In mid-March I decided to go on a ski trip in the Alps. The trip started off with my friend meeting me in Paris. We went around to all the sites in Paris and ate at a fancy, very expensive cafe near my apartment.
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| Oysters at fancy restaurant |
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| Bottled water €7.50 each -- ripoff |
After a few days in Paris, we took the TGV to Chamonix, France.
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| Our train |
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| Guy across from me on our train |
Fast train
After a 5 hour train ride, we arrived at St. Gervais where we were supposed to take a bus into Chamonix. It was late at night, and there were no buses. We waited forever and finally a bus arrived.
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| St. Gervais train station |
After a walk up a steep hill, we finally arrived at our hotel. We were surprised to find how nice it was with some fantastic views of Mont Blanc.
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| Hotel room |
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| View from room |
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| View from the room |
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| View from the room |
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| View from the room |
As it was a very short trip and we only had one day to ski, we got up early the next morning and headed out. The hotel had a van that drove us to the slopes where we rented skis. Then we bought lift tickets and got on the chairlift. We were at a ski resort called Les Houches which is next to Chamonix, and we appeared to be the only people skiing there. On our ascent up the mountain we noticed how little snow there was which was quite disappointing. Upon reaching the top of mountain we saw there was more snow, however it was extremely foggy.
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| Gondola house |
Getting on the chairlift
For lunch we went to a restaurant on the mountain. We made the mistake of ordering steak haché, which was just a hamburger minus the bun : ( . However, we got a delicious blueberry pie for dessert.
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| Steak Haché |
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| Blueberry pie -- I couldn't help shoving it into my face before remembering to take a picture |
After a long day of skiing, we went back to the hotel and got some rest. Later that night we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was very good. We got the prix fixe menu which started off with a salad covered in fondue cheese, followed by the main course of fish, then a big goblet of yogurt (which I didn't eat cuz I hate yogurt), and finally a giant chocolate souffle accompanied by blueberry and vanilla ice cream.
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| Fish |
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| Souffle |
The following morning we packed our things and took the train from our hotel to Chamonix where we walked around and had lunch.
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| Train to Chamonix |
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| Chamonix |
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| Chamonix |
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| Lunch |
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| Chamonix train station |
After a bit of exploring we boarded a bus.
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| Bus |
After a four hour bus ride, we were dropped off at Bellegarde train station which had a cool dome building.
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| Bellegarde train station |
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| Bellegarde train station |
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| Bellegarde train station |
We then boarded a train back to Paris.
View from train
We arrived in back in Paris, and I said goodbye to my friend who left for London. Looking back, it was a great trip and I hope to visit the Alps again one day, hopefully when there's more snow.
