Takara Dōri: Christmas in Val d'Isere

Bonjour ~ (-^〇^-)

Happy new year for 2015! ♡

I'm back from France now after our awesome christmas away skiing in Val d'Isere and I have to admit... I'm already missing it so much. I just love skiing and the food and the skiing and the town and the shops and the everything. Although it was magical and all and we actually had snow over christmas unlike being in the UK, the christmasy vibes just went there. Maybe it's just the fact that we were away from home and it's the only thing were used to but you know what, I really didn't mind- I actually enjoyed it more than the typical christmas day we would normally have at home.

Don't get me wrong, I love christmas day at home too but to be honest when it gets to the evening we have eaten and already opened presents and I'm left feeling a bit.. bored. In France, it was full on day skiing for about 6 hours, having afternoon tea in the chalet, opening presents and having a drink at the bar and then having christmas dinner later on in the evening.

Then after that we even went out to a bar in the town and stayed out till about 2am, we met some and talked with new people and even hung out with the chalet staff that were working in the chalet. For me it was a memorable christmas and one that I would totally do again!

Although, did I mention that we were stuck on a coach for 22 hours? yeahhh for those of you in the UK who saw the news about the shed load of snow that caused problems in the Alps...yep that was us. We weren't quite as bad as those who had to be sent to emergency accommodation but we would've been sent there if we hadn't of been stuck on that coach for so long! we made a joke out of it and said that the coach was our emergency accommodation...

Basically making your way down a snowy icy mountain in a coach with vehicles coming the other way as well doesn't work out, there was also a coach incident too which didn't really help the process of getting down. After being told that the coach would not be moving for 3 hours (10 minutes into the journey may I add) me and mum went off with a few others to find a loo and get food rations. *That is one downside of being a woman, men can easily pee standing up where we have to resort to popping squats outside the coach. I personally can't do that so we went to find a loo (•ิ_•ิ)

After walking down the hill we hallelujah! found a loo in a restaurant and ordered two ham baguettes for the journey, we even snuck in a sneaky hot chocolate before I head out to a convenience store to buy chocolate, waffles and cookies to for some snackage on the coach.

Overall, we worked out that our flight was 24 hours later than intended because we had to get a new flight booked and at a different airport... but as I said it was still an amazing holiday and it all seems like a dream what happened (mainly because we were up all night and sleep deprived). If I learned anything from this, it is that coach seats = UNCOMFORTABLE (☍﹏⁰)｡

Here are some snaps I took in Val of the town, there aren't as many photos of the mountains as id like but it was hard fitting my camera in my ski jacket pocket (>o<) there are a lot of foodie photos though so I decided to save those for another post (´⊙ω⊙`)

oh and incase you were wondering, yes santa claus did visit even in France (^_~)

This is basically what the setup for lunch look like on the slopes- helmet threw on the table, coat strung over the chair and some sort of sandwich baguette with a filling

The mountains that surround Val d'Isere~ nightie snapshot

Seafood selection in SPAR- yes spar (convenience stores in France majorly upgraded)

Big blocks of ice were in the town and were carved to form these AMAZING sculptures, I have basically found a possible vocation

Christmas markets! because everyone loves a christmas market

Rotating chicken on this scale is everything that is right with the world.

A ski jacket in one of the shops that I saw and want to own...at 900 euro my bank account is thinking otherwise

A performance by the French ski instructors where they had to ski down a black run (black runs in skiing are the hardest btw) holding torches with NO skiing poles. Pretty darn impressive since that black run is I-C-Y.

And of course there were fireworks too! we even popped down to the bottom of the chairlifts where the ski instructors were giving out free Van Chaud- how could you turn that down?( ๑‾̀◡‾́)

This is inside the restaurant where we went one evening called Le Lodge- cosy interior, friendly staff and delicious food at a reasonable price which trust me is hard to find in Val since everything is super expensive!

View from our room in the morning~ you definitely mis this when you leave especially coming from someone who lives in the Fens where it is flat. I could get used to this everyday