It seems like right after I arrived in France, (ok, 3 weeks), I got hit with a vacation! Not that I’m complaining of course. Work and school schedules are much more regulated and socialized by the state, and from what I understand, France is divided into 5 different sections to rotate winter vacation, so that the entire country doesn’t go on vacation at once and shut down (like it does in August). It’s not like in the states where parents tend to try to take their vacation time around their children’s school breaks which tend to be pretty uniform within a state/region. Everyone in my “area” was on vacation last week. Winter vacation in France is pretty synonymous with skiing, so of course I tagged along with my host family when they headed to the Alps!
France is pretty ski crazy. The first weekend of vacation when we were packing up to leave, I briefly turned on the news and saw a clip of the Paris airport – which was filled with families in snowsuits headed to the Alps. All the commercials right now center on skiing, and of course, the Ski World Championships are being held in France at the moment. Despite this ethos, my host mom told me that “only” 10% of the French population actually goes on ski vacations every winter. While that seems like a small percentage, I think its actually much higher than it is in the States. I’m pretty biased towards (and spoiled in my access to) winter sports, due to growing up in Maine, but I don’t skiing is as prevalent throughout the states. And even amongst the ski bums I do know, I don’t know that many who take week long vacations every year. In that regard, I think 10% of the population spending a week at the mountain every winter pretty impressive.
So lets talk skiing! We spent the week at Karellis, which is this really sweet little resort run not-for-profit. The mountain stays open till 5 everyday, which is a very good thing, because perfect snow and epic conditions do not stop the French from taking ridiculously long lunch breaks. I averaged about an hour for lunch, and that was significantly less time than my host
family. This is crazy to me, as my friends at home get annoyed if I take 20 minutes for lunch! I was reminded however, that unlike my American friends who drive two hours to the mountain every weekend and therefore want to make sure they rage hard to get their day’s worth, the French are here for the week, and this is their vacation. My host mom even remarked to me that she thought I was skiing too much!
The mountain itself is definitely a skier’s mountain. It has lots of narrow flat windy trails that help you get around the different peaks, which are not fun on a snowboard. At first I was really surprised by how few snowboarders there are here, until my French ski instructor reminded me that snowboarding is an American invention, and the novelty of it has yet to really take hold here (at least, its certainly not as prevalent here as it is in the states).
So, if you can’t beat them, join them! I ended up spending the majority of the week on skis, which I hadn’t been on in over 14 years. It was pretty epic, and by the end of my first lesson, I was skiing red trails (the equivalent of a hard blue/easy black at home), and by midweek I was skiing off trail and doing moguls! I don’t remember learning to ski as a kid, because I quit by the time I was 7, but I can compare relearning to ski with learning to snowboard, and it seems like lessons here have a much stronger emphasis on learning to play around on the mountain and be adventurous. Skiing through trees for the first time in my life was exhilarating!
Ok, biggest differences between the French Alps and New England Mountains: At home, trails are rated green circle, blue square, black diamond, double black diamond. Here, trails are green, blue, red, black. There’s also WAY more off trail terrain here, probably due to the fact that there is so much above tree line skiing here, and there is practically none on the East coast. My only real issue with skiing in France? The lift lines. Or, the lack there of. Granted, there is much less of a crowd here, and perhaps the lack of the order can be attributed to a lack of a need for one, but still. At home, there are roped off lines for the lift, and usually an attendant directing everyone when they can go. Here there is a mass of people, and the only way to get to the front of it is to purposely cut off other people who look (to me anyway) like they are in line. I was really shocked the first morning when I saw my host dad squeeze right into the middle of the “line”, but I quickly realized that I would never get anywhere if I didn’t do the same. None the less, I don’t like being aggressive in lift lines, and it’s not something that I ever got used to.
Oh and you have to wear sunscreen on the mountain here. I’m not sure if it’s the altitude or just that its warmer, but without sunscreen you will get burned! Even with it, I ended up with a pretty hilarious goggle tan. The ski instructor’s tans are crazy; they almost look a different ethnicity when they take off their goggles!
All in all it was a pretty great week, and with no other American's around to cheat and speak English with, it was pretty good for my French as well. Let's hope that lasts!
This is the view from the top of my favorite chairlift:
And this is Domatille sitting on the Thule rack to help close it. We had a lot of stuff.
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