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!

New year in Megeve

Deciding what to do for New Year was a big dilemma for us, as always (where to go, whom to invite, etc.). Fortunately, Flore & Christian solved it for us by kindly inviting us and a bunch of other mates to spend it with them in Megeve, in the French Alps.



So off we flew to Geneva, with Fly Baboo, a Swiss low-cost airline that I would definitely recommend to anybody flying to Switzerland, in spite of our 1 ½ hour delay! (Their meal concept is quite original – the light snack is served on cocktail sticks). From there, Christian drove us as well as Chie & Jeff (who had spent the day in Geneva) down to Megeve (after a quick visit at his parents place in Annemasse). We were later joined by Isabelle, Nick and Flore, who had all taken the train from Paris.



We had three absolutely fabulous days of skiing – a lot better than last time (although that time our nocturnal activities would’ve probably prohibited any serious skiing even if the weather had allowed for it…). At the end of it all, I even felt some improvement in my technique (I actually felt like I was skiing rather than just tumbling down the hill with skis on my feet). Blue skies, great snow, just superb, all in all. And of course this was accompanied by great food, drink and friends…



We were treated to two of the local specialities: Tartiflette (which is, according to that most reliable internet resource Wikipedia, not actually a traditional dish but rather an invention by the Reblochon trade union – Reblochon cheese being one of the main ingredients) and Fondue (which is apparently originally Swiss - doh).






New Year’s eve was a somewhat less energetic affair than last year – a day of skiing does that to you at my age ;-). We started the celebrations in the central square of Megeve, where they very kindly served free Vin Chaud (fortified with Grand Marinier). Then we continued in the flat, struggling on ‘til about 1h30 in the morning, dancing to 80’s music, drinking what was left of the wine and champagne and chatting away… Too bad Sinhung couldn’t join us –we fondly remember his inflated balloons from last time around ;-)



Tuesday was a sad day indeed, as we had to head back to our respective homes… A big thanks to Flore and Christian for their hospitality and a great break!

Skiing and partying in the Alps

Flore and Christian were kind enough to invite us and some other friends for a weekend of skiing to Megeve. So without hesitation we booked an Easyjet flight to Geneva, and off we went.
As often, our voyage was an eventful one, with a 2-hour delay. After this we spent about 2 hours in Geneva in the rain, trying to meet up (and failing) Matsuoka, who had been sightseeing (= been in the pub) in Geneva all day. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Flore and Christian ended up picking us from Geneva and driving us to Megeve, because there were no more buses...

The next couple of days were rainy and misty, so none save Christian (brave fool) went skiing. But we compensated for this lack of sports activity by eating some of the diet food of Savoy (I'm being ironic here), and of course enjoying vast quantities of the local wines as well! Well we had to, since it was Lilian's birthday!




On Sunday we actually did go skiing (Nick was especially motivated, wearing a crash helmet 'n all) - it was a perfect day for it, with a clear blue sky. Well, most of us did, anyway ;-)









And last but certainly not least, below, the birthday hero, "1-year old, no longer bald, still can't walk but he surely can talk" :-)