Panda-monium


Feeling better after a good night’s sleep, we all managed to be up and at ’em by 7:30 the next morning. (It helped that the first item on the agenda was the Chengdu Giant Panda Research & Breeding Center.) Our hotel puts out quite a spread for breakfast, including fruit, vegetables, rice, noodles, and various pastries. They even had a sort of coffee! With the schedule we’re keeping on this trip, coffee is going to be a necessity. There was also an area that made all us Americans immediately think “omelette station”, but of course it wasn’t. It seemed like some kind of custom stir-fry station but there were some mysterious complexities so no one has been brave enough to try it yet.

As with Jinli Street, the panda preserve proved to be an extremely popular destination. The narrow pathways that ran along the panda enclosures were wall-to-wall people. (To be fair, since we are a group of around 75 people, we are definitely part of the problem.) On the positive side, there’s not much cuter

An impromptu performance. Mr. Ervin has been carrying around the guitar, and has told Zoe to start bringing the electric cello.

than a giant panda. We saw them sleeping, eating, climbing, and hanging out in trees. There was an indoor area where you could look through some glass to see young pandas, but it was so crowded that we eventually gave up attempting to make our way to the window. The center also had a red panda area. These are much smaller and look a little like a raccoon.

Today we began to feel the minor-celebrity status that we’d been told about prior to the trip. Members of our group were frequently approached by various Chinese people who wanted to take photos of us, or selfies with us. They were always smiling and friendly, and happy to have a chance to interact with us. It was lovely to be given such a warm welcome. (This extended to our group photos as well. Whenever we got all the kids together to pose for a group shot, they were invariably joined by random locals who excitedly handed their phones to their friends and jumped into the edges of the crowd.  You can see some of them in the photo at the bottom.) Some of the kids just loved the interaction, and will be coming home with phones full of their own international selfies.

After the pandas we were brought back to Chengdu University, our hosts for this leg of the trip, for lunch in their cafeteria. They set up a nice buffet for us, with lots of small bowls of different types of food that we could take as we pleased. This time they were even somewhat labeled, so we had a general idea of what we were eating. We found the university food very good and the variety available to be quite striking. I think they may have toned down the spices for us, because most of the food was fairly mild.

The base area of Mount Qincheng

Our afternoon adventure was Mount Quincheng, a unique and beautiful hiking experience. You can hike up the mountain along stairways and paved paths, which are lined with beautiful plants, shrines, and intricate pagodas. Along the path are seven elaborate and ancient Taoist temples.

We only had a few hours to spend here, so Mr. Ervin created a “fast group” who would go as quickly as possible to try to make it to the top. Zoe naturally joined the fast group, and I signed on as well. Unfortunately I proved to not really be fast group material. The endless flights of steps were an awkward height — too shallow to take one at a time, but very tiring to take double. At least, it was very tiring for me. Many other members of the fast group did not seem to have this problem.

The fast group takes off

Soon the fast group had splintered into an “actually fast” group, and a “wannabe fast” group. Zoe was in the former and I was in the latter. After a while the others I was with seemed to be reverting back to the slow group, so I went on ahead to try to catch up with the others at the top.

Unfortunately I never quite made it, because I realized that I didn’t actually know what time we were supposed to be back, or where we were meeting. (The start of our hike was a little chaotic, with the fast group zooming off up the mountain before the plan was clear.). Usually surrounded by crowds of kids, the one time I actually needed to consult with someone there was no one to be found. I was assuming that if the departure time was nearing I would meet up with the fast group on their way back down, but I started to panic a bit when I found a map that showed a different path down the mountain. At that point I figured caution dictated a quick descent so I didn’t get left behind on the mountain.
As it turned out, I had plenty of time and could have made it — and ironically, those behind me did. Also, a lot of people were in fact pretty late getting back. Zoe’s group made it to a place that they all feel was the top, but Zoe has consulted the map and privately feels that they didn’t actually get there either. It turns out there are a lot of branching paths and twists and turns, and maps are scarce so navigation is not as easy as you’d

Zoe gets pulled in for a selfie

think.

Eventually everyone did reappear and we headed back to the hotel for dinner. It was another enormous feast. All the tables here have an enormous lazy susan in the center that covers most of the table (to the point where you really have to watch where you put your plate and glass, lest it be launched off the table when someone moves the turntable). More and more dishes are continually brought out, until the whole thing is covered with dishes stacked a couple of layers deep. There is no way we could even make a dent in it, but we do our best. There is a constant flow of information as people try things and make attempts to guess what they are. We are encountering lots of unfamiliar ingredients, so we’re not very good at this — maybe our expertise will grow in the coming week.

It’s still Day 1!

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Luncheon feast

At least in the sense that we haven’t gone to bed yet.  We’ve kind of lost track of how many hours we’ve been awake now.  But we’re having so much fun no one seems to mind.  The kids have been troopers.

We all arose staggering from our too-short naps to meet for lunch at the hotel.  We had a few stragglers who slept through their alarms (Zoe and her friend Evie, for example), but everyone eventually made it down.  The hotel gave us a huge feast — far more food than we could eat, despite how delicious it was.  It’s a bit tough here for the vegetarians in the group, as

Painting lesson

well as those who don’t like any spicy food — but we’re all mostly trying to be adventurous and have gotten used to having very little idea what we’re actually eating.

After lunch our hosts brought us to a Chinese cultural center, and they put on a wonderful program for us.  We were given Chinese clothing to wear, and divided into groups to rotate through a few different activities.  My group started with Chinese calligraphy, where we made lovely flower paintings with calligraphy brushes.  (The stems were made by blowing the paint across the canvas to create unique, delicate branches.)

In the second session, we saw a musical performance on the guqin, an ancient Chinese string instrument.  It had a distinctive and lovely sound.  The kids who were brave enough to volunteer were able to get a mini-lesson.

In our third lesson we heard about the shrine to Confucius and how to properly pay tribute to it.  We heard a little about the history of Confucism and some of the art on display.  When we were done some adorable little kids circulated through the crowd, offering skittles and taking photos with the kids.

Was our day over?  Not yet!  We headed over to Wuhou Temple and Jinli Street, a Buddhist temple surrounded by a warren of ancient marketplace streets.  The buildings are all traditional in style, and the area has apparently been a center of trade since BC times.  It was extremely picturesque, and lined with all manner of interesting shops and markets.

Unfortunately, seemingly the entire population of Chengdu thought so too, since it was so crowded you could barely navigate.  Keeping our “family group” (five kids and two adults) together was an ongoing source of anxiety.  (Though it turned out that the only one who got separated from the group was me — fortunately very close to the restaurant where we were meeting.)

We wanted to go check out the temple, but we’d arrived too late in the day, so we had to content ourselves with peering through gaps in the gate.  It was soon time to meet for dinner at a traditional Sichuan “hot pot” restaurant.  We sat at large tables with pots of different kinds of bubbling oils set into them.  Each of us got our own little can of oil, and a small bowl to pour it into.  We could then add various things to our bowl, like garlic, scallions, ginger, and peanuts.

 

For the next couple of hours the staff was constantly coming by, dropping innumerable different types of meats and vegetables into the oils.  The idea was for us to grab pieces out, then dunk them into our personal oil bowl before eating them.  This was another opportunity for adventurous eating, and another tough night for the vegetarians.  There were only a couple of things that most people weren’t brave enough to try.  None of the waitstaff at any place we’ve been speak any English, so you just have to take your chances and hope for the best.

The restaurant put on a show of traditional Chinese dances while we were eating, including the famous “face painting” show that many of us saw in Durham last year.

After we were done, apparently not having eaten enough strange food that night, a group of the boys set off to go back to a shop they’d seen selling brains.  I never heard what kind of brains they were or how they tasted, as my group opted to hit the incongruous Dairy Queen instead.

By the time we got back to the hotel, most of us had no problem at all falling asleep, despite the fact that it was around 10am EST.  I guess that’s one benefit of extreme sleep deprivation.  We’ll be up by 7 tomorrow, so there’s no chance of falling back into bad sleep time habits.

The 52-hour day

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Almost like being at the beach

Turns out it takes quite a while to get to China. Our flight didn’t leave until 5:10pm, but we had to get to the Boston airport (via school buses that did not really have capacity for us and all our luggage) very early so the bus driver could be back before school dismissal. So we spent several hours sitting around Logan (though not as much as you’d think, given the logistics involved in getting 70+ people, along with various musical instruments, checked in and through security). Apparently at least three kids forgot an instrument somewhere along the journey, but luckily someone behind them always noticed.

Card games at Logan…

The flight to Beijing was pretty uneventful, except for the excitement that we were flying near to the North Pole (though it was too dark to see anything). Going through 12 hours of time changes made for some oddness, like when we had “lunch” around 7pm Durham time followed by “dinner” around 7pm Beijing time. Also there was the entertaining “seat chat” feature, where you could send messages to

…and in Beijing.

people in other seats on the plane. (“Hey, 27D, whatcha doing later?”)

Unfortunately our luck ran out a bit in Beijing, with a series of delays to our flight to Chengdu. So we also got to spend several hours sitting around the Beijing airport. This was made somewhat less appealing by the fact that the Chinese cash we’d arranged for in advance had not yet been delivered, almost nowhere took credit cards, and our ATM cards wouldn’t work in the machine. Fortunately the airline eventually provided water and crackers, and later, an airplane meal, to prevent starvation.

After several hours they got more creative. Playing instruments…

Doing the limbo…

 

 

Whatever the hell this is.

Mmm, dinner!

All that remained was an hour-long bus ride to our hotel near the university. Chengdu is a huge and very new city. There are large clusters of high rises everywhere (each building in a cluster identical, but all clusters different from each other). Apparently it has been built up dramatically even since the trip that came two years ago, and lots of building is still going on. Our hotel is very nice, and somehow Catherine and I lucked out with the best room (on the top floor, so we are considering it penthouse). It’s huge and has amenities like a crazy electronic Mahjong table. (We didn’t actually know it was a Mahjong table until I started pressing buttons out of curiosity, and dice started spinning and the table innards rotated and tiles suddenly rose up underneath all our stuff, which was a bit alarming.)

There was also some poster-signing. Our efforts were dwarfed by the huge banner brought to greet us the airport by Chengdu University (photo at top).

Others have not been quite so lucky. Apparently the fact that we have a bathroom door made of wood is quite a luxury. Some of the kids told us they just have glass screening the shower and toilet — and a mirror opposite, so that your bathroom activities can be observed by anyone in the room. Another set of chaperones doesn’t have a wall at all. Someone else just shook his head at the description of chairs, desk, and mahjong tables and told us he must have been put in the servants’ quarters.

By the time we got checked in — a rather laborious process that involved filling out information for each person’s passport individually — it was 10:00 in the morning. We went up for a quick nap before lunch, then out to continue with the rest of our day.

Our deluxe suite. Wait till you see the electronic mahjong table.

Jay Peak, Plan B

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Do Nadia and her friend love you, Big River, more than they love skiing?

Lanie reflects on a major element of our Jay Peak stay.

One of the things I enjoyed most about Jay Peak was the indoor water park. We’re not talking about a couple pools and a waterslide. This was a the real thing. One of our favorite features was the Lazy River, a long waterway snaking around the entire park that you could ride on in tubes or just swim, gliding along on the artifical waves. (This feature is actualy called “The Big River”, but I’m refering to it as the Lazy River because I think it sounds better).

Incredibly, Zoe survived the red water slide.

Another was the four gigantic waterslides. The green and the blue you go on with the same inertubes from the Lazy River. The red and orange ones you just slide down. The red one was called “Le Chute.” It went in a huge loop, and started with a sudden vertical drop. You had to be 88 lbs to ride, but I wouldn’t do it if I could. (Ed note:  Zoe was the only one in the family to take on “Le Chute,” and one ride seemed to be enough for her.)

At the part before the loop, there is a hole in the top of the slide. There is a sign that said: “There is a chance you might not make in over the loop. If this happens, please let gravity take you and wait to be assisted.” So basically, if you don’t make it over the loop, you slide back down and climb out the hole.

  • Climbing too close to the Sun earned Lanie a whistle from the lifeguard.

    The park also included a large hot tub, fake surfing (Zoe did this numerous times), and a pool that contained water basketball, and climbing walls that rose six feet out of the water. ( I got whistled by the lifeguard for climbing to the top and sitting on top of the wall ).

All in all, the waterpark was a really fun place to spend an afternoon.

Mother Nature gives us all she’s got

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Here’s what things looked like on Day 2. I didn’t even manage to get the camera out of my pocket on Day 1.

This may be another one of those scenarios where someone in our family disturbed an ancient burial ground or dug up a cursed idol or unleashed a malevolent spirit.  On our winter break trip to do our first college tours with Zoe, we thought we’d sweeten the deal a bit with a couple of days skiing.  We found a good deal at Jay Peak way up north in Vermont and planned to spend two nights there — with the potential for close to three full days of skiing, counting our arrival and departure days.

Things started out a little dicey right from the get-go, as we hit snow — rather than the forecasted rain — about 15 minutes from our house.  It was slow going for a while.  And then, miraculously, we crossed through Franconia notch and the snow disappeared and the sun came out.  (And, more ominously, the wind picked up.)  It was like we’d traveled to a completely different state.

Hurricane winds drive Bob into the trees – well, luckily not literally into the trees.

Day 1: Sleet

We reached Jay Peak, checked in, and were so excited to get skiing that we skipped lunch.  We were greeted with sleet, and the news that the upper mountain lifts — including the protected, indoor aerial tramway — were closed due to ice and winds.  Still, we stuck it out for a while, getting frozen to the slow-moving lifts on the way up and feeling any exposed bit of skin getting sand-blasted with stinging ice crystals on our way down.  We braved the “expert only” terrain on the biggest lift that was open, and managed to survive an unfortunate trail choice that led to huge, steep, icy moguls.  In the end, it was the icy water soaking through our mittens and ski pants that forced us to give up and head inside.  (Luckily, Jay Peak offers other diversions — see Lanie’s entry for more on this.)

Day 2: Blizzard/Bomb cyclone

Knowing the weather forecast was iffy, we roused the protesting kids in time to get to the lift opening at 8:30.  We knew there were high winds predicted, and were guessing we were not getting to the top again — but were looking forward to exploring more of the (non-

This was about when the lifts stopped running.

mogul) expert trails atop the several inches of snow that had fallen overnight and was due to be coming down throughout the day.

Things started out well.  We found some lovely intermediate-level glades trails which even Bob and I enjoyed and kept us protected from the gusts of wind so strong that they’d literally take your breath away.  (The kids always love the glades, but Bob and I don’t feel that the imminent threat of crashing into a tree really adds to our enjoyment.  However, these trails were not very steep, and best of all had a narrow, groomed path winding through the center, so you could enjoy the loveliness of the woods without the constant tree-terror.)

Then the curse returned.  The higher lift, accessible from a different base area, closed as soon as we reached it.  Sticking it out on the lower trails, conditions deteriorated to the point that we were almost getting blown back uphill, and sometimes had near-whiteout conditions.  We persevered only because the snow conditions were so awesome — fresh powder under our skis and more falling all the time.  When we stopped in the trailside bar for Vermont beer, hot chocolate, and a warming break, all the lifts got shut down — leaving us at the wrong base area and needing to take a shuttle back.

Day 3: Polar vortex

This was REALLY going to be our day.  Yes, we knew it would be cold.  But we’d strategized.  We could take the aerial tramway up and thus warm up between runs.  We would finally get to the top, and ski on the several inches of fresh powder that no one else had been on yet.  Get up early, kids!  Put on all the layers, pack up the bags, check out of hotel room, then head to the slopes.  Disregard the gusts of wind howling past our windows.

Looks pleasantly sunny, doesn’t it? Note the absence of exposed skin.

Even on day three, the best snow was off the trail and between the trees.

At 6:30 am snow report said all lifts would be running.  At 7 we found out there was no aerial tramway.  At 8 the expert lift was taken off the table.  It was almost as windy as the previous day, and about 20 degrees colder.  Still, we made an effort.  We went back to our beloved glades trails and found that even the conditions didn’t live up to our expectations, since all the snow had apparently been blown off the mountain the night before, leaving the trails like concrete.  Nadia and Lanie made it three runs before bailing out in favor of the water park; Bob, Zoe and I did an additional one before calling it a day.

Luckily, the good people at Jay Peak gave us two days of free lift tickets to come back in the future, so I was able to stop gnashing my teeth at the wasted money.  And we can’t wait to come back — based on the small amount we’ve seen so far, we think we’re going to love this mountain.

Last run of the day selfie

 

Post script

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In what may have been the most frantic day in our travel history — and that’s saying something — we made all our connections and successfully entered the USA about 22 hours after leaving our apartment in Chamonix.

The rental car was returned without any outstanding parking tickets (that we know of), but a speeding ticket is not out of the question.  There was a suspicious camera flash in the early-morning darkness somewhere in the foothills of the Alps.

Incredibly, about 24 hours after touching down in Boston, we were returning to Logan Airport with Nadia for the departure of her grand ten-day field hockey tour of England.  That she got on a plane again so soon is amazing to us all.   We have gotten brief glimpses of her week through texts and FB posts from the field hockey group, and it looks like she’s having a good time.

Equally incredible: The dog agency Zoe registered us with managed to locate a non-puppy that is open to living with kids and cats (we are assuming chickens and goldfish, too).  And guess what — she’s available for us to adopt!

And so, here’s Daisy!

All the way from Arkansas

A lot of us have been able to spend time with her this week.  Nadia and Zoe, who is on a school Outing Club hike, are missing out.   Lanie got shut out of the aerial dance camp she had her eyes on — those fill up fast — so this has been “Cooking Camp” week around here.

Cooking camp

So far she’s made homemade linguini with meatballs and marinara sauce from the Cook’s Illustrated cooking school book, soft pretzels from Allrecipes, and a chocolate cake that was a hybrid of both sources.  Today will be blueberry crisp once we go pick the blueberries.  Oh, there was also a pumpkin cheesecake in there, too.

Spyfall at the camp

Meanwhile, Daisy has been getting used to the place, going for multiple walks during the day, showing a little more eagerness to meet the cats than the cats are comfortable with.  This is our post-France life, and it should remain in place until school starts, or until the paragliding kits we ordered on Amazon arrive.

Just kidding.

Finishing on a high note

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Here we are, at the top of the alps –this part of the alps, at least

L’aiguille du midi is the A-1, gold star attraction here. It’s not the top of Mount Blanc, but it’s pretty close.  And it’s as far up as you can get here without mountaineering gear.

Unlike yesterday at Grands Monets, there are plenty of people in line for the gondola here. We have to get a reservation number, but the isn’t wasn’t long.  It’s good that we arrive early, We got a little after 8 am.

We’re going to the very tip of the peak behind the girls.

No waiting time at the midpoint.  We go right into line for the cable car to the top — and what a cable car ride it is.  The thick black cords arch upward along a sheer face of rock and snow, and the large cars shrink to almost invisibility — to those watching and waiting anxiously on the platform — as they make their trek to the top.  By the end of the trip, the trajectory is almost completely vertical.

The ride takes exactly 180 seconds.  I count as I look at the floor. Even Jen is a little uncomfortable with this trip.  “Who even Thinks about putting a cable car here?” she asks.

Mountaineers on the ridge

I actually look out the window as we get near the top, who knows why. Here, incredibly high off the valley floor, are more mountaineers navigating a tightrope ridge of snow.

In excruciatingly slow motion, the car ascends the final 20 feet and docks at the landing.  We are as high as we could go..or are we?

The station at the top promises us 360-degree views.  It also features several viewing decks at various levels, many connected by grate (virtually see-through) stairways. There’s a bridge — thankfully solid and opaque — over a 200-meter precipice, and just when we think we’ve seen it all, we notice there was an elevator that would bring us up to another platform, 100 meters higher than the cable car landing.

Oh, and then there ae the views (if you can, click on the pictures to enlarge them):

At the top, 12,602 ft

Three of us make it up to the top (though I only stay there long enough to prove I was there and to peek very meekly over the railing at Chamonix far below — it is like looking out the window of a cruising airplane). The others stay in the gift shop and cafeteria. The air is thin here and it’s understandable to want to rest.

I actually get a burst of energy, though.  I wander around the station.  There’s a tunnel through the rock, a big metal tube with small windows that made you feel like you were looking out of a space station onto a frozen exo-planet, a small museum on mountaineering, an exhibit that teaches about the dangers of hypoxia, and several viewing platforms.

It is crowded here, and most people want to get closer to the edge than I do, but my exploring pays off.  I take Lanie for a tour while we wait for Zoe and Jen to come back down in the elevator. They’re in a very long line at the top waiting for Zoe to “step into the void,” which is to say she wants to stand in a glass closet affixed to the side of the station.  It allows for great views horizontally across 180 degrees. and terrifying views straight down into a kilometer-deep precipice. Literally there is no ground beneath you for 1,000 meters.

Rock climbers join in the fun

Zoe is excited about this because she is Zoe. Jen and I think it’s kind of cool because it costs 30 Euro, but it is included in our multi-pass.

Sadly, the wait proves to be too long. They exit the elevator without the any Pavliks stepping into the void, and I am able to give those guys a tour of the facility. By now I can show them extra things that Lanie and I found, like the ice cave that we can walk through. There is also an icy portal onto the mountain that you need to be wearing cold-weather gear, foot spikes and a rope attaching you to several other people before you can go through it.

Signs near the portal warn skiers of the dangers of these high-altitude snow fields. You must be a red-level skier (which we think equates to expert, black-diamond level here) and have a professional guide to ski here. Nobody is trying it today. It must be more of a winter activity when you can ski all the way to the bottom (maybe 11,00 feet of vertical drop — amazing).

We also pass the landing for gondolas that ferry people from the l’Aiguille du Midi about 50 minutes across mountaintops and glaciers to the Hellebroner peak on the France/Italy border. From there one can descend into Italy. Cool way to travel, in theory at least. These gondolas are closed down while workers repair storm damage. Not a big deal to us — it wasn’t included in the multi-pass.

Hot chocolate with a side of oxygen

That completes our tour of the top. I count up to 180-one thousand on the way back down the cable car, and once again it’s like we’re back on Earth. Farther down we go into Chamonix to a cafe that promises more than a dozen kinds of hot chocolate. That sounds fine when you’re up in the snow fields and the temperature is near freezing, but back in the valley, it’s about 80 degrees. Two people still get hot chocolates out of guilt because we walked all over the place in 80-degree heat to find this particular cafe. On the plus side, there seems to be plenty of oxygen down here.

Just when you think we’re done adventuring, remember that we’ve still got the multi-pass. Plus, the cafe is not far from the train station. Here we pick up seats on a cog railway that takes us on a leisurely run up the north side of the valley to another glacier, the Mer du Glace.

We are not entirely prepared for this trip, partly because Jen has told us we are quit of hanging from cables, yet there is another gondola here on the side of the glacier, to take us down to the ice. It is not mentioned in the guide book. We all decide that one more gondola ride beats walking down and up a hill, so on we climb.

Wait, another gondola?

This gondola is not particularly scary in terms of altitude, but it is part of a very depressing descent. It was built 50 years or so ago to take people down to the glacier; but when you get out of the car. the glacier is still several hundred feet below you.

As you descend the dozens of flights of stairs to get down to the ice, you realize that it wasn’t meanness or an engineering miscalculation that deposits people from the gondolas so high in the valley. Signs along the trail indicate the height of the ice in past years. Even since 1985, the first sign posted on the trail, it has descended steadily, melting away into the river that runs cold and strong through Chamonix even in the middle of summer.

Indeed, the Mer du Glace (or “Sea of Ice”) glacier used to reach up to the solid, three-story stone building where the train terminates and the gondolas start. There is a photograph of this from the late 1800s, when they measured the glacier to be 270 meters deep. We learn when we finally got down to ice level that there is perhaps 90 meters of ice left.

Depressing.

But they’ve continued adding flights of stairs down so tourists can get to the ice cavern.  This is a very interesting experience.  Yesterday we walked on top of a glacier, today we get to walk inside one.


Although the disappearing glacier is a bit of a downer to end our time in the alps, it is also a sobering reminder that we need to do as much as we can to help stop the warming of the planet.  The views are some of the most dramatic of the trip, as well.

All that is left is to give the kids their fondue fix — they make their own simmering beef-broth bath in the electric fondue pot conveniently stocked by our apartment’s owner.  The parents slip out to eat in the main square downtown.

Then it’s time for packing.  We will have little time tomorrow to get ready to leave.  Our flight leaves at 12:30 from Paris.  We have a six-hour drive to get there.  We’ll need to be on the road by 4 am.

Au revoir, Chamonix.  Au revoir. France.

Changes in altitude

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This trip is not lacking in variety.  Colmar seemed quite distinct from Paris — in architecture, cuisine, number of Americans (we rarely overheard anyone in Colmar speaking English, while Paris seems to practically be a bi-lingual city).

Chamonix is worlds away from both of these places, totally dominated by the surrounding natural beauty and the exercise of getting on up to interact with it.

Zoe’s bird’s eye view upon take-off

“Up” is  the operative word here.  There is lots of altitude to be gained, and the favorite sport seems to be going skywards. The valley is striped on both sides by gondolas and cable cars en route to the middle or top or bottom of a mountain.  Even in summer, when most of the ski lifts are still, there is much lifting going on.

Nadia and guide in bottom left corner.

We purchased a “multi-pass” this morning to allow us to go on just about all of them for two days.  It was quite an investment, but the cable cars don’t come cheap and our plan is to put as many as possible to use for us.

The girls got us off to an early start with their paragliding adventure.  We’re a little surprised and very impressed that they all went through with it, but none of them expressed anything but excitement about the experience.  In fact, Lanie is asking if they sell paragliders in the US. Her guide, who told us Lanie has definite pilot potential,  said in France you have to be 14 to fly solo; but you can practice with some  kind of “wings”  — we’re not entirely sure what he meant — when you’re younger than that.

No waiver necessary for your 10-year old to do this in France.

Given that we didn’t have to sign a single waiver for three kids paragliding in Chamonix, I’m guessing the rules about the sport are slightly different in the US, where we have to sign wavers just for the trampoline park.  So she may have to wait a little longer than 14, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be searching for “wings” on Amazon as soon as we get home.

This took us to Le Brevant peak.

With paragliding behind us and the whole valley at our disposal, we headed right back up the mountain as soon as the girls were disconnected from their pilot guides.

A gondola and a cable car (bridging a great void)  took us to our first peak, Le Brevent.   We didn’t spend too much time at the peak here (the cable car ride was enough altitude adventure for the moment), but we headed down a trail that swiftly brought us across…snow.  Not everything has melted here, even in mid-July.    We slipped and slid in our sneakers through several snowy patches.

The back side of Le Brevent

Less sun on this side means there’s still snow on the trail.

That was only part of the appeal of the hiking trails.  Across the valley we got magnificent views of Mount Blanc, gleaming with its glaciers and snow fields.  It never melts up there — good ol’ white Mount Blanc.

Our trail took us in the opposite direction, though, as we bucked the up/down trend and went across the south side of the valley.  The Grand Balcon Sur trail had us clinging pretty close to the valley wall,  picking blueberries on our left and avoiding a long tumble into Chamonix on our right.

Lunch break

We ate lunch at the edge of a huge alpine meadow filled with wildflowers, and made our way to the next way station, Le Flegere.  Here, we had the option to take a six-person chair lift to the summit, but decided instead to descend and head further into the valley.  We wanted to make sure we had time for our next adventure, building heavily on the snow theme.

A short bus ride (the bus is also covered on our multi-pass) took us to the village of Argentiere, where a gondola and cable car at the Grands Montets ski resort carried us to an actual glacier.

Clouds were already starting to form around some peaks by late morning.

Up Grands Monets

Generally, the idea here is to get to the summits as early as possible in the morning, when skies are more likely to be clear and the views of the valley at their best.  By this time of the day the afternoon clouds had already rolled in, so our views were limited.   We were essentially in the clouds for a lot of the time, but we got to walk right out onto the glacier.

Cloudy cable car ride

Our visibility was good enough to see mountaineers a few hundred meters above us on the glacier, but generally there were few other people walking around on this outpost.  For this we have Zoe’s paragliding guide to thank.  She was the one who recommended this trip, expressing amazement that more people don’t find their way up Grand Monets.

For us it was a great choice. There was a little snow ball fighting, and we worked hard to keep Zoe from following the stream of mountaineers zig-zagging single file up into the thickening clouds.  This trail was not meant for running shoes, but it was still very inviting for Zoe.

You can ski right off the mountain.

Apparently this is another launch pad for paragliders, particularly in the winter.  The ski trail map indicated a section where you could ski right off the mountain and ride your paraglider down.    We would have to settle for taking the cable car and gondola to the valley floor.

As if all that were not enough adventure for the day, we followed these ramblings with a circuit of downtown Chamonix looking for a fondue dinner.  Unfortunately, while the place was thick with establishments offering cheese fondue, we could only find one that offered the beef in broth fondue that was such a hit last winter in Quebec, and the one place was prohibitively expensive.

Lanie is in for it.

So we changed gears, deciding go to a microbrewery tonight and then tomorrow utilize the electric fondue pot in our apartment to recreate the beef course.

Not really sneaker conditions

Stay tuned to see how that adventure turns out.

Onward and upward

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Roadside view in Switzerland

Gold-plated macarons

We didn’t exactly get up and at ’em this morning.  Checkout time for our airbnb was 11am and we barely made it.  Bob and Zoe had to run, and Lanie and I had to walk into town for various supplies for the day.  We’d had our whole picnic planned out based on items we’d seen in shops on previous days, but alas were thwarted by the fact that it was a Sunday morning and apparently the whole town shuts down.  Luckily we eventually found a large market featuring local foods that opened at 10am, and were able to procure various sandwiches, pretzels, fruit, and carrots.  Oh, and we found a bakery selling macarons and bought a box, which practically required us to take out a mortgage on our house.

Swiss picnic

In any case, at 11:00 we were on the road.  We’d considered taking a scenic route, but decided to stick with the comfort of our GPS and minimize the length of the drive.  As it turned out, it was plenty scenic in any case.  The most direct route between Colmar and Chamonix, in the Alps, is mostly through Switzerland, so we got to add a new country to our list.  We admired the rolling farmland and picturesque villages along the

Roadside view from the rest stop

highway, and stopped to have our picnic lunch at a rest stop with picnic tables under the trees.  We passed by several towns that have become namesakes for what they produce: Gruyere, Emmenthal, St. Bernard, Evian.  We eventually came upon Lake Geneva, an enormous blue-green lake with mountains towering in the background.

Hiking at the Swiss hotel

At that point the road abruptly changed.  Our comfortable highway disappeared and in its place was a narrow, two lane road climbing a series of switchbacks up the looming mountain.  It was quite…invigorating being on the cliff side of the car, with inadequate guardrails, and I’m sure it was not any better for Bob in the driver’s seat.  It didn’t take long for Nadia to start to suffer from carsickness, and the rest of us were a bit queasy as well.

Hiking at the Swiss hotel

Luckily when we’d summited the mountain we found a little Swiss hotel/restaurant with a parking lot and some amazing viewpoints that made an excellent stopping/recovery point.  We took a few short walks and admired the scenery before hopping in the car for the final half hour drive to Chamonix.

The scenery here is breathtaking.  The road and towns are on the floor of a valley, with dramatic, snow-capped peaks rearing up on either side.  Everywhere has a view, and our rented townhouse is no exception.  Chamonix provides more evidence that the French know how to build resort towns better than we do.  The buildings are lovely, the winding streets

View from our home in Chamonix

full of charm and flowers.  There are restaurants, cafes, and bars with outdoor umbrella-ed tables on pedestrian streets.  There is a bus that will take you up and down the valley and cable cars that will bring you high up on the mountainsides on either side.

We strolled into town along a pedestrian/bike path, alongside a rushing glacial river.  The girls

No screens in France!

decided they could use a relaxing night in, and we actually managed to find a sizeable grocery store in town, so we picked up supplies for them to make dinner.  Of course, we got rained on again on the way back home — and up here in the mountains, it’s cold when the rain starts.  (It’s even colder when you’re walking next to a glacial river.)  Nevertheless, Bob and I made it back in (this time bringing raincoats, which ensured that it didn’t rain again) for an adult dinner in town.  Tomorrow we have to arise early for the girls’ paragliding adventure!

 

Beautiful downtown Chamonix with Mer de Glace glacier in the background

Glacial river in Chamonix

The silver lining

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Our decision to return the bikes early proved to be a good one.  Heading out to the patisserie for breakfast the next morning, we found ourselves getting rained on again.  (We still apparently haven’t learned our lesson about always bringing our raincoats.)  The rain continued unabated throughout our walk to the rental car company, but fortunately we were able to secure the car without incident.  Best of all, it had a built-in GPS!   Ah, the joy of always knowing where you are.

We decided to attempt on four wheels what we hadn’t managed on two wheels the day before, and set off once again up the Route de Vin.  Our first destination was the village of Riquewihr, and it did not disappoint. Nestled into the green hillsides, straight out of a fairy tale — like something you’d see in Disney World, but all authentic.

Pretzels make everyone happy

The whole Route de Vin is lined with wineries and vineyards, and Bob and I decided we had to at least experience a bit of it.  The girls had shown a propensity to linger long around this fountain containing many large goldfish and koi, so we set them up there with soft pretzels and slipped off to do a wine tasting nearby.  A good time was had by all.  And it didn’t rain at all!

The next village up the road, Hunawihr, promised a “stork and otter reintroduction center”.  (Storks are VERY big here.  They’re native to this region in the summers, but due to

Wine makes parents happy

various human activities had dwindled to single digits around thirty years ago.  The region of Alsace made a huge effort to save them and

Stork nest atop the church

achieved great results.  One of the things we noticed is that many buildings have a circular platform built out on to the roof to host nesting storks, and may of them are populated.  There is stork-themed merchandise everywhere.)

Dinner time for the ROUSs

Anyway, this place was way more fun than we had anticipated.  There were lots of different aquatic-related animals on display.  None of the bird habitats were enclosed, so there were storks, ducks, geese, and cormorants wandering around and flying through the air everywhere.  We saw giant hamsters (not actually sure if they fit with the aquatic theme) and these large aquatic rodents called ragondins that we couldn’t identify but

Nest-building stork

decided were most likely the famed Rodents Of Unusual Size.  There was this cool “parcour” walk that never would have flown in the US because of the likelihood of some tourist falling off into the water.  (All of us managed not to fall off into the water.)  When we climbed the observation tower above the trees, we saw that the treetops were full of stork pairs, preening and working on their nests.

On the parcour course

Very creepy sea lion

Best of all was a really cool show that featured various animals that fish.  We couldn’t understand a word of the presentation in French, but it didn’t really matter.  The presenter brought out, in succession, storks, cormorants, otters, a sea lion, and penguins.  They jumped into a tank of water with clear sides.  Instead of doing human-taught tricks, the staff would throw live fish into the pool and we could watch — above and below the water — while the animals caught them.  It was fascinating, particuarly when watching the

UFC championship: cormorant vs. eel

cormorant do battle with an eel.  (The cormorant won, but it took some time.  After appearing to swallow the eel, the cormorant opened its mouth again to eat a fish, and the eel re-emerged and had to be caught again.)  I’m sure from the fishes’ perspective, it was much like being thrown into a Roman gladiator ring.

We made an attempt to make one more stop in Ribeauville, where we were considering doing a hike to some castle ruins — but there was a

After seeing what happened to the eel, you’d think Lanie would keep her distance.

festival going on and we couldn’t find parking.  (One downside of the GPS was that before we realized what was happening, it had led us down into the very narrow warren of cobblestone streets that seem to only be made for pedestrians.   Luckily it was also able to get us out again.)

All that remained to cap off a great day was another trip to the park for Zoe to run, and a sunset dinner in Colmar, followed by delicious gelato.  Tomorrow, onward to the Alps!

Colmar sunset