After the excitement of the camper van trip to Italy, it's been a couple of weeks of routine and admin interspersed with a trip to Geneva to drop off the van, a quest for a sub-$50 haircut (I ended up buying a clipper set), Armistice day, a few local adventures and another big weekend trip. This time the hockey did not come to us, so we went to it.
First a word about Armistice day. France was deeply traumatised by the wars, with so much of the fighting and loss of life happening on its soil. November 11th is a public holiday, which we don't have in Canada (except for the federal government). This means the kids are in school in Canada, which I think actually makes for a more meaningful experience every year as the schools do a lot of teaching around it.
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Vaujany hockey tournament. Toby's orange laces make it easy to pick him out
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| Armistice day ceremony |
Specifically we went to Vaujany for Toby to represent Chamonix in a smaller tournament of five teams. The highlight of the weekend was the tournament, in which Toby scored the first goal for his team, and they went on to win three, tie one.
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The tournament schedule
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Other than that we also really liked Annecy, where we stopped for a picnic lunch and hot chocolate.
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Annecy
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| A cosy cafe on a chilly November day in Annecy |
It's a stunning town with intriguing ancient alleyways, an emerald lake, a mountain backdrop, and endless pretty cafes and restaurants nestled around the bridges criss-crossing the canal. A real gem (if you ignore the traffic and parking nightmares).
We also discovered Flunch, a sort of cafeteria based service station restaurant with a salad bar and real food, a rarity when on the cross-country hockey tournament circuit. If we are to become a hockey family, these discoveries are very important, else we will be resigned to a diet of MacDonald's and pizza. And I enjoyed a breezy, frosty run in a different valley on Sunday morning!
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Heading up the valley toward the Col du Sabot from Vaujany. There is also a dead end road running up to the col which would make for a great bike ride.
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| Frosty, scenic, enchanting |
On the admin side (nuts and bolts), we have researched and booked the following, most of which during a one day marathon session while the kids were at school (and there is more to come, including endless covid tests for our trip back to Canada 😖):
- A rental car for the Vaujany weekend
- Overnight accommodation in Vaujany
- A bus to Geneva
- A flight to London
- A rental car in Woking
- 4 x lateral flow tests for entry to the UK
- A flight to Ottawa
- A train to (and from) Paris
- A hotel in Paris
- A ticket up the Tour d'Eiffel
That's right, we are here for three more weeks and we had always hoped to do a trip to Paris. The TGV was firmly on Toby's wishlist. We are also planning to cross paths with our friends from Ottawa who have been living in Belgium for the past couple of years.
And finally, I'm not done with a few goals for the valley. I attempted and failed a 20k run (I will try again without the 500m elevation) and I attempted and succeeded a 30k hike with 1500m elevation, this being a trial for a possible six day Tour de Mont Blanc next summer. The main reward was a day of brilliant sunshine up high while the valley sat under a stubborn blanket of low cloud.
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| These scenes of mountain geology don't get boring (to me anyway!) |
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| On the Grand Balcon Sud heading up the valley toward the Col des Montets |
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| Petit Balcon Nord just past Le Tour on the way back to Chamonix |
And finally finally, we went to see the Chamonix Pionniers hockey team against the Bourdeaux Boxers at the arena 200m from our front door. It was an entertaining 3-3 game which Chamonix lost on penalties. Fun evening out.
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| Aller Pionniers! |
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| Crystal and Felicity were invited to take part in the shooting competition at the break... |
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