Road/Ski Trip: Days 1-3 (Puy St. Vincent)

     We left Vaison la Romain about 2:00 p.m. on Saturday bound for Puy St. Vincent ski station:

Self Portrait:  "Impending Departure"

We headed in the direction of Gap -- a medium sized French city.  The scenery on the road to Gap was spectacular.  And it was very warm and sunny, so we drove with the windows down!  We smelled the smells and stuck our hands out.  There were remarkable rock formations, river canyons, and unusual geology.  It reminded us a lot of the American Southwest, especially passing through the Gorge(s) St. May.  Averil took dozens of photos.  Unfortunately, they're not loading well under current internet conditions.

As we neared Gap, we started to see mountains with snow on them.  That meant we were getting closer to the Alps.

Then we got to Gap.  Gap is a nice city.  We have pictures to prove it, but the internet is not cooperating.  Suffice it to say that in Gap we stopped to check the map.  We also had a snack.  We snacked in Gap and checked the map.  It was a snap to check the map in Gap while we had a snack.

Gap

Then we kept going.  We got to the Alps.  The mountains are spectacular.  We found the ski area.  Our room is slightly bigger than a good-sized dorm room.  That's OK.  It's got a dishwasher!

It has not snowed here in 5 weeks so the snow is pretty bad.  But it's warm and sunny and by 10:30 the nasty crusty snow becomes skiable.

The Picture That Took 12 Minutes to Load

OK, time to go pay for my drink now.  We'll check in again in a few days.

Animal Behavior

This is a picture of the face of a French boar called a Sanglier:

They say there are wild boars around here.  This one Ed saw on a long march that he was invited to go on by the neighbor.  It was in a little fenced in area next to an out of the way vineyard halfway up the side of a steep hill.  Who was keeping it there, and why?  Anyway, it really oinked and snorfuled a lot.  It was loud and dirty.  But it seemed friendly.

Posing Next to the Sanglier

Switching animals, here are three pictures of Ivy:

First, trying to look alert and intelligent, sitting outside the little grocery store:

Then, how she actually is when she's not out in public:

And what happens when Averil accidentally on purpose lets the semi-stray cat come in the door:

     Off-topic, the French president's supporters found out that we are living in France.  We found a letter from them in the mailbox.  President Sarkozy has made 10 great reforms in the last 5 years and (on the back) it is suggested that we should give some money to his campaign:

It is a little bit unusual to get junk mail in the mailbox so we're not sure how this one slipped through.  One of the things about the French mailbox is that there is a little plaque on the mailbox that translates, "no advertising please" (i.e., no junk mail).  In the U.S., that would be a violation of the constitutional rights of the people (corporations are people) to speak to you in the form of junk mail.  Anyway, the plaque seems to work.  We almost never get junk mail.  Or maybe they don't have that much junk mail here?  Frankly,we're not sure if it's the little plaque or not, but our junk mail is about 99% less than what we get in the U.S.  (Ed likes the French junk mail on the rare occasion when something slips through.  It's good practice for reading French.  Maybe we should take the plaque off?)

     We're about to start a two week school break.  We'll head here for the first week:

 

Then we will go through a tunnel under the mountains.

And end up here for a week: