Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007
Subject: Vive La France!
Salut mes amies!
We are back in Breda after an incredible week in France. We arrived Sunday after driving 9 hours through 4 countries (France, Luxmbourg, Belgium, Holland)...since the inception of the European Union there are no longer border crossings, which saved us lots of time.
So to recap the week...Mark and Alan picked me up at the airport in Brussels and then we headed to Paris for 2 nights. It rained and rained and rained! But we made the most of it. We walked across the Louvre (closed on tuesdays...super ), visited l'Arc de triumph and Notre Dame cathedral, took the subway to the Moulin Rouge and Sacre Couer cathedral and of course, went up the Tour Eiffel. it was such bad weather however, that the very top level was closed..but we went up as high as we could, and the view was still stunning!
We then headed to meet up with Phil and Christine and drive to Chamonix in the Alps.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! they are spectacular! We all skied the Thursday. Unfortunately that day at those altidudes (2000-3275m) we were in a permanent cloud which meant we couldnt see more than 3 meters in front of us...kinda cool, but for this prairie girl brought up cross country skiing it made for a scary first few runs!! The next day Mark and everyone else hired a guide and went off piste (unmarked terrain).
They started at 3842m and took most of the day to wind down the mountain to the base...I opted to take the gondola up, shoot some pictures, and then take it down again...thus i am alive to send this email! They had an awesome run as shown in their pictures. Saturday we did Argentiere mountain range again but this time it was a clear day and i had the best skiing of my life.
Aside from skiing we made the most of "apres ski"--the downtime, wine and cheese enjoyed after a busy day on the mountain. We rented a little chalet with a fireplace and kitchenette--it was perfect.
And now back to the grind for mark! His visa came through 2 weeks ago, so he is officially in the office. I got news this week that I was accepted into the master's program at the University of Toronto, so I will be returning end of August to start it.
Thats all for now!
Enjoy the pictures! The food one is Escagots in a garlic spinach sauce. The others are pretty self explanatory.
Cheers from Mark and Luisa :)
