Chateau de Nardent, 1217m

Hello there.

Snow is coming slowly to the summits, not enough to skis or snowshoes, but enough to make us prefer the forest paths. We'll have time to go up! :) Therefore, our last excursion was not high, but quite beautiful. We climb up the chateau de Nardent (1217 m), in the Chartreuse mountain range, not far from St. Ismier (15 Km from Grenoble), in the slopes of the Gresivaudan valley.

The excursion starts at about 400 m, therefore it is more than 700 meters high difference. The beginning of the path goes along a river in a gentle slope. Then it reaches a forest hut and starts to climb quite steep in a dense forest. At this time of the year all the leaves were yellow and brown, and at some places they covered the ground forming a thick layer.

The path leads to the mountain pas col de Baure, with lovely vues over the Gresivaudan valley and the great Dent de Crolles, an impressive mountain with the shape or a tooth. The summit is reached after a nice 2 1/2 hours climb. Once there the view over the Belledonne moutain range is breathtaking. At this point we had lunch with great views and a bit of sun for a nice siesta. There are rocks in the summit, some trees and a vertical drop to the valley, but no castle... whatever it was, the name chateau didn't come from it...

As usual, you'll find more pictures in our Picasa site.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Cascade de l'Oursière et Lacs Roberts, 1998 m.

Hello,

We've been also in the mountains! Our last excursion was in September. We climbed up to the lakes (Lacs) Roberts, 1998 m, in the chain of Belledonne, by the waterfall (cascade) de l'Oursière.

The path leads, through a dark forest, fast to the waterfall, which is quite spectacular. It is very high and with a considerable flux of water. Then the path follows the river of the waterfall, up to a flat land, before it climbs very steep towards the lakes. Here the landscape is already of high mountain, and there are no trees. Finally, after a huge rock, the lakes were in front of our eyes, at almost 2000 m high.

This group of lakes is situated in a bowl surrounded by summits some 500-800 m higher. The ski station of Chamrousse have here a piste and a lift. In winter, when the lakes are frozen, they do here ice-diving.

The path brought us back by a narrow corridor from the lakes. Here we were again in the forest and we followed a forestal road untill the car.

Of course, more pictures are available here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Paella!!

Hello again,

Yes, as we promised, we cooked a paella for the friends. After a lovely Via Ferrata in the morning, we gathered in the parc Île d'Amour, by the river Isère. This parc has especial
places for cooking and barbequing, so we cook actually two paellas for 20 people.

We took some bricks and coal for the fire and we borrowed two big paella-pans. We shared the transport of the meat, sea-food and vegetables and we also had sangria :) An explosive combination.

We had a great time, and the paella was very well cooked... yes, Nina and I, we have a lot of experience in paellas ;) It was the first time we cooked for so many in exterior... not an easy business, but the experience was unforgettable!

More pics here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Via Ferrata: La prise de la Bastille

Hello,

Here we are again with a new post. We have been doing few things these months but didn't have time to include the reports in our Blog. Well, that is over now: we are back on-line ;)

In August we accomplish a long-time wish: we did our first Via Ferrata. This is a modality of climbing (literally "ironed way"), aided by metal hooks, ladders and wires installed on the rock wall. Is is very secure, since we have to wear a especial harness, with two fixation ropes, and a helmet. The sense of danger is quite real, though, and the climbing sometimes can be a bit physical.

We went with a large group of friends and we enjoyed it very much! This Ferrata is the closest to Grenoble... actually it is in Grenoble. It climbs from the gardens of the Porte de France, by the river Isère, and up to the Bastille.

Here you can find some pictures of this great adventure.

Right after, we joined our friends to eat a huge paella... Manu was cooking! But this is for our next post. Until then, take care.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Hauts Plateaux du Vercors and Grand Veymont, 2341 m.

Hello again,

This was indeed a nice hike. We walked over 26 Km on a long boucle in two days and we spent the night in the wild, in our new tent. Then we climbed the Grand Veymont, 2341 m, the highest summit in the massif du Vercors. We climb up, and walked down, a total of 2260 m of height difference.

We started from a spot near the nice village of Gresse-en-Vercors, 1245 m, located at about 45-min-drive south from Grenoble. It was already quite late: Saturday at 14h. We were not in a hurry, since we were planning to set-up our tent somewhere by the end of the day. We decided to climb first to the plateaux following a less common way. The path we chose climbed first to the forest-hut du Veymont, at about 1450 m, where we ate lunch. We had a nice desert of wild strawberries, picked-up from the sides of the path. And they were so sweet! :) Then the path continued to climb to about 1700 m, where it crossed over a narrow ridge... actually it went along the ridge for a while. We were in the cloud by then, and there was little to be seen. We followed the path down, back to 1300 m, into a very nice valley, covered by trees.

Then the path started to climb to the plateau to a height of over 1900 m in only 2 km: very steep. We climbed-up along a stony gully which led us straight on the plateaux by the Pas de Bachassons, where a small water source helped us to recover our water supplies. In Vercors, water is rare, and we had quite heavy backpacks: basically water, food and the tent.

We arrived on time to see the sunset over the plains of river Rhône, far on the west. By then we were already out of the mist and the sky was blue. We started descending again into the plateau in front of us, leaving the Grand Veymont behind us. We passed-by the arbre taille -carved tree- and we set-up our tent not far from the remains of a roman quarry: la carrière romaine.

The Natural Reserve of the Hauts Plateaux du Vercors covers an big area of the south of the Vercors mountain range. There are no villages there, only some small shepherd huts. The plateaux are at a height of about 1500 m. Camping is not allowed, but setting-up a tent between 19h and 8h it is tolerated if not far from the paths. Which is what we did, of course. We were rather isolated: only one tent was set near us, at about 1 km behind us, and in the morning we found some other people in a hut at 2 km ahead from us. Ah! and we found near our tent a spot where few edelweiss were growing!

The next day we walked south along the plateau, we passed-by the hut of Pré Peyret, and then the path started to turn slowly north. The plateau is covered by a very light pine and fir forest. We walked at fast pace here. By midday we were back to the area of the Pas de Bachassons, where the source was. We decided we had enough water and we started the climb of the Grand Veymont: about 900 m of height difference from the plateau. And *that* was steep! It was already afternoon and we were loaded with less water but we had the very same tent and we were already tired, so the climb was a bit hard. We stopped before the summit for lunch -surrounded by ibex, or mountain goats- , enjoying the view over the plateaux , then we walked to see the view to the other side. And that it is awesome! Especially impressive is the Mont Aiguille, a tall mountain with straight vertical rock walls and a flat green top. We could see also the Tête de l'Obiou, close-by, but also the already known Belledonne moutain range, la Meije, l'Etendard, le Taillefer... and the Mont Blanc.

We descended the Grand Veymont from the other side, the north face, and we reached the village of Gresse by the Pas de la Ville. A tough descent of over 1000 m in 2h. We reached the car 27h after we left it there the day before.

We enjoyed this hike very much, especially because we finally used our tent! but also for the great views and the amazing variety of landscapes. You will find a selection of pictures in our PICASA site. We hope you enjoy them!

Take care,
-Manu & Nina-

Refuge des Evettes, 2629 m.

Hello,

Finally, the last of our three hikes that we did the last weekend on July. The refuge des Evettes, at 2629 meters. This is a short ans relaxing hike, at the end of the Maurienne valley. Very close to the border: behind the summits it was already Italy. We had to pass trough the village of Bonneval, it is said to be one of the most beautiful in France. The road continues to the small village of l'Ecot, situated at the very end of the valley and at 2000 meters.


The path (called le chemin a John) starts from the parking in l'Ecot and crosses a fluvial plane, before it starts to climb a very stony mountain side, with little or no marked path. The glaciers are already visible, as well as the Evettes' waterfall, falling into the canyon of the same name. The rocks in this part of the canyon are very particular, and they hang from the cliff as rock platforms. One of the, called le rocher qui bouge or "the rock that moves" is really spectacular.

To get out of the canyon, is necessary to used some cable attached to the rock walls. Once on top, we could see the glacial plane and the morrenic deposits from old glaciers, crossed by a river. This river is the responsible for the mentioned waterfall. The river passes under a beautiful stone bridge, and right away it dives into the canyon. Awesome view.

After this we reached the refuge on a little hill, which dominates the glacial plane, and it has a breathtaking view over the glaciers and the summits.

The way down was way easier, from the other side of the refuge's hill, into the valley of l'Ecot.

Pictures of these wonderful landscapes are stored here. We hope you enjoy them!

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Pointe de l'Observatoire, 3016 m.

Hello again,

After our first night in Ché Catrine, the chambre d'hôtes in Villarodin, we climbed our second three-thousand in France: la Point de l'Observatoire, 3016 m. A "legal" three-thousand, because, well, "legally" it has more than 3000 metres, but it is de justesse, as the French say :) .

The road starts from the village of Aussois (1473 m) - a 10 minutes drive from Villarodin- but it climbs up to 2078 m, by the dam of one of two artificial lakes, where we left the car. The path starts climbing gently and enters the Parc National de la Vanoise. Then we reached the refuge du Fond de l'Aussois (2329 m), and then the path gets more "wild" and climbs steadily to the col d'Aussois. There the path gets very stony and crossed over many creeks. Then, the last climb to the summit, 3016 m. The view is awesome! All the summits of la Vanoise and the lakes and the glaciers. Great. We just missed the Mont Blanc, because of stormy clouds. It did rain a bit at the end, but nothing serious... and a warm sauna (and a jacuzzi) were waiting for us in the Village.

Ah, yes, more pics in our picasa site.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Grand Lac and Lac Blanc, ~2450 m.

Hello there,

This is the post about our first hike during our stay in the chambre d'hotes in Savoy. We set off from Grenoble direction Modane, but, instead of taking the highroad along the Isere river valley, we took the small roads that cross over the mountains.

The starting point of this hike was the col de la Croix de Fer (2054 m), very well known by the Tour de France fans. Actually, the Tour had passed the very same col just two days before. The roads were full of signs written with chalk or painted on the asphalt, cheering the cyclists. But most dangerous, and sometimes even annoying, was the huge amount of amateur bikers climbing up the same road. It was very stressful to try to keep the car in the curvy road, passing-by one bike every 10 meters, and avoiding all kind of traffic coming in the opposite direction!

Well, we eventually did it to the col and start our nice first walk of the weekend. The path goes up quite fast to the refuge de l'Etendard, (2430 m) by two beautiful lakes: Grand Lac and Lac Blanc. We walked a bit more up, to the extreme of the southern lake, by the glacier of Saint Sorlin, but we did not go any further.

There were excellent views to the glacier from the lakes, but also excellent views to the already known by our readers, the Aigulles d'Arves and the summit of the Pic du Mas de la Grave. We walk down from the lakes through the sky station of Saint Sorlin d'Arves, closing the circle in the col.

More -and nice- pictures can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Villarodin and Ché Catrine

Hello again,

The last weekend on July we were in a nice chambre d'hôtes Ché Catrine, in Villarodin, a village in the Maurienne river valley. Very close from Modane, it is situated at the edge of the Vanoise National Parc, by the border with Italy.

The chambre d'hôtes is just great. With a nice atmosphere and charm. The house has a strange but somewhat armonious mixture of Old Savoy traditional house decorated with motifs and furniture from Tibet and everywhere else in the himalayas.

The house is divided in two: the resicence of the owners and the rooms and suites to rent. The owners are very friendly and nice, offering a great service, including advise for hiking paths. They also usually offer table d'hôtes, or home-made dinner, but we were not lucky since they did not offer the service those days.

The rooms are cozy and warm, all in wood and stone. And they have a sauna!! And a fine one. We enjoyed two nights there. During the day, we were in the wild, discovering new paths in the mountains, a total of three walks... but that is for the next posts.

Of course, you can see more pictures clicking this link.

Take care,
-Manu & Nina-

Le Taillefer, 2857 m.

Hello,

We are back with a post of pure mountain. Last July 20th we climbed up the Taillefer (2857 m). This is a very nice and beautiful hike, but quite hard, with 1200 m of height difference, and 7h30 of total hike time (of course including stops).

The walk starts in the lac du Poursollet (1658 m), accessible after a long drive along a narrow mountain road. The path leads to the second lake, the lac Fourchu, which lays on a "flat" land at the Taillefer feet. Then the fun starts. The path goes very steep and very "stony". There are several snow patches, but the path never goes trough (except intentionally). Well, actually less intentionally, since we had to cross one of them especially steep and slipery, beacuse we lost the path in opour way down. Luckily we had our piolets. But that's for the way down! :)

The way up went steadily up until the top, and there the view is breathtaking! Belledonne, Vercors, Chartreuse, les Grandes Rousses, l'Oisans... la Meije, l'Obiou, le Grand Veymont, les Aigulles d'Arves...

An iron statue of Saint Eloi, patron saint of the iron smiths, stands on the summit.

The way down was by the same route.

More pictures can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Geneva and Montreux (Switzerland)

Hello,

Well, here you have one more "town-post"... in fact the weather has been very bad, in the Alps, and we do not like to walk under the rain, if not necessary ;)

In the same weekend, we visited Chamonix (see last post) and the swiss towns of Montreux and Geneva, both situated on the shores of Leman lake, but in opposites extremes. Montreaux is a town perched on a hill over the east side of the lake. It is not very beautiful, but it has excellent views over the French Alps. And, above all, it hosts the Montreux Jazz Festival and, yes, we had tickets. We attended Herbie Hancock (jazz) and Chaka Khan (funk) concerts. Just too good.

Next day we were in Geneva (west end of Leman Lake), which has a very nice old town and a fantastic cathedral. The towers offer a great view of the lake, the town and the famous water jet. Otherwise, just a nice city with lots of banks... and very tidy!

Find here more pictures of Geneva and Montreux.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Chamonix and Mer de Glace

Hi there,

After a series of "town-posts", very little related with the Alps, we are back with our famous "mountain-posts". Well, we don't know if very famous, but those are the ones we like the most :)

We went to the town of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (1037 m), situated, as the name may hint you, on the feet of the famous Mont Blanc (4808m), the highest mountain in Western Europe. The town is situated in a narrow valley with very spectacular views to the glaciers and the high mountain, especially the massif du Mont Blanc.

The weather was not very good, and we had to cancel our hike to the lac Blanc (2352 m). Instead, we took the mountain train to Montenvers (1913 m), and we walk down to the Mer de Glace, one of the most beautiful glaciers in Chamonix area. According to Wikipedia, this glacier moves at the amazing pace of 1 cm per hour, or 90 metres per year.

We visited the Ice Cave, a beautiful but somewhat disappointing place.

More pictures of this adventure can be seen here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

San Sebastian - Donostia

Hello,

As promised before, now we will tell you about our visit to San Sebastian, as all the other Basque towns it has its own name in its original language, Basque or Euskera: Donosti.

And what a beautiful town! San Sebastian is on the northern coast of Spain, very close to the French border. Its main beach, la Concha, is very popular, and very beautiful. The beach is located between two hills forming a lovely bay. One hill (the Monte Igueldo) has an observation point, and the other hill has the old town at its feet. The rest of the town extend to the other side of the second hill where there's another bay with a second beach (Paseo de Zurriola).

In the old town one can buy one of the best tapas in Spain: the famous pintxos.

San Sebastian is a must of the Spanish/Basque landscape. More pictures can be found in our Picasa website.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-

Pamplona - Iruña

Hello again,

Being in Vitoria, we profit its excellent geographical location to visit Pamplona, in neighbouring Navarra, and San Sebastian (soon in this Blog) still in the Basque Country.

Pamplona, also known as Iruña -its Basque name- is the capital of the region of Navarra. This town hosts one of the best known "fiesta" in the world: the bull-running of San Fermin. Also known as just Sanfermines, this fiesta is held the week (actually 9 days) around July 7th, the day of San Fermin. Not only bull-running, which actually last just a few minutes every morning, but sanfermines is also, and especially, the night. Music, dancing, concerts, bads (peñas) playing music in the streets, the afternoon corrida, excellent food, better wine... not to be missed.

Downtown Pamplona is -just as Vitoria- full of the charm of a little village, and the tapas can be found everywhere. Another specialty of Pamplona are the sidrerias, places were one can be served excellent beef steacks or amazing tortilla de papatas just in the middle of a collection of huge cider (sidra) barrels. The cider is self-service, and one buy the right to haev a glass, and then serve it self straight from the barrel's tap. Just great!

We spent a lovely day in Pamplona, we promise!

AS usual, more pics to be found here.

Vitoria - Gasteiz

Hello again,

After the weekend of the 1st of May we used one week to spend some time with Manu's family in Vitoria (Spain). We went there by bus, meaning 14h long hours of travel. Most of the driving was during the night, but anyway. It was a good solution since it is a direct connection from Lyon to Vitoria. We lost the bus in our way back, by-the-way, because our tickets were wrong. After a complaint, we got our money back, which was fear enough, since we got one day more of holidays!

Vitoria -or Gasteiz, its Basque name- is a very nice little town. It is the administrative capital of the Basque Country or Euskadi region. Its old town stands on a hill, and it has a lot of charm, looking rather like a small village than a town. You can eat lovely tapas in the bars nearby the Cathedral, and their local "fiestas", held in early August and known as "la Virgen Blanca" are rather popular in Northern Spain.

More pictures can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-

Paris!

Hello!

We have spent the first of May in Paris. It was Manu's fourth visit to the city of light, but it was Nina's first visit. We enjoyed together the lovely and nice atmosphere of a very romantic town. Well, except for the tones and tones of tourists (we remind you here that we ARE NOT tourist, of course :D) that were filling the streets and the cafes and were queuing just everywhere.

The travel from Grenoble was very nice. We took the high speed train, or train a grande vitesse (TGV). In a bit less than 3 hours we were downtonw Paris, in the Gare de Lyon. We were living in a hotel in Paris "extramuros", but situated very close from the metro Line 1, which have stops all along the historical centre of Paris.

We visit the Eiffel tower, of course, but we also wondered along the little streets of Montmartre, the Quartier Latin or the Marais. And we walked the Champs Elysees all long, from the gardens of Les Tuilleries to the Arc the Triumph. We saw a little bit of everything that one must see in Paris for a first visit, and we left many of other things for the next one ;) including the Louvre. Actually, after the Winter Palace and the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, the Louvre's building looked to our eyes a bit disappointing. Maybe next time!

As usual more pictures of our trip can bee seen in our Picasa website.

Cheers,
-Manu y Nina-

From Russia with Love

Dear all,

After the wedding, we went for a short honeymoon to Saint Petersburg, Russia. We had planned the travel many months before, and it was not easy to arrange, especially for the visa in our passports, but we did it, and it was worth it!!

We arrived to Finland's Station by train and stayed at Dostoevsky Hotel, not far from Nevsky Prospeckt in downtown. The hotel is huge, but new and confortable and it is located in the same building of a shopping center, which included a grocery store open 24 hours. Many other shops, Change Offices and pharmacies in Saint Petersburg are open 24/24h and 7/7 days.

First day we walked about 13 km in down town. We were partially following the Lonely Planet guide of the town and we missed only a few of the important monuments. We passed by the Winter Palace, last residence of the Tzars and witness of the October Revolution. Then we walked along the channels and visited the church of the Spilled Blood, which contains innumerable and very beautiful mosaics.

The town is really great and monumental. Tidy and cosmopolitan. Every now and then you can still see some vestige of the old soviet era, especially buses and trucks. Once you learn to decipher cyrillic alphabet, getting around gets way easier. At first impression, people might be serious and not smiling (shopping, for example) but as soon as you try to speak a bit of the language, they radically change and become very friendly and willing to help. They surely appreciate your efforts to communicate.

We also visited the Hermitage Museum. It is said that there are Museums, there are the Great Museums and there is the Hermitage. Situated in the premises of the Winter Palace, offers an extraordinary collection of world's master pieces... and 80% of the total collection is stored in its vaults. We were lucky enough to be in Saint Petersburg during the low season, therefore we found very little tourists. For example we entered in the Hermitage without queuing, strait in, and we stroll along the beautiful ball halls and corridors often totally alone.

The other thing we appreciated a lot was the food. We eat with delight delicious and cheap meals, handsomely served.

We came back to Finland also by train, very happy with our visit to old Leningrad. The train is nice, except for the annoying customs and passport controls at the border. Not so hard, but very long.

A selection of pictures of the town can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Of Love and other Lovely Things

Dear all,

After many years of walking around, up the mountains, down the hills and across the paths, we've decided to get a brand-new status to our life together: time has come for us to get married! And so we did, Saturday 8.3.2008, at Saint Lawrence Church in Vantaa, Finland. The day was cold and snowy, but we didn't feel but the warmth of our hearts, or maybe it was just the stress of the moment :) No kidding, it was a very sweet moment for us and we enjoyed every minute of the day!! There was a party aswell, with lots of food and drink (and music), many friends and family and a lovely atmosphere of joy and fun. We were so happy to see that everything went ok!! All this thanks to our guests, coming as far as from Valencia, Grenoble, Mallorca or Montreal and to the friends who made possible the party! Some pictures of the event can be seen here. In our next post, we will report our very nice honeymoon-travel to Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Until then, take care.
-Manu y Nina-

Manu does Floorball

Hello again.

Whilst Nina has fun with volley in Fontaine, Manu goes every Friday evening to Lyon to play floorball. In the link, a little explanation for those of our readers that do not know this sport. Floorball, Unihockey, Innebandy or Salibandy... the name matters little: it is a great game, very dynamic and fun. Manu belongs to the club Lyon Floorball, the Pirates du Rhône. There are only 9 teams in France, and the only french floorball league is already national, the French Championship. The games are played in a tournament system, only couple of weeks a year of match, played in cities like Marseille, Lyon, Orleans or Paris.

Pictures of Manu and 'co-equipiers' in the second round of the national competition can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Nina does Volleyball

Hi there,

Well, not everything in Grenoble is mountains, even though is very close to that. We also do some indoor sports. Nina belongs to the volleyball club AS Fontaine (Assotiation Sportive Fontaine). Fontaine is a town neighbour to Grenoble, on the other side of Drac river. Her team plays in the N3F league (National Trois Féminine). They face teams from Grenoble, but they go also to Lyon, or even as far as Nîmes or Montpellier.

Pictures of Nina and her team 'mates' are here.

Until our next post.
-Manu & Nina-

La Foulée Blanche - Autrans

Hello again,

This is the continuation of our visit to Vercors: saturday night, ice hockey in Villard-de-Lans, and sunday morning cross-country ski in Autrans. The Vilage of Autrans is on the plateau of Vercors, some 15km from Villard-de-Lans. Both villages where Olympic Sites during the Grenoble Winter Olympic Games, in 1968. Villard-de-Lans hold the luge competitions, and Autrans the cross-country and the smaller ski-jumpings. By-the-way these Winter Games of 1968 are remembered these days in Grenoble, for its 40th anniversary, with expositions and cultural events.

The village of Autrans organize every winter the cross-country race called la Foulée Blanche. It is a very popular competition, with different levels of participants, from pros to amateurs. The ambiance in the town was very festive. Part of this year's run crossed throughout the village, were they have piled snow in the streets and built ski tracks.

Since the day was very sunny, we decided to have a bit of fun, we too! We had in the car's trunk our blue 'pulkka' (plastic sled) from Finland, and we were to the ski-jump hill to slide it down! There were just families with little kids and us! :) hehe... it was great fun.

More pictures (and a video of us sliding down-hill!) are available here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Ice Hockey Game

Hello,

For one time, we have spent the weekend watching winter sports instead of practicing them. Few weeks ago we went to Villard-de-Lans, in Vercors, to witness the big 'derby' of the French Ice Hockey National League: the Ours (Bears) from Villar-de-Lans receiving the Brûleurs de Loups (Wolfs' Burners) from Grenoble.

The ice rink is situated in a Sports Center in 'downtown' Villard. Well, if there's such a thing as downtown in a village of about 4000 people. The place is quite nice, in the middle of the 'plateau' of Vercors, surrounded by mountain ridges, and at an altitude of 1050 meters. There's also a nice ski station Villard-Corrençon, for either alpine or cross-country ski.

Needless to say that in Villard, this is regarded as a great game of the modest little team of Villard against the big rival from the big town, Grenoble, with a team full of international stars. The ambiance in the sports hall was great, very festive and even musical, with a band preforming among the public.

From the sports point of view, it was a very nice match, with lots of goal opportunities and a total of 6 goals, an extra period and the penalties. Villard opened the score, but Grenoble took soon the lead. In the last minute of usual period, Grenoble was sill leading 2:3 ... but Villard scored 3:3 with only 40 seconds to go. At this stage, every team got a point, but the match was not over... they played and extra period to obtain a final winner. The extra period is played with only 4 field players, and with 'golden goal'. They didn't score, though, and they went to the penalties shot. Grenoble got the final victory in the penalties, and got an extra point, but Villard sure fought a brilliant game. Pictures can be seen here.

The next day we went to Autrans, 15 km from Villard, to see the Foulee Blanche, a cross-country competition... but that's another story and must be told in another post.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

First day of 2008 in Auris-en-Oisans

Hello again,

Well, if the last day of the year 2007 we were skiing, the very first day of 2008 we were snowshoeing. we decided to do a three-hour walk in the neighborhood of Auris-en-Oisans, the village where we were hosted by our freinds.

We climbed-up a nice path which was too much walked, and the snow shoes had not use there. After a while, our path left the main way and we had to wear the snowshoes from there on. The path lead us to the Col Cluy. There we ate a morsel and we continued across the slope of the Grandes Buffes. We reached the cabin of Perchon, at 1834 m, and there we had a nice lunch with views to the Gorges de l'Infernet, in the valley of the river Romanche, the ski station of Deux Alpes and the Oisans mountain range.

We climb down pretty fast, across the snowy slopes. It was a lovely day with plaint of sunshine and wonderful views. Nice way to start the New Year!!

More pictures are available in our Picassa site.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Last Day of 2007 in Alpe d'Huez

Hello everybody,


This end of the year it has been really especial. We've been with our friends in the mountains, in the village of Auris-en-Oisans, just by the ski station of Alpe d'Huez, in the mountain range of les Grandes Rousses. We were two nights in the village and we spent with them the New Year's Eve.



The last day of the year, we were skiing in Alpe d'Huez. Auris-en-Oisans is a sub-domain of the big ski station. The slopes in Auris are great, with lovely views. We nevertheless crossed to the other side of the valley and joined the Alpe d'Huez slopes. We took the cable-car to the Pic Blanc, summit of the station with 3330 m. The view is awesome from there! Among many others (Mont Blanc included) we were happy to see, from the distance, other summits were we have been last summer (see earlier posts), like la Croix de Belledonne or le Pic de la Mas de la Grave... or even the Lac Lauvitel.

Very nice day, for a great goodbye to 2007. As usual, more pictures can be seen here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-