What About Sue and George: Samoens, France

Nestled amongst the breathtaking Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps is the charming town of Samoens. Famous for its stone builders, we noticed their handy work on our B&B accommodations. Quaint shops and winding narrow streets add to this mountain village appeal.

Samoens is part of the Grand Massif ski region, boasting 265km (165 miles) of ski piste (trails) making it the fourth largest ski area in France. That, along with the off piste areas, is an awesome amount of ski terrain, much more than we had time for. We were out the door and on the slopes at opening time and skied until almost closing.

What was most fascinating to us was leaving the valley floor by gondola in the foggy, overcast morning wishing for sunshine, because quite frankly, where we live, it has been foggy, overcast for most of January and February.

Gondola ride from Samoens village

To seeing this, total sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. I had just tucked away my sunglasses thinking, huh, what a waste bringing them, BUT to our surprise this is what we saw. Clouds below, sunshine above. I have never seen this before except, of course, in a plane. The weather was about as perfect as you can get; warm and sunny all day long.

Gondola ride from Samoens village

Mountain peak rising above the clouds at Samoens, France

The Grand Massif has well marked signage so it is easy to ski from one area to another. But what is unusual for George and I, is that these particular signs are pointing to towns, these are not trail names. We skied to all these towns except Morillon.

Paragliding is a popular year-round sport in Samoens and we saw ten to fifteen people walking up the mountain with their "wings"packed on their backs. Tandem paragliding is offered to tourist too. I think I would like to do that, but when it comes right down to it, when push comes to shove, could I shove myself off a cliff with a wing.

Paraglider in Samoens

There are very modern high-speed lifts and several gondolas to swiftly take you up the mountain. However, here and there you find "vintage" lifts that are slow but sure work horses. There was a particular gondola or bubble that had a vintage 1950's look to it, and it was a hoot riding in it. For those of you who have ridden in gondolas before you know the door closes tight and firm-solid. There are no gaps between the floor and the walls, the seats are usually molded fiberglass, some have cushions. Many of them you can stand upright. It is a very smooth, warm ride up the mountain, it is luxury to me. Well quite the contrary with this one. We felt like we were in a converted old VW beetle with wooden seats, worn-out shocks and drafty floorboards.

Wooden seats, a blast from the past

The door latch that never latched

That's air vents above George's head

You can see the ground between the floor and the door

The vintage bubble

In the vintage "bubble"

Whoever wrote this blackboard special "plate of the day" at our lunch stop should be commended for their humor. As many of you probably have heard in the news several weeks ago, a leading European frozen food company sold beef lasagna that also included horse meat. Here is the lasagna lunch special at one of the mountain restaurants. Last line - sans cheval - without horse - Ha ha ha ha!

Last line on the blackboard - and beef, without horse, green salad

Thanks goes out to our French friend Roland for introducing us to this place. We had a fantastic time, just loved this area. We must return before our time is up in France.

Here's some more photos: