Portes du Soleil

What does a car-less village, horse drawn sleighs transporting you to your accommodations, and lots of snow have in common. Avoraiz, one of twelve ski resorts encompassing Portes du Soleil. Our friends had told us about the horse drawn sleighs in Avoraiz, but we had to see it for ourselves. With our skis underfoot, we stood in the town and listened for the familiar sleigh bells transforming the atmosphere into something magical. It was so cool, it was a WOW moment.

Avoraiz, France

Avoraiz, France

Portes du Soleil claims to be the largest ski resort in the world...and so does Les Trois Vallées, but whichever is factual, all that matters is that there is an unbelievable amount of ski domain. From what we learned it isn't so easy to get to some of the other resorts on skis, sometimes requiring a bus ride. We skied the slopes of Avoraiz, Chatel, and Morzine. I think there were more British in our midst than French from what we could hear. It is awfully easy for people of the UK to fly to Geneva with a 40 minute shuttle to the resorts. Even our hotel was owned by a British family, with pens in the back for rabbits and geese.

We arrived on Saturday and since Saturdays are mostly transition days (people leaving, people arriving) we had the slopes to ourselves. Sunday was foggy along with flat light, causing a lack of depth perception, which only hampers my need for speed on skis.

It all made up for itself, because Monday was a perfect ski day. You skiers know what I'm talk'n about -endless blue skies, powder, warm temperatures, having lunch in the sunshine, outside of course. Ahhhhhhhhh.

On the Avoriaz gondola

Our hotel

Lunch stop

Love these posters in the chalets. Festival of the shepherds, the
cows are singing along with the shepherds - Chatel, France

Lunch

It's going to be a good day - Between Avoriaz and Morzine, France

Some people will do anything for attention

Wishing we were still on this chairlift going somewhere

Morzine, France

Morzine, France

Well we have to share with you the funniest thing that happened to us upon departing a little chalet after consuming several hot wine beverages which is customary after a day or during (as you like) of skiing. I picked up my skis, George picked up his skis. And we tried to put them on our boots. For a second I couldn't figure out why my boots would not fit into the bindings. I looked over at George and I could see he was studying the same situation. But, in our defense, there was snow covering the entire ski. OMG, I had his skis and he had mine. Granted, they are similar in color and shape. On top of that, we didn't realize until after a short ways down the mountain, that we had each others poles. I'm glad we were near our hotel. You can not make up this stuff.

Chalet stop for hot wine - (no, this photo was not taken at floor level)