New Year in Megeve!

I arrived at Nice airport rather late from Amsterdam, and was very happy indeed to be reunited with Mathilde, who met me at the aiport. We didn't have much time to rest at home, though, as the plan was to spend New Year at Megeve, in the French Alps, with our dear friends Flore and Christian (and let's not forget about Lilian and Melodie either!). So after a bit of a lie-in, and lunch, it was time to pack our things and head off towards the Alps.

Getting to Megeve from the Riviera is a bit of a pain, as basically it requires getting around the Alps somehow. There are plenty of options - the quickest & easiest one (the one we went for) is to drive through Italy and take a rather expensive tunnel through the Alps (either the Frejus or Mont Blanc tunnel). We opted for the Frejus tunnel option (which is the quickest option - but not the cheapest as the tunnel costs 45 Euros!).

Anyway, we arrived at Megeve at around 8 in the evening, just in time for dinner ;-) Or actually, just in time for some Vin Chaud, as we ended up meeting up with the Mollard family in downtime Megeve, at the ice skating rink. After a vin chaud, we headed back to their flat for a nice dinner. Tartiflette was on the menu - what else (tartiflette is the savoyard dish par excellence - basically composed of Reblochon cheese, lardons and potatoes - with ingredients like that, how could one possibly go wrong?).

Much to our disappointment, the Alps were about as snow-less as Finland had been - so there was not to be any skiing this time around, unfortunately. Which actually suited us just fine, as we were quite tired after our respective Christmas celebrations, and didn't mind just chilling out. So we spent the day in a rather laid-back manner, playing games, watching telly, being jumped on by Lilian and Melodie, etc.

We kicked off the New Year's eve celebrations by heading into Megeve town centre. Megeve, being the oldest ski resort in France, is a pretty nice little town (much nicer than a lot of the more modern purpose built ski resorts). So it's quite a nice place to stroll around. We rather quickly ended up at the main square, where free vin chaud (and hot chocolate for the kids) was kindly being served up by the municipality. The atmosphere at the main square was pretty electric

We cooked the new year's eve dinner at the house, some sweet potato chips, with a nice roast to follow. And to top it all off, a fantastic Apple Tarte prepared by Mathilde. And plenty of champagne and wine to go with it, naturally! No clubbing, no crazy partying, but civilized socializing, then, rather? (well, the kids did manage to liven things up a fair bit!).

After the wining and dining, we were of course treated to the rather impressive New Year's eve fireworks. As they are organized by the municipalities in France, they are somewhat more impressive than in Finland, for example, where the fire works are organized by private persons. The fact that those persons are quite often drunk, though, means that the fireworks in Finland tend to be more "exciting" affairs in the sense that you never know what will happen...

The next day, we all woke up, rather hangover-free (are we getting old or something? Isn't one supposed to have a hangover on New Year's day?). The weather looked quite promising (compared to the rather misty weather we had the day before), so we decided it was time to do some outdoors activities (in spite of some less than enthusiastic reactions from some of the younger members of our party).

So off we headed, to Lac Javen, a nice little lake, located just on the Southern slopes of the ski resort. An energetic (and somewhat adventurous, given the slippery & icy roads) 40 minute walk from the parking took us up to the lake, from where we had some pretty amazing views around the surrounding mountains. And there was even some snow, and more importantly, beer and vin chaud.

Before dinner, we had time for a bit of ice skating as well. It's been a while since the last time - actually I think the last time was probably at Megeve as well. Well, I didn't fall, so I suppose I did all right then ;-)

For dinner, I prepared a proper Finnish salmon soup with Mathilde's expert assistance (actually, I was maybe doing more of the assisting...). It's always a success with foreigners (but anyway, how can one go wrong with a recipe consisting of salmon, potatoes, cream and dill?). It was this time around as well, even our young, strict culinary critic Lilian seemed to enjoy the soup.

The next day, it was sadly time to hit the road. Or, actually, given the mist that had made its appearance again, perhaps it was a good time to leave. This time around, we decided to drive up to Grenoble, and take the Route Napoleon from there. A much cheaper, and more scenic option, if a bit longer...

All in all, a great way to welcome the new year. Merci beaucoup, Flore et Christian, et a bientot!