second shows the town of Les Gets in the valley below where our chalet was located. Every window, door or patio that you looked out of had a spectactular view. It was magical!

After getting everything situated, the girls, Nick and Joe headed into town to get their ski stuff. They all got our ski boots and polls. Since Joe was a beginner skier they had a special pair of skis just for people like him (whatever that means)!

Our first night we ate at Le Vieux Chêne which serves local Sovayarde cuisine. Joe ordered the local sausages with potatoes and onions in a white wine sauce and Amanda ordered gratin de crozets which was pasta with local bacon and cheese. The pasta came in tiniest squares you have ever seen. Joe definitely “won” and Amanda had menu envy. She ate like a crude American and dipped her bread in his delicious sauce because she just had to have a taste! After dinner, we drove around the town of Les Gets to get our bearings. Les Gets had lots of cute shops and restaurants and it reminded both of us of a bigger (and obviously more European) version of Banff, Canada.

I took a lot of pictures on this trip particularly of the girls. Here are a few of Tori, Lillia and Megan from the first night.

Joe is standing outside the restaurant and it had just started lightly snowing. Yeah!!!
The first picture is the girls outside the restaurant (Tori, Megan, Tina, Lillia and Amanda). The next picture is Tina, Lillia and Amanda. So good to see our friends and give lots of hugs to the girls!!!

After we got back to the chalet, we watched a little Sky English t.v. and then we headed to bed as Joe had to get rested for his first day of skiing lessons.