As the last week of school before the holidays was somewhat uneventful I decided against writing a blog for that week. The first week of the holidays has been amazing by comparison. The first Saturday of the holidays marked my first football match in France, it was of much higher intensity than the games I have played in New Zealand but I really enjoyed the challenge and my team even came away with the 1-0 win! :) After the football game we all piled into the car and headed off on the hour journey to a petit ski town “La Pesse’. There, we stayed in a cozy wooden chalet/lodge that was five minutes drive from the local ski fields along with Sabrina (the sister of Stephane) and her husband Thierry and their kids Elliot and Lucca as well as Dominique (the sister of Valerie) and her husband Hervé. While it was only a small place and at times it felt like we were crammed in there like a pack of sardinesI had a really good time all week sharing stories and playing cards late into the night. Over the course of the week we must have played at least 300 games of President and despite my French friends only learning the game that week they soon picked it up and their competitive nature meant at times we would play for hours on end just to be named president! On Sunday we headed up the local slopes for some skiing. Despite snow being at record low levels and there only being two relatively small and simple slopes I ended up having a really good time weaving in and out of the trees and hitting the jumps :) Tuesday was a completely different adventure. The weather was fantastic so we decided as a group to go on a bit of a hike through the wilderness. The nature of France is comparable in beauty to New Zealand and after climbing a large snow covered hill the views of the surrounding countryside were incredible! We were surrounded by dense pine forests and snow capped peaks and I was told that on the other side of a mountain range right before my eyes law the Swiss city of Geneva! Tuesday was spent playing more games of cards as it rained for most of the day. Wednesday we were back out on the slopes but due to the already low levels of snow that had only become worse with yesterdays’ rain we were at times skiing on patches of grass or water skiing through the puddles! Thursday was amazing, it finally decided to snow so we had a really enjoyable time making snow men and taking in the winter wonderland! Friday, being our last full day at la Pesse was designated as a ski day, with snow the day before the slopes were much more of the white variety although we were still waterskiing through the puddles at the bottom... all in all I had a great time ducking in and out of the trees with my French companions! To conclude the week I managed to catch another of the seemingly endless viruses that seem to not exist in New Zealand.. :( Despite this unfortunate finish I had a week to remember skiing at La Pesse and it was great to have such funny and friendly companions!
