Fête des Lumières, Round 1

Interesting weekend- had it's ups and downs! All day on Saturday, the CUEF planned a trip to Lyon to enjoy La Fête des Lumières. I associated it originally with Noël, but it's a celebration to thank the Virgin Mary by lighting little candles all around the city. Only thing is, Saturday was TOURISM DAY! And therefore, pretty unenjoyable. In addition, it was freeezing and rainy all day, and we couldn't find a restaurant to eat some lunch for over an hour since everywhere was complèt. At night, around 5pm, the lights came on around the city- light shows everywhere! It was super! The crowd was HUGE all over the city, I've never seen so many people in one place. There's a big Christmas market, where the vendors sell ALL sorts of trucs and where they have all sorts of goodies to choose from. I spent the day with Marion and Kelly; we meandered around, testing out all the vin chaud (hot wine) around the city! I took the train home on the early side with Anna because I was getting up early to ski the next day!







SUNDAY, DEC 7th
Up at 6:30am (ouch) to catch the only bus to Chamrousse ski station. Sasha was supposed to come with me, but didn't have the motivation to get up at the ass-crack of dawn like me. So I waited and waited and waited in the bus station, only to find out that out of these 100 people...there's only one bus. Merde. Fortunately though I run into a girl from my language class at the university- Katherine (who's from Dover, MA! Weird!) is there with, like, sooo many Americans girls. I was just wondering: where they hell did they all come from? Apparently they all go to Davidson in the South, but the 7 of them are studying in Europe- one in Paris, Madrid, Grenoble, Florence, Prague. So that would make me the 8th person, perfect since we need two taxis to take us to Chamrousse. Prices aren't actually that bad-€20 for the taxi, €17 for rentals and only €11 for a lift ticket IN THE ALPS- I mean, come on. It works out perfectly though because we split off 4 and 4 for the day; Katherine, Emily and Eleanor are all super good skiiers and appreciate the view of the mountains as much as I do ! We ski a LONG-ass day; 10 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon! But the mountain is so huge and just keeps going and going and going ...We just hopped on different chairlifts and different trails and wound up in a new place (unlike Loon Mtn, where every trail leads to the bottom). Another thing about ski stations in the Alps is there's no lodge down at the bottom to warm up, each lunch, hang out. Nope. Just snow and the Maison de Tourisme, where you're not allowed to pique-nique.
We got off this one trail where it hasn't been groomed yet, so we're in full powder, surrounded by glades- it was amazing ! The view at the top of the téléferrique was unreal- just mountains everywhere you look. Later in the day, the clouds moved in over Grenoble way down there in the valley, so it looked like we were skiing down into a sea of clouds. So cool! By the end of the day, I catch the ONLY bus out of Chamrousse back to Grenoble. Quick shower at home, and although I'm exhausted and my legs are shot from skiing all day, I meet up with Marie-Eve and some studiants for some fondue at this really cool restaurant in the quartier on the other side of the river L'Isère. It's down this little street and barely has a sign outside advertising it, but is all very well-known. It's called A Confesse and is Halloween themed and very quirky. Both times I've been there, they've played Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" for a weirdish atmosphere. I sat down with Kelly, Geoffrey and Anna and we literally laughed our asses off all night. I get along so well with Kelly, we both have the same ridiculous sense of humor. The cheese fondue was delicious, as was the chocolate fondue dessert. Geoffrey ordered this dessert called "Jekyll and Hyde" and had gummy eyeballs and rats in it ! Gross! But kinda good!