House-warming party in the Alps

This weekend, it was time to head for the Alps. The occasion was Flore and Christian’s housewarming party in La Roche-sur-Foron. We hit the road straight away after work, since we had a 5-6 hour drive ahead of us. The drive probably would’ve been a very picturesque one, had it not been for the fact that it got dark by the way we entered Alpine scenery… But anyway, the trip was eventless, and we arrived sound and safe at Flore and Christian’s house.

We’d already had a sneak peek of the place a few months ago, at the end of our “French road trip”, so already knew what a lovely house they have. We were pretty nackered after the long drive, so hit the bed pretty early…

We started off the next day with a walk around La Roche. It’s a very picturesque little town, with a lot of well-preserved traditional buildings. A lot of towns in this area have obviously turned into ski resorts, but La Roche has the feel of a “real town”. After our refreshing little walk, we headed off to Annecy, to continue our Haut-Savoie tourist tour. Once there, the whole group was reunited, much to everybody’s delight. Most of us had made it; Nick, Sinhung, Chie, Olivier, Rafaelle, Nathalie and Patrick (I’m always impressed by the effort they make to take part in these proceedings, with their 3 kids and all).

Annecy is probably the most famous historic town in Haut-Savoie, ideally located on the shores of the beautiful Lac d’Annecy. It’s another very well-preserved town, architecturally speaking, and clearly more touristy than La Roche. After a very pleasant stroll around the old town, we headed to a local restaurant for a generous helping of Savoyard cuisine (although the place was actually run by Belgians…). Which suited me fine, I have a soft spot for Savoyard cuisine ;-). After the meal, we walked some more to burn off some calories, this time checking out the park by the lakeside. Some of us (including me) even went all infantile, and rented a paddle-boat for half an hour of extra calorie-burning. It was all good fun; we were surprised by how shallow Lac d’Annecy actually was (large parts of it seem to be less than 1 meter deep).

After this bit of touristy action, it was time to head back and get ready to PARTY. Things kicked off with aperitifs at there very spacious balcony. We were joined by some locals as well, including some relatives of Christian (who’s an authentic Savoyard) and some of the neighbours. As the atmosphere warmed up, Christian invited us to his garage for a bit of a concert – he’s got some pretty impressive audio equipment and instruments in there… Fortunately the neighbours were at the party – we might have had some “feedback” otherwise.

After this brilliant little concert piece, we eventually moved back indoors, where the going just got tougher. It really felt like the good old times ;-). Sinhung even entertained us with his performance of “Like a Virgin” – just a pity his performance partner (Philippe) was missing… Can’t even remember what time we hit the bed – must be because I had such good fun that I lost track of time!

After we’d finally crawled out of bed the next day, it was time to hit the road again, after many tearful good byes. This time we were joined by Nick, who was extending his trip with a few days on the Cote d’Azur. We drove back via Italy this time – through some amazing Alpine scenery, and even stopping for a very nice Italian lunch near Aosta.

Thanks to Flore and Christian for a brilliant party! And great too see everybody again.