I am in Morzine, France. You haven't heard of it? I'm not surprised.
Morzine is a village of less than 3000. It's located in the Haute Savoie department of France. If you speak French you'll notice the "haute." That means high. I am, in fact, in the French Alps.
Why oh why would anyone travel this long and this far to visit Morzine? Oh my goodness, why wouldn't you? Morzine is a traditional French market town, spreading over a river gorge at an altitude of 1000 m (3300 ft). It is surrounded by forested mountains, flanked by the jagged peaks of France's highest Alps. I'll point out Mont Blanc when I next have a chance. And Morzine attracts skiers.
It's not that I wanted necessarily to downhill ski. I have with me my Nordic skis and boots because they do have cross country trails here. It's the first thing that made me perk up and look more closely at this place. But there were other considerations: it's not a modern place in that it doesn't have concrete slabs standing in for hotels, it's not crazily overrun by daredevil skiers (though it doesn't lack skiers -- of mixed abilities I'm told), and here's something important for me: it's not too far from a major airport. Geneva International is 90 minutes by car.
Ohhhh, let's roll back then to my travels. I left you in Madison on Friday. I had just picked up Snowdrop at school, taken her home and then headed out for the airport. I did all that. No problem. On time departure to Detroit. (I must note that it was possibly the only on time departure on Delta today so I am grateful.)
Next, a rather long flight to Paris, but not too long. The winds are strong and favorable for us: they turn what is normally an eight hour flight into one that's just six and a half.
(no Paris this time - except from the air)
And then there's the rather short flight to Geneva. Just fifty minutes!
(landing...)
So now I know that Geneva is to Paris, as Detroit is to Madison (as the crow flies). You never can tell when that useless piece of information might come in handy! I took a taxi from Geneva to Morzine. Now that was a bit of a nightmare.
Geneva International was packed. People climbing over people to retrieve luggage, to find their ride, probably to get to their Alpine destination. My driver said the British flights were all delayed and everyone came at once and the drivers were all going nuts trying to find their people. And now he decides to bypass the exodus and go through Geneva proper. That was a mistake! Geneva proper was hosting an anti-Russian invasion demonstration and so traffic crawled.
It was nearly evening when I arrived in Morzine.
I'm staying at a family run hotel that's typical of the area -- le Samoyede (by the way, that name also belongs to a white furred Siberian herding dog), a chalet, not too large, not too small. I wanted it to be in the center of the village and it is that. I couldn't count on great skiing weather so walking around the sprawling village had to be an attractive option as well. It is definitely in the center of the Morzine universe.
(every French town has a.... merry-go-round)
There isn't a lot of snow at this level, but we are in a basin of the high Alps and so if you go up in one of the many gondolas or lifts, you'll get to snow that's many feet deep. But it isn't an easy ski in - ski out situation. That kind of snow disappeared early in February. Like in southern Wisconsin!
I dumped my bag and skis at the hotel and went out to talk to the Tourist Office people about... well, everything! Cross country skiing, down hill skiing, walking, bla bla bla. Since this is Saturday and many, many people come for a week-long stay on Saturdays and of those, many come to the Tourist Office to buy lift tickets and passes, you could say that I held up the line. I did my research ahead of time, but you still need more on the spot information!
And I bought a lift pass. It seems ridiculous to buy a lift pass just to go cross country skiing. I mean, the beauty of Nordic trails is that they don't require such nonsense. Go out, put on skis, move. I suppose for that I should have gone to northern Norway and followed the trails of all those cross country skiing giants, but one must never look back and say "I should maybe have gone there, or there, or there." In travel, you must take each place as you find it and learn its greatest charms and quirky characteristics.
Of course, once I had the lift pass, I decided there's no way I'm going going to spend money on a pass and not ski from top to bottom, so I borrowed some downhill skis and boots as well. Yes daughters, I also borrowed a helmet. Size large, cause big heads run in the family.
My cozy room is wonderfully knotty pine and it has a super puffy quilt and is all together very agreeable. The staff is wonderful -- all as described, all as expected. What I did not expect was for the food to be this good. I know it's France, but still. I booked the half board rate on the theory that it's at least going to be fresh and honest. It's more than that. So I will eat a lot. (Today's dinner had veggi veloutee, gravlox and fennel salad, a beautiful tenderloin with bernaise and rosti potatoes, and cheeses...
And a three prong dessert, because one just wont do.
The dining crowd here is 90% French and 10% pale British.The waiter was shocked that I traveled this far... How little he knows me!
I'm here for a week. As almost always these days, I'm traveling alone. There is so much to see, to do, to photograph. You'll hear from me soon. Right now, it's time to exhale and try hard to sleep through some part of the night. I'm used to this. First nights in Europe are never restful. How do airline people do it?!!
Outside, the stars are out, the moon shines brightly over a landscape covered with snow. Up above me. I cannot wait to explore tomorrow.
Bonne nuit!
