The kids had their half term break and we wanted to go away but were having trouble finding a place to go that wasn't going to cost a fortune or that had availability. We searched the internet until the very last minute and I woke Craig up on Friday morning to let him know that I had found something that sounded interesting, but it would require us to leave that afternoon. After a few phone calls and some some quick packing, we picked the kids up from school at 3:30 and got on the road headed toward Ardent, France and the Portes du Soleil mountain area for a week of skiing.
The area in France we were headed was right on the border of Switzerland and just outside Geneva in the Alps. We stayed in the one road village of Ardent in a chalet that was directly across of the street from the ski lift. The chalet we stayed in was big enough for 4 families. Each family had their own rooms and bathrooms and all other common areas were shared. The company that managed the chalet and the entire ski and child care program is based in the UK and is primarily used by British families. We could not have gotten luckier with the families we shared the week with. They were good company and being around other kids that spoke English was enough to make the trip memorable for Colin and Chloe.
The chalet was run by two girls - one who was a host and the other who was a chef. They were there every morning to make breakfast. They would leave fresh bread and snacks for when we arrived home from skiing, served dinner to the kids at 5:30 and cooked a 3 course dinner every night for the adults at 7:30. We didn't have to do any dishes or prepare anything - it was great! The one night they were off, they made dinner reservations for us, provided transportation and arranged sitters for the kids.
Mornings were probably the craziest time of the day. All of the kids and parents would be dressing to head up the mountain for ski lessons. Chloe was just a bit too young for lessons, so we brought her to a full day care that was located just two chalets down the road.
The ski lessons Colin took were run through a French company, ESF. The ESF has a reputation of being an excellent and hard core school, but they are also known for being strict and not dealing very well with kids crying and such. We saw several examples of this. Lots of yelling and we even saw one instructor pick a kid up out the the snow by the hood of her jacket. Because of this, the company we used to book the vacation with sends some skiing assistants to tend to the crying children, provide hugs and encouragement when needed. Colin was having a bit of a rough time by day 2, but was able to turn it around and even get bumped up one class by the middle of the week. By Wednesday, they had him on a chair lift. Truly amazing!!
Most days, Craig and I skiied together but he is a much better skier than I am so we often split up in the afternoon. I spent most of my time working on my technique on the easier blue slopes, while Craig was a little more wild. The slopes brought us over the border between France and Switzerland several times and I ended up with tons of border crossing notification texts on my cell phone. Thursday afternoon, Craig went to ski with 2 of our chalet mates on several red slopes. I knew better than to even attempt a red slope.
After Colin's last lesson on Friday, we brought him up the mountain and skied with him down several blue slopes. He is a very controlled skier and clearly has no fear of what lies ahead of him. While we were skiing, we were shocked to see him ski just off one of the runs to go over 2 jumps.
It was much more sad to leave than I had anticipated and depending on the weather, we are already considering making another trip back before the season is over!
