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| Two equally representative images of Alpine life |
It's amazing how quickly I forget how things felt and what I was thinking. It's easy to recount what we did and when (that's what pictures are for!) but the thoughts and feelings from one moment to the next are ephemeral. I guess it should come as no surprise that in a year full of out of the ordinary, and often amazing, experiences, for all the highs there must be some lows, just like in real life. And in particular, after those really busy, intense periods (e.g. packing up and travelling from Spain to France and then have a spectacular weekend hiking to a hut), there will be a bounce back. And no doubt that can be exacerbated by the weather. The bump back down to earth often lands in a soggy puddle. I include these little morose observations because I think it's unfair to present this unusual year of our lives as something it's not. What it is is often amazing, enjoyable, enriching, and wonderful, but what it is is also, at times, tiring, lonely, unhappy, and hard. And yes, it feels churlish to feel that way when we are so privileged to have this time, but honesty is important.
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A cold. rainy day in Chamonix centre
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| The river bubbling its way into Chamonix |
Back to business: after three days of moody, brooding, rainy, drizzly, cold and dark valley life, during which the kids started their new school, Toby tried out for the ice hockey team, and we joined the library, Crystal and I went for a hike. But first, more on school. Our incredibly brave (I was way more nervous than them) little people rocked up at a French school where they knew no one, and struggled with the language, and, well, just got on with it. Cool stuff about French schools (at least this one): they have two hours off for a sit-down three-course meal and recess; they have school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Yes, that's right, as one teacher puts it "Wednesday is for relaxing and skiing". It is a big step up going from French Immersion in Ottawa, to a French school in France but there are several English speaking kids to ease the transition. We hope that this will be a real boost for their French, not to mention their resilience. They have only ever been at one school before this. Not to mention, that it is just great to have them back in a physical school for the first time since the April shutdown.
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Toby and Felicity outside their new school
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| The walk to and from school can be very nice |
Oh, ok then, back to today's hike. We have 8 hours between dropping the kids at school and picking them up, so we went with our packs ready and headed straight off up the mountain. And here it is literally straight up. Two steep valley walls and a flat, narrow valley floor. It was cold this morning, hovering around freezing, and there has been a dusting of snow above 2000m the last few days. The objective was to get up and over the first ridge to see the next valley, and perhaps visit a lake. And after 3.5 hours and 1200m of ascent, we did it, with plenty of awe inspiring mountain views on the way. It's impossible not to feel a heightened sense of being alive on days like these. The sheer size of the mountains around you, the huge distances that you can see, the vibrancy of the colours as the sun bathes the landscape, and the wispy clouds scooting upwards and over the tops of the valley walls. Lots of people are in love with these environments and it is disarmingly easy to feel passionate about inanimate towers of rock. It's hard to explain but perhaps that is what makes it so ethereal and soulful. And we made it back down with time enough for hot chocolate and coffee in the sunshine before getting the kids from school.
Enjoy...
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On our way up to Le Brevent with the Mont Blanc massif on the other side of the valley
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A generous dusting of snow above 2000m
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Beauty everywhere
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This was our first real hike without the kids for a decade
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Picnic pose
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| You can just about make out our apartment right by the athletic track |
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