Chamonix, France & the Alps

The second weekend of February, Brian and I headed to Geneva for a long weekend.  I was able to find incredibly cheap flights (75 Euros, round trip TOTAL for both of us), so we took advantage of the flights as well as some vacation days that Brian had to use, and headed out.  Once we arrived in Geneva, we took an 90 minute car ride to Chamonix, right in the heart of the alps.  We spent the next few days skiing, snowboarding, or attempting to do one of those.

Unfortunately, it hadn't snowed for 5 weeks in the alps, so everything looked pretty bare.  But, the mountains were high enough that there was still some snow preserved, so we took advantage of early morning skiing before the snow turned to mush in the afternoon warmth.

I was excited that my rented boots matched my jacket.

Day one: Le Tour.  See ALLLL that snow behind Brian?  You can tell he's really excited for our first day of skiing on our first ride up in the gondola.

 You say "look!  There's snow!  He's standing on it!"  Yes, but it's not very good snow.  Sorry, we don't mean to be snow snobs, but Brian & his parents & my parents have now spoiled me for the rest of my life after getting to ski in Colorado in fresh powder.  Sigh.

See that little cluster of dark spots in the middle of the photo?  That's where we ate lunch on the first day.  I get such a kick out of eating out in the mountains.

End of first day:  need refreshment.  We found a little cafe at the middle point of one of the mountains and proceeded to get some hot wine to warm us up.

 yum.

Day two: Brevant.  Snow's not much better, but we really enjoy the scenery.  The Alps totally have Colorado beat when it comes to beauty.

Cue the wop-wop sound... rocks are showing everywhere due to the lack of snow.  I love this photo though... me & my skis, Brian & his board...

 What a stud I married.  {Who else thinks that the lift in the background looks like something out of Star Wars?}

 Honestly.  What a great looking guy :)  With a built-in face mask protector.

The town of Chamonix at the bottom of the photo, with the mountains reaching above.  Cool!

We did our best to look at the bright side, that there were no lines, bluebird skies, and the slopes more or less to ourselves!  Plus, it was just so nice to get out of the city, and into nature a bit more.  We really did have a lot of fun together, out among the mountains!

And, random photo of the day.  Who wants to be this guy?  Found him in Chamonix, entertaining a very matchy matchy child...