We celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary on November 28th, waking up in Paris no less. Romantic it was not really. It was Sunday, we were tired from a late night in Montmatre, we had a train to catch, it was 5 degrees and rainy, and our hotel was utilitarian at best. I had managed to cobble together my traditional home made card and presented this to the lucky bride along with the free square of chocolate that I got with my coffee in the buffet car. As if this onslaught of anniversary indulgence was not enough, we had been saving a visit to Chamonix's QC Therme spa for this very occasion.
Just to round out the Paris trip first, after some decent sushi in an underwhelming restaurant across from the station in Annecy, we waited in the sleet and snow for our bus replacement back to Chamonix. As we climbed up the valley it was clear to see that our adopted home had been transformed into a winter wonderland while we were away for the weekend. A beautiful backdrop we now had for a day in the hot water on Tuesday.
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Appropriately cold for a day in the hot water
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| View from the infinity pool, Crystal got me into monochrome today |
Apparently there are QC Therme's all over - New York, several in the big cities of Italy, and a couple in the Alps. Chamonix's opened in 2018. I can't imagine what they did without it for so long! We dropped the kids at school and embarked on the 5 minute walk from our front door. The spa is really nicely done, although as with a lot of these things, we could have done with a second visit since it took a while to find our way around. Steam rooms, sauna rooms, hot pools, a cold pool, indoor baths, an outdoor infinity pool, waterfalls... you get the picture. We also had a nice lunch and spent a bit of time reading in the relaxation rooms (as opposed to all the other rooms that were oh so stressful ;-).
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I particular liked (but did not use) the Man Face cream
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This is what you are meant to do at a hot baths
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Smile
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Reading room
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| Another, even nicer reading room |
We could have stayed until 10pm but I don't think the school would have kept the kids that long. It's always nice to leave wanting more and we had had a really lovely day.
The rest of the week involved kids' activities, some running and planning and prep for Saturday ski trip to Verbier and a Sunday hockey tournament. One week until we leave for England...
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On a run up the valley, more monochrome
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| A run/hike/snowslide down the valley with Crystal |
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