Foto Phave: Hills Above Nice, France

Father’s Day dinner with a view. This is from our rental house in the hills above Nice, looking toward the Alps. The girls made chocolate lava cake for their Dad to top off dinner on the patio.

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Lost in Language

Lyon from the esplanade of Fouviere

Traveling as a family, it is obvious that we are not French. As we walk into someone’s presence, we are usually talking and laughing, giving ourselves away. For many years, I have thought about language. In the game “If you were granted three wishes, what would you wish [...]

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River Through Time

Our own trip down the mountain was the reverse, other than the first few kilometers. In Les Trois Vallees, the largest ski area in the world, vacation rentals begin and end on Saturday. The drainage of departing skiers on Saturday gather from the individual resorts into a huge, slow moving current on the freeway which [...]

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Goodbye Chandon, Chalet Nikita

We stayed in an old world mountain village just down the Meribel Valley from the ski area. Our home for the stay was the Chalet Nikita, a renovated old house made comfortable without any loss of charm. It sits in Chandon, a small gathering of ancient buildings on the hillside looking up at Meribel [...]

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Au Revoir Russell, Goodbye Gear.

JB and Russell skiing on a bluebird day in Courchevel, France

We sent home our ski gear today. Russell was the first to leave for home of those who came along to Meribel to ski and send us off. A life lesson we’ve learned from skiing is to keep your knees bent. Being flexible makes [...]

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Redundancy in Awe

The Three Valleys, Fance, is the largest connected ski area in the world.

It is hard to describe or imagine the vastness without experiencing it. As you approach one of the 25 summits, another valley of skiing opens below. Run after run, we explore, never crossing the same ground twice. We find ourselves becoming redundant [...]

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Eating Savoie

Savoy cheeses on display

As I was leaving home, my friend Murphy asked me to write about the food. We have eaten in a few restaurants, but tend to stay in, eating the local foods in our temporary home. Twice a week, there is an open air market in Meribel. Although many shops sell the [...]

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Staring at Trees; A Day of Downtime in Meribel

We shared a day of quiet yesterday. The girls and I opted to lounge around the house, lazy Saturday. From the rented chalet we look down out the bottom of the Meribel Valley toward the mountains to the North and East. The forested valley walls are broken here and there by small villages, clusters of [...]

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Fog in the Valley

A fog has settled in the Meribel valley, and small flakes of snow hint of winter. Downstairs a little girl and her daddy just caught the ski bus up to Meribel center. She’s wearing her helmet with her favorite cover, the one with stuffed bone ends sticking out both sides. She calls herself “bonehead” [...]

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Meribel Landing

Old buildings in the Meribel valley, France

We’ve made it to Chandon, Meribel. The view from our windows includes several ancient buildings, barns in disrepair quietly passing through time. Beams of timber, stone, and plaster patiently bearing snow of the winter season, another year blending into other decades.

It was raining yesterday, as we settled [...]

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