Marché de Noël (Winterfest part 3)

After the 6 am go to bed, i roused around 1, and did nothing all day until Alison and Emma dragged me out of the house to go to the christmas market down the road. Stopped by realized it was wicked tiny, took a second lap, and that was that."I'm not a baby, I'm a tumor" - you should watch the new hellboy flick, but beware the ending sucks
PINK ONEPIECE!!! normally you only see these on the hill on gaper day, but not in FRANCE!
Cool little figurine stand, they had everything here, from a do-it-yourself-nativity-scene-hobby-kit to the full on Alpine villageKiddie entertainmentThe cue outside Pére Noël's house
The old guy was hanging out here for the daythe most pathetic 16€ Christmas tree ever
never seen this instrument in my life
All under the watchful eye of the elephants

Fette des Lumières (Winterfest Part 2)

Simon and I were slightly rushed getting back home, so we left after just a short chat with his parents. We drove back down through the storm, through clous, i napped, probably snored. And arrived at my apartment around 4 pm. I went in for a quick shower and ran over to the bust stop at the prefecture to catch our ride to Lyon for the Festival of Lights. I napped again for about a half hour on the bus and we still hadn't left chambery. everyone else was on the other bus except Emma, Alison and Leslie. so we finally left. I napped again, and awoke pulling into Lyon around 6. we hopped out and proceeded to not know where the heck we were, what we were doing or where were supposed to go.

After finding a hot dog stand and getting some dinner, we followed the crowd to a massive square, the center of the party, and proceeded to enjoy the fette des lumieres for the night.

Always good to come across something like thisThese were French Native Americans, hmm, i don't know how that works but whatevsThis was the centre of town, a massive square with this ferris wheelAnna is so photogenicIt was pretty cool
Europa Rad, it's just that simple. This was the giant dangling-fish-light thing, probably the coolest one we stumbled across.and it changed colorsEverybody was stoked on itSarah and Anna being stoked on each other
Simon eyeing exotic men's underwear, this 5o-something french couple walked by and she dragged her man back to look at them, and I asked her if she liked any of themVin chaud is awesome, just like the name says its hot wine, but with some fruit in it sometimesI guess the guy at the cotton candy place really liked EmmaSimon's was taller but still not as big as Emma's
Simon stoked on his find
Hilde told us that cotton candy is also called Grandfather's Beard or something like that in Norwegian.
To each his own GrrrrrCoolest idea for a restaurant/bar ever!!! this place was packedSweet Onion chicken Teriyaki's on Parmesan Oregano, just aren't the same in FranceSalim told me this photo looks like a face , i think it would be rad if my mouth glowedAnother fun thing to stumble across, but not when you're already coldMmmmm, warm food, Hilde picking and choosingAnna picked a Nutella WaffleDrinking, on the street, with your friends, next to police men and first aid people, legally, awesome.cool building next to our drinking spotThis is the same castle that i shot photos of in my earlier Lyon post
Emma and the castle
Anna and the church across the river, the church kept changing colors, but i couldn't get any good shotsRight after it took 12 cops to arrest one kid on a scooterAnd as always we ended up in the pub

After a brisk walk back to the bus, standing around for a half hour waiting, a long traffic jam drive back to Chambery, and an arrival at 3:30 am, a walk back to the apartment and a meal with Emma and Alison around 4:30, I did not get to sleep until 6 am.

Day 2, Les Gets (Winter Fest Part 1)

I had been itching to ride again since i let Simon down the last time we made plans, and i ended up missing out on an apparently great day at Val Thorens. However, that day ended in a flat tire and a long wait, so missed out on that too.

So Simon and I were determined to get this thing goin on Saturday, we made plans on Monday and didn't see each other again until friday night at 11pm at a Bar! solidified the plans over a few beers and around 1 am decided we should go to bed if we were really going to get up at 6, be out of chambery by 7 at lifts with passes by 9 riding until 2, and leaving so we could be home to catch the bus to lyon at 5pm. WHEW!!! tight schedule.

So we were asleep by 2 up at 6:30 at my house by 7 slightly late, but still good. until i came downstairs with my gear to a dead car! engine turning over, lights were on, whats up? after searching around the deserted street at 7am on a saturday, down to the service station, simon ran down a french guy to give us a jump, on the road by 8! had to head back to simon's cause he forgot something, on the road by 8:30!!! got up to Clous and justout of clous had to put on chains, yeah there was some snow. got up to simon's parents place around 10....

The road into the Clinch chalet, 3 feet easy. that's the snowgun on the piste, shot from the garage

The cabin right behind there's yeah the chalet's pretty close, and it's right infront of a flat spot, so you get to see some pretty fun stuff when people get stuck

The trail from the chalet to the piste, 100m in 3 ft of snow, toughest bootpacking i've done since silverton last season.The only sun that came out, just as we left.

Rode mostly with Jo all day, who deserves a mention for killing it in such heavy snow. Great day, not a lot of people, still riding fresh on the last run. Almost too much snow. AWESOME second day! especially since we only rode one lift all day and there's 5 others on this side of the valley.

Lyon

Last Wendesday, on a whim, Anna and i hopped a train to Lyon to kill an afternoon. It's only about an hour away, but the ticket was 30€. We ended up running into a fire, finding a subway getting denied and finding another one so that i could eat my sweet onion chicken teriyaki, booyah. curiously named electric company in Lyon.This was a funky little fountain on a nice part of town, no cars allowed just a large walking area with shops and a little winter expose. This same expose was in chambery just a few days before, fake cross-country skiing for kids. lame. In chambery they did have a little slope for teaching kids how to, good crashes, oh yes, entertaining. Chambery however, did not have a fake tubing hill, which is a rad idea. Bummer sunset
This is a cool castle overlooking the town, more pictures of this castle in the Fette Des Lumières post.
It's got a nice little tower to accompany, overshadowed by construction.
same thing
this is a rad little bridge we crossed to get back to the train station, this is about 5 seconds before i jumped on it making it sway and the old french guy said somethin i didn't understand but will translate as «Little hooligan!»

A nice trip to kill sometime, got to do a little shopping too. Thanks Anna!