Skiing in Courchevel

It was snowing on our first full day in Courchevel. The mountain was capped with thick clouds and visibility was low. The resort was still beautiful.









We had a great breakfast at the hotel complete with eggs, ham, grilled tomatoes, sauted mushrooms, and croissants. Feeling powered up for a full day of skiing.









It was wonderful to see my "monster" skis again after not having used them in 2 years.









It is amazing how big this place is. Courchevel alone is probably the size of Mammoth, and then add on 2 additional valleys that easily just as large. Tony was always amazed to see still more lifts on faraway slopes. One could stay here for a week and not ski everything.






BMW is the official sponsor of Courchevel, though we saw cars on display from Farrari and Porsche. It was fun to see adds for expensive cars and expensive fashion on the slopes.






There was even a BMW encased in a glass box at the top of one of the lifts. It looked ready to be in some James Bond movie.





At times, the clouds were so thick, and the light so flat, that it was hard to see where we were going. I occasionally get a bit nausious when this happens, so it is a clear time to stop and take a break.





We have a tradition of breaking for a mid-morning cup of Hot Chocolate. And the French do very good Hot Chocolate with loads of Whipped Cream on top.



There was lots of fun art along the runs or "pistes" as the French call them. One was a giant White Ape, which looked like King Kong.





Another was a Giant French Bulldog, that reminded me a bit of our dog, Pepper.




Dotted around the ski resorts in amongst the ski pistes are a series of Helipads and small airports. Evidently the 3 Valleys, of which Courcevel is one, is very popular with the European Jet Setting crowd. We did get to see one small plane take off while we were there.




When the weather cleared, the views of the mountains were spectacular. It is certainly one of the most beautiful ski resorts I've ever been to.







Yes, the Europeans do ski resorts right. And it is the Alps afterall. . .

2012 Ski Trip to Courchevel

Tony and I hadn't gone skiing for 2 years, so when we decided to go this year, I asked two of my coworkers, Stuart and Steven, where they would recommend. They were both in agreement - Courchevel, France.

We booked our flight and hotel package through Flexi-ski, with whom I have some issues but we'll talk more about that later. We decided on a Half-Board Hotel in Courchevel. This meant that we would have our breakfasts and dinners provided at the hotel, but would be free to get lunch wherever we would like on the slopes.




We woke at 3:30 in the morning to be ready for our ride to Gatwick Airport, which is about 1.5 hours away. In order to simplify our journey to the airport, we hired a car as opposed to riding the bus to the train station to get the train to the airport. It was definitely worthwhile given that we had all of our ski equipment, and that there are so few buses and trains this early in the morning.




We arrived at the airport at 5:30 in the morning for our 7:30 flight to Grenoble. It may sound strange, but we've almost gotten used to this sort of crazy travel day schedule. Upon our arrival in Grenoble, we had to take an hour bus ride into town to the train station to catch our 2 hour train ride from Grenoble to Moutiers. From Moutiers, we would catch another bus for the final 1 hour bus ride up to the resort in Courchevel. It was an exhausting 12 hours of travel.




We had lunch in Grenoble at the Quick hamburger stand where they had Star Wars themed burgers. There was also a poster hanging for John Carter with my apes pictured on it. It is always fun to see posters for films that I've worked on, on display in foreign languages.



The train ride from Grenoble to Moutiers was pretty as we passed through vineyards with castles perched above. It would be fun to come back here and do some wine tasting.






By the time we arrived in Moutiers after having very little sleep the night before, we were both beginning to feel tired and frosty.



And by the time we reached Courchevel, we were exhausted. We had to walk about 3 blocks uphill from the bus station, and it felt like a long way.

Our hotel, St. Louis, was comfortable, but not as fabulous as we had hoped. But they served great food, and the bed was soft. I think we ate, and then fell immediately asleep.








The nice bottle of French wine we had with dinner didn't hurt either. . .

London Natural History Museum

It was a cold day, so Tony and I sought out something to do to avoid cabin fever. We decided that going to the London Natural History Museum was the perfect thing to do.












Apparently, so did everyone else, as the line to get in was enormous. Thankfully, it wasn't raining.








The building is a spectacular Victorian triumph. It is built out of millions of Terracotta tiles, and there are animals worked into the architecture all over the place making it a fun museum to look at.









Inside, the main hall is enormous and features a large dinosaur skeleton as its centerpiece.








And seated on a throne overlooking the center hall is a statue of that royal member of the Natural Selection world, non other than Mr. Charles Darwin himself.









The museum houses a respectable Dinosaur exhibit, but I was expecting more than what I got to see. I thought London had one of the largest collections of Dinosaur bones, but it made me appreciate the rather sizable collection in Los Angeles.




Most of the bones are part of an exhibit with some fun suspended walkways that filter you through the different displays in a controlled manner.





The exhibit is mostly aimed at families with children rather than some sort of hard-core dinosaur junkie like me that would love to get up close to a case filled with dinosaur bones sans fancy mood lighting.



There are a couple great Dino skulls on display. It is hard however to tell whether you are getting the real deal, or a casting. It seems nowadays, that most of the dinosaurs skeletons on display are recreations or duplicates.







Speaking or recreations, there are some fun (for the kids) Jurassic Park animatronic raptors that pop up throughout the exhibit. Kind of fun.








The dramatic climax for the display is an animatronic T-rex. It moves and roars in a fairly impressive manner. Nicely done, and scary enough to make some of the younger kids cry.







I'm not sure what the T-rex is doing with the double decker bus, but you know you are in London, when that is what is used to convey the size of a T-rex.







After the dinosaurs, we went up to the mineral display. It is mostly cases filled with every kind of granite, quartzite and every other kind of "ite" that you can imagine.






They even had Kryptonite. Just kidding.

But some of the rocks looked like they could have been.









They even had a large iron meteorite. Now, that was cool.






Most of it wasn't that interesting, but what could top a giant moving, roaring T-rex. The best pieces are at the far end of the room in the vault. The highlight to me being the rock from Mars, which looked a lot like a rock from earth. It wasn't even red. . . (perhaps I should have brought some spray paint)








There are also some great examples of Gold Ore, Emeralds and a unique watermelon colored crystal.







After finishing the museum, we made our way across the street to what I think was the highlight of the trip for Tony - A full on Cheese Cave shop. We had a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of French Bordeaux. That's the way to detox after dealing with a museum full of children.

The Cold Snap

We didn't get a White Christmas this year in London. In fact it was an unseasonably warm December.









However, in January and February, we finally got our winter. It snowed a good 4 inches over one night, and an additional 2 inches on another evening.








I love seeing the snow here. Having grown up in a part of the US that never really got snow, it is quite the urban novelty to have it.








The only time I'm not wild about it is when I have to bike to work and the roads are icy. So far it hasn't been an issue this winter. Knock on wood. . .







It is wonderful to get up in the morning, take the dogs to the little park down the street, and be treated to a pristine dusting of powder.







The trees will have snow clinging precariously to their branches, and the little birdbath will be frozen over.






Tony made the dogs these cute color coordinated coats last year, and finally they are getting the chance to use them.







Very stylish in deed.