Fréjus, France

Fréjus, France
Aqueduc Romain

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Skiing Valberg


I finally went skiing! There is a local Côte d'Azur Ski Club which does a bus run every Sunday to one of three ski areas: Isola 2000, Auron, or Valberg. They have a sign-up on Fri. at a restaurant on the beach strip. It is 45 euros for the bus ride (about 2 1/2 hours each way) and the ski pass for the day, but as a non-member I had to wait to see if the bus got filled by the members. Luckily, it did not. I could not have gotten luckier with the weather - after 2 days of rain here, and fresh snow on the mts, we got a blue ski day! Incredible!

As was the gorge we drove through. Like John Muir, I always feel like I'm in church when witnessing a great natural wonder such as the Grand Canyon, Zion Nat'l Park, or Yosemite. Gorges du Cians felt just like that to me: breathtaking, sheer cliffs, steep drop-offs down to the river, and a road unbelievably built into this narrow tight gorge. Hairpin turns, low overhanging rock, tunnels chiseled through the rock in places - the bus seemed far too big for the road, but the driver knew what he was doing, and we made it. For me a big part of the amazement was the fact that modern technology made navigating this gorge possible at all, and once we popped out the other end, the beautiful snowy Alps awaited us.

Sadly, the day ended on a bit of a bummer. I set my camera on the bus seat and while reaching up to get my coat, it disappeared. Baffling. It was there one minute, then gone the next. I don't believe anyone purposely stole it as everyone on the bus was a local, but maybe it fell on the floor and someone thought it was their own. We searched the bus high and low, and it had vanished, and along with it the 100 or so photos I took. Thus, the pics and links above are not mine and just a taste of what I had hoped to share. Maybe it will still get returned, but seeing as it was our only camera, today Lisa and I went out and bought a new 10-megapixel one. So the next post will be coming with pics from our new camera.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a bummer!!! Good that someone could share some pics with you. But, how was the skiing? Does it compare to home at all? Go again with Irie and take more pics.
Love you all, Mom

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry about your camera- But now you have a french camera :). Glad that the sun shone for you.

Athena

Anonymous said...

Yes - please tell us about the skiing.

This year we've had so much snow that we're skiing on nice fresh stuff every day. Not your typical Michigan ice.

Anyhow, your description of the bus ride was great. What fun.

Ken