After the excitement of entertaining the family over Christmas, Marg and I agreed that we had earned a holiday, so we recommended to ourselves that we have a week in the snow. We were going skiing.
We contacted the Office du Tourisme at La Bresse to find accommodation for a week. La Bresse is the town that services the Hohneck ski fields. Not as well known internationally as the French or Swiss Alps, this area is in the Haute Vosges – a part of the region of Lorraine. It caters very much for the French at a family level as well as being very popular with the Belgians and Dutch being only a two and a half to five hour drive away for them. We booked a semi- detached apartment that comfortably slept four. It was on the road between La Bresse and the snow fields.
While window shopping the "after Christmas" sales and being full of enthusiasm for our trip, we just happened across a sports store clearing some skiing gear. Lo and behold, new outfits and skis appear. For those who don't know, we donated our old skis to a charity on our last trip to New Zealand and both Marg and my suits were getting scruffy. We did very well price-wise but we will have to ski a little bit more to really be in front (if you get my drift).
We headed out on Saturday 28th. Nancy was having a cold day with the odd snowflake. An hour and a half later we arrived in La Bresse and moved in to our cottage.
On the mountain there were "post card" opportunities everywhere.
The weather was not kind as it was overcast, lightly snowing with a temp about minus 12 degrees This was continuous till Friday when it dawned a clear day. Still very cold at minus 17 on the mountain top but perfect weather and conditions for our last day on the snow. Too cold though to take too many pictures with bare fingers!
Next day was Saturday, our departure day, We were packing as our landlady, Marie-Agnes arrived to finalise formalities re the rent and such like. She was intrigued by us and was keen to expand her faltering english. She and her siblings (a brother and a sister) had taken over the family home and each had an apartment. The sisters rented theirs while the brother, a sculpter in timber, used his as a workshop and storage for his craft. We thank Marie-Agnes for a comfortable stay.
Our return to Matilda on Saturday afternoon found that Nancy was experiencing the same temperatures and the canal was frozen to a depth of seven to ten centemetres. An ice breaker had been used to keep the canal open making for a dramatic surface.
This was to be the norm now until the spring thaw. We have learnt that as a result of the extreme conditions the VNF have given up and closed the canal to shipping.
The scene above is Matilda alongside a similar boat, Nilaya which works as a hotel barge for four guests http://www.bargenilaya.com/ They are not in a sea of soap suds, that is 7 centimetres of snow on 12 centimetres of ice.
We will be returning to Perth, Australia for a month from the end of February and it might be a relief to get some warm??? weather for a while.
There will be more, so till then, keep in touch.
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