Paris Opera

For my birthday, George took me to the Garnier Opera and a weekend in Paris. I have always wanted to see an opera but wasn't sure if I would like it and what better place to go than the Garnier Opera.

Because if you didn't like it, you still have the extraordinary architecture, the venue itself to appreciate. George was also apprehensive about this type of performance. Well because, I must admit, sometimes certain opera singing can be grating on the eardrums. As a precursor, we just happened to watch the movie Philadelphia with Tom Hanks and the background opera singer was enjoyable, but again I have to admit, four hours of it, hmmmmm.

But we are happy to report that we both enjoyed it very much, plus we couldn't get enough of the Garnier Opera, it is so beautiful. The Opera was La Cenerentola, an Italian opera, subtitled in French. Reading the synopsis before going was a must, it is the childhood fairytale story, Cinderella but with a couple of twists. Our French is getting better so reading the subtitles and knowing the background story, we were able to understood the majority of it.

I did not know it, but they sing the entire time, no one just talks. I'm sure their vocal cords need a rest after a night's performance. There was humor, drama and no grating of the eardrums. I was surprised with the body language expressed by the performers. We had excellent seats.

The grand staircase - Garnier Opera 

Balcony - Garnier Opera

Balcony - Garnier Opera

Balcony - Garnier Opera

Garnier Opera

Garnier Opera

Ceiling painted by Marc Chagall

We stayed in the Marais area of Paris, the fourth arrondissement. On Saturday we stumbled upon the former residence of Victor Hugo on the Place Des Vosges and took a quick tour.

Some other Saturday sites:

Random statuary

Near the Centre Pompidou

Near the Centre Pompidou

La Seine

We made dinner reservations several doors from our hotel. The L'osteria looked like a cute little place and the posted menu looked delicious. I must admit that we didn't do our homework choosing this restaurant, it just looked nice. Upon returning to the hotel later in the afternoon I saw several restaurant recommendations posted there. By far, the restaurant we chose was not the most expensive. Later that day the hotel receptionist informed us that the restaurant doesn't advertise at all, people go there through word of mouth. That all sounded perfect to us. And he said that Francois Hollande, the French President had just eaten there. Oh jeez, who would have thought. It was a very nice meal, but we both couldn't image a president going there.

On Sunday we got tickets for the Centre Pompidou which has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. It would have taken us several days to see it all, especially with the special exhibition of Salvador Dali. We have seen his work before at the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, which I highly recommend.

A replication of a 1974 Mae West installation originally created at the Dali-Theatre Museum in Spain. It is recreated at the current Dali Centre Pompidou exhibition-that's us seated on the lip sofa.

Photo of the original installation

By 6:00 PM we were on the train returning to our abode in the country. A great weekend in the city of lights.

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:

Samoens, France 

Samoens, France

Looking down onto the town of Flaine, France

Near the end of the day, Samoens, France

Finished skiing. On the way back to Samoens

Apre-ski

Finished skiing. On the way back to Samoens

At the top, Flaine, France

Sestriere, Italy

The Italian Alps are a sight to behold. Snow capped mountains go on forever it seems. Clean, crisp air and sunny blue skies were delivered to our door for a week in Sestriere, Italy. The host city for the 2006 Olympics was Torino, and several events were staged 100 minutes away at Sestriere and surrounding villages of Sauze d'Oulx, Cesana, and San Sicario. We skied to these villages and Claviere through connecting lifts and/or gondolas. We never understood how one could ski from village to village in the Alps, but we do now.

Olympic Biathlon range

Olympic Bobsled/Luge/Skeleton track

Olympic Bobsled/Luge/Skeleton track

Olympic Ski Jumping facility

The week was uneventful and I am especially pleased to report no crutches, braces, or casts were needed this year. We did discover a libation that had the inherent ability to cause the need for crutches, braces or casts. This little number is called a Bombardino (The Bomb) and offers the right amount of warmth on a cold day.

But we did have one event that we have to share with all of you. Tuesday's forecast were predicting high winds on the top of the mountain later in the day. We were skiing on the opposite side of the mountain which meant that we needed to get over the mountain to get home. By 2:30 PM we started to make our way home, which required taking several lifts to the mountain top and then riding the gondola down the other side to Sestriere. As we got off a lower lift the winds were already very swift. Oh, jeez, did we wait too long to make our way home...Icy snow and tiny stones/grit were stinging our faces as we began skiing away from the lift to our next lift to the top. The lack of signs in this location caused us to wait for a minute or two until we oriented ourselves. This short delay was our savings grace. Another couple had gone on ahead of us, but we waited. Luckily the ski patrol gave us a loud whistle and motioned us to return to the unloading area. They closed the trail to the top...YEP, we waited too long.

So now what do we do...our condo is on the opposite side of the mountain. The ski patrol said we could take the bus back to Sestriere. Hmmm, what bus, where to get it and what are the bus schedules? We did not get that answered by the ski patrol, it was too windy and he had other more important things to attend to. This must happen often we told ourselves, and there must be an organized method to transport people who cannot use the gondola.

Well, method YES, organized NO. We found the bus pickup location or what the police said was the location, but was in fact, 100 yards away in a parking lot. From the size of the crowd we guessed five buses would be needed. One bus would pull up at any location on the lot and people would scramble, push/shove and get down right nasty trying to put their skis in the luggage compartment so that they could then, get on the bus. Stacking skis on top of one another in the luggage compartment of the bus was total chaos. Thankfully when it was our turn, our skis were on top. I honestly don't know how anyone could have retrieved their skis four feet deep in skis.

But after about 90 minutes waiting for the opportunity to get on the bus and another 50 minutes making stops along the way picking up and dropping off skiers, we were home again. What an ordeal, one that we wouldn't want to relive. We received five inches of snow that night to our delight, but the area is in need of a good healthy dumping of snow.

With several days of skiing under our belt and the city of Torino just down the road we decided to take a visit. Among the things Torino is known for are Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) manufacturing, the Holy Shroud (which has been carbon dated and places it no farther than the 12th century), Torino once was the capital of Italy, and the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum).

Torino, Italy - just outside the city

There are many museums in Torino but we couldn't pass up the Egyptian Museum which houses the most important collection of Egyptian treasures outside of Cairo. How did this outstanding collection end up in Torino you may ask. During Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest of Egypt, Bernardino Drovetti went to Egypt and served as French Consul. It was his booty that he brought back that formed the basis of the collection. At the start of the 20th century 25,000 further objects were also acquired. We learned that the Louvre Museum in Paris was offered the collection, but turned it down.

What I found interesting was the papyrus Tasnakht's Book of the Dead - three long rows of story telling of an important Egyptian citizen. The unplundered tomb, discovered in 1906, of Kha and his wife Merit (from 1400 BC) which comprises over 500 objects including wood furniture, clothing, food, tools, and funerary customs was fascinating as well.

Torino is an easy city to navigate by foot, the streets are well marked, but trying to park the car took some time. We walked to the Mole Antonelliana, the symbol of the city, and took the elevator to the top. Upon completion in 1897, it was the tallest building in the world. The viewing platform at 278 feet offered excellent panoramic views of the city and it was especially pretty just as the sun was setting.

Mole Antonelliana - viewing platform is just below the white skewed rectangles

We couldn't get enough of the excellent Italian food, something that is not impossible, but somewhat of a challenge to find in our area of France. The Italians are a friendly bunch and we did not experience any language barriers in our travels.

Click on the link below for more photos of our trip:

http://flic.kr/ps/285kjt

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