Vosges Mountains weekend

We thought we'd try and give it a go skiing last weekend. We left Saturday AM for the Vosges Mountains. Upon getting there, looking at the mountain, evaluating the weather, and despite what a fellow skier said which wasn't the best, we slapped on the boards and skied the afternoon. Like last year, it was very foggy and the snow, a bit slushy. After dodged lots of beginner skiers, an afternoon of skiing was enough.

Before leaving we booked a hotel about 20 minutes away. Little did we know that that required us to go over a mountain where tire chains were required. So we did a Uie (u turn) and took the long route of 45 minutes. Anyway, without our trusty GPS and to reassure the route with my iPhone, we would not have found the hotel.

A couple of right turns off of the main road and we ended up on a road that was barely plowed and many switchbacks, up a mountain. Could this be the correct way??? We finally saw a small sign for the hotel but the road seemed more like a residential versus a public road. The Stephen King movie, The Shining, came to mind. Snowing, long lonely road, getting dark, etc, etc, etc. Finally we saw a person walking their dog and we ask him, where is La Bouloie Hotel, he said straight away. We rounded a couple of corners and voila, there it was. The two cars that were sitting there were snow covered like they hadn't been moved for several days or weeks, it was hard to tell. 

We walk in and there was a person sitting at a fireplace with a large German Shepard nestled beside her, does Cujo come to mind even though Cujo was a St. Bernard. We were taken to our room which was a nice clean room, no problem here. The proprietor ask us if we wanted to have dinner here, we both looked at each other. We knew we did not want to venture out down that long snowy road and attempt to find a restaurant, so we said okay, we'll eat here, apprehensive of course. We did not know what to expect.

But the restaurant was a nice surprise. We had a fabulous meal, very good service, a nice bottle of wine with a table near the fireplace and a view of the town lights below. And the restaurant filled up with about 25 people, but they had to be locals, because this place was 15 minutes off the main road near the top of a mountain. The funny part about the restaurant was that country music, all American country music, was playing over the speaker system. 

As the sun came up we were awarded with great views of the valley below and breakfast was just as nice...along with more country music. 

Town of Bussang

 As it turned out the hotel was once a ski lodge. My guess is that it was the ski slope for the town of Bussang (just one slope). There was an old, rusty poma lift still standing, but hadn't been used in quite some time.

Cujo watching over the property (he looks vicious heh!)

Vintage trail map on the outside wall of a building
(check out the telephone number, our telephone number is 10 digits)

You never know what you will find - a ski jump we
discovered on the way back down the mountain from the hotel

We left the next morning hoping to ski again, but by mid-morning it was raining so we changed plans and went  exploring the town of Gerardmer. Unfortunately I did not take any photos of Gerdardmer, but it is a quaint town in the heart of the Vosges Mountains with a beautiful 287 acre lake that offers a variety of recreation in the summer.

George yuking it up in Gerardmer, France