The last leg of our ‘European Christmas Vacation’ took us to the most scenic part of our journey – The French Alps. We had been to the Alps a couple of time, most memorably with brother Kelly, in Megeve. This trip was going to take us to a more isolated area, specifically to a small village named Pelvoux at 1400m above sea level.
We began our day by leaving Saou at noon after a small hiccup of locking the owners out of the house we rented because we didn’t know they didn’t have a key and we shut the door behind us. We didn’t think it would lock without locking it ourselves from the outside (we had to manually lock it before), and she said to leave the key inside. She texted later saying she was locked out and had to climb in through a window!! “Oops! Lost in translation” – we had been communicating with her solely in French …and the language barrier can cause these little problems. lol
Soon after we left Saou, we stopped prior to the steep hills and walked any ruins we found. One memorable one was the castle shell in Bordeaux. The kids were tired of ‘ancient things’, so Chris and I walked this village and had a nice view of the old castle.
Not far into the journey, near La Charce, in the Drome region was an interesting place to stop the car and read about some impressive rock formations beside the road. The striated rock formations were once horizontal and at the bottom of the sea in Paleozoic times – before dinosaurs -when only some sea crustaceans existed!! 5 million years old – one of the only places in the world to see Earth material this old…Fossils of this sea life are embedded in these rock formations. They have been pushed vertically by plate tectonics and each limestone striation is equivalent to about 20,000 years of compression at the bottom of the sea. Each indent was during an ocean warming and marks the next 20,000 years. The fault line under this region causes a massive earthquake every 200-400 years.
Then our GPS took us through some memorable ‘U’ turns on steep sections of roadway (up and down mountains and past glaciers). The kids were laughing in the back, watching their father clutching the ‘Holy S__’ bar, reciting the Hail Mary, with his eyes closed (for those of you that know him well, you know that he has a slight fear of heights). The name of the highway was called the Lautaret Pass and it climbs to 6, 800 feet. It passes through the highest town in France, Briancon. Greg was videotaping the edge out the window but it is pretty choppy and no pictures can capture the drop we saw when we looked down, but here is one tunnel corner we rounded…
At about 6:00pm, we reached our destination, a very charming Auberge called ‘Clot St. Joseph’. The owners, Philippe and Sylvie, prepared a traditional Fondue dinner with Ile Flotante (dessert) for our family and two ‘mountaineers’ staying there (a lawyer and an engineer). They had a beautiful old Alpine farmhouse that they had totally renovated and added 5 guest rooms to and we were in one with 4 beds and a bathroom.
It was all stone and wood beam interior and a winding stone staircase down to the ‘cozy’ living room / dining area with a large fireplace (with real fire, like home!).We didn’t know what we would be eating; You just request ahead online if you will be having a homemade dinner there at the ‘auberge’. So it was a very nice surprise to have fondue while in the Alps in winter – great ambiance! We asked the mountaineers/skiers, the best place to ski in the area due to the lack of snow this year in the mountains (they are really feeling the effects of global warming here), and they recommended Puy St. Vincent.
The next day we woke, had breakfast at our ‘gite’ and got dressed for skiing. Puy St. Vincent was only 12 min. from where we were staying (10 of that was climbing a mountain road :). It was a beautiful day above the clouds with no wind and a temperature of about 2 degrees. We all skied together for the first 4 runs and then Greg and I went up to the very top of the mountain (2 more chairlift connections up) and it took about 40 minutes to ski to the bottom, stopping at the odd spot to look at the view. We did that twice before meeting up with Bri and Chris for another 2 runs with them. It was a great day! A highlight for all of us I think!
88 euros to rent; 105 euros to ski; Skiing in the Alps – priceless!
The next day we left at 10:15 am for Paris. This last drive was also hair-raising but one of the most beautiful drives we’ve ever been on. I drove it so Chris could ‘hang tight’, but nevertheless, we all loved the scenery and stopped a few times to take it all in.
We are now recuperating, doing laundry and groceries, and getting ready to celebrate New Years – Paris style!! Please stay tuned in to our blog – we miss Canada and it is our ‘fastest’ way to reach out to everyone at once!
Happy New Year!! Love, The Waylings
C M G B Overseas 
What a fantastic holiday. I hope Greg & Brezzy got as much out of it as you both did. One can’t explain the difference from a holiday in the islands. The history of your surroundings sinks into your bones and leaves you almost uphoric. It’s like nothing you can attain in North America or the Islands ( minus the heat of course).
Glad Chris survived the heights. There’s nothing like pushing your boundaries.
Now time to relax and get back to some normalcy.
Have a great French New Year!
Love to all!
Blessings
Mom & Dad W
💞🇨🇦💞🐾
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