Christmas in the French Alps
Santa Rides the
Zip-line
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Pre-Xmas 2012 Paris
Ste Foy Tarentaise, France December 22-29 2012
What? Santa doesn’t arrive on a zip-line?
Well, much to the delight of the crowd of children waiting his
arrival, that is how he made his appearance Christmas Eve in the
small family oriented ski resort of Ste Foy, in the French Alps near
the Italian border.
Ray and I had taken the train from Paris
with Erica, Andrew and the two boys, Atticus and Roman, the
previous Saturday to the end of the line in the village of St
Maurice. From there we had a 40 minute taxi van ride up the
steep sides of the mountain to the ski resort at 1650 M. We had
a three bedroom unit in a condo hotel a few meters from the ski
lifts that would take us up the slopes. The Wilson family,
Spenser and Libby with their children Phoebe and Max, who live
near Erica and Andrew in Paris, had taken the overnight train
the day before and were already out skiing. They had a two
bedroom unit just down the hall from our unit. The previous week
had seen snow storms every day and the piles of snow on the
rooftops of the chalets promised a good week ahead of us. We
were not disappointed. There were four chair lifts reaching up
to 2700 M, well beyond the tree line.
We hustled the children out each morning
for their ski lessons from 9 AM until noon. The rest of us tried
the slopes on our own in the morning. Andrew finally succumbed
to the allure of the slopes and signed up for lessons too. It
was a good place to start as there were several other adults
just learning to ski and there were plenty of well groomed
trails to practise on. Lunch most days was outside on the sunny
deck restaurant next to the first chair lift. We took the
children for a few runs after lunch and then let them have fun
in the good sized hotel indoor pool. Some of the adults,
including me, took advantage of the sauna, steam room and
whirlpool in the hotel spa. Erica and Andrew even booked a
massage one afternoon. Dinners were joint affairs, prepared by
us in the condo. The children were usually fed first and then
the adults enjoyed a slightly more civilized meal.
Christmas Eve was a highlight. Notices
posted in our hotel promised entertainment, carol signing and
the arrival of Santa expected after dark that evening. By the
time we got to the plaza with the children, there was already a
good sized crowd gathered. A fire juggler of dubious talent,
dressed in an elf costume, entertained. A guitar musician led
the Christmas carol singing, mostly in English as this is a
favourite resort for many people from Great Britain. Someone in
the crowd noticed a white-bearded man in a red suit climbing up
a ladder to the balcony of a chalet behind us. It had to be
Santa, but what was he doing on the ladder? He was strapping
himself into a safety harness attached to a cable that ran above
our heads. The crowd let out a whoop of appreciation as Santa
slid part way down the cable, stopped, grabbed a fist full of
candies and tossed them into the crowd below. There was great
excitement as each child tried to get at least one candy. Santa
repeated the candy tossing twice more before reaching the end of
the cable, attached to another balcony on the far side of the
plaza, much to the delight of everyone.
That wasn’t the end of the fun. An
explosion heralded a twenty minute display of fireworks. The
children clustered by the railing overlooking the launch zone
just below the plaza. Our grandchildren and their friend Max
Wilson had a prime view and provided the loudest squeals each
time a firework erupted. The crowd disbursed, the children back
to their chalets and condos and many of the adults stopped to
have a drink in one of the outdoor bars ringing the plaza. What
a great way to start Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day arrived quietly. The boys
were up before us but not too early. We joined them in the
living room to open their stockings, which Ray and I had stocked
the night before. It was a good thing we were there. Ray
realized that Roman carefully emptying and refilling his
stocking was causing the fake fireplace to come away from the
wall. We quickly detached the stockings from the fireplace.
Christmas day was business as usual. The conditions were still
good and the ski lessons started on time. Everyone had a good
day skiing.
Dinner was prepared by Andrew and
Spenser. We had transported two frozen venison roasts from Paris
and they had been marinating for the last 24 hours. Our dinner
was delicious and there was enough meat left from the two roasts
to make curried venison the next night. We also had a Bouche de
Noël cake, bought in the local Pastry shop, for Atticus’s
birthday. He also got to open some presents for his birthday. He
was very pleased with his new watch from his parents and another
hero figure from Max and Phoebe. There was even one present for
Roman, a cowboy outfit, including chaps that needed my belt to
hold them up. He had seen the outfit in a store and Andrew went
back and bought it for him. He was thrilled.
As if there wasn’t already enough snow
on the mountains, Thursday started with big, wet flakes of snow
falling. It didn’t really let up until late in the afternoon and
then resumed overnight. Instead of the predicted 16 cm of snow
we ended up with 50 cm. The powder skiers were delighted on
Friday. Ray and I stuck to the cruise runs but Erica and Spenser
tested themselves. They admitted the snow was a bit heavy but
managed to have a good time on some ungroomed trails.
Our train was due to leave at 2 PM
Saturday. We had thought there would be time to ski in the
morning but we all realized by Friday that would not be
possible. We had a lot of work finding everything, packing, and
getting out of the condo for 10 AM checkout. We just barely made
it. The Wilsons were booked on the 4 PM train so they went out
for a partial day of skiing after checking out.
Andrew rented plastic toboggans for the
boys for the morning. They had a ball. The toboggan hill was
steep enough for a good run on the plastic sleds, fortunately
with good hand brakes, and there was a moving carpet to get
everyone up the hill again. All in all it was a good week. We
were tired but sorry to say good bye to Ste Foy.
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