France - January 2012

Mary swimming in Lac Annecy January 1, 2012

Mary, Scottie, Alex at Scottie's race - au Grand Bornand

Elisabeth, Mary and their microbe friends, Thibault and Pauline

Jimmy's school "expose" on ski resorts in the USA

Jimmy and his friend Theo at their expose on skiing

Skiing au Grand Bornand

The view during Jimmy's first ski race!

Jimmy finishes 10th of 120!

Elisabeth plans her outfit for school the next day

Snowshoeing in the Aravis mountains with Scottie's "Montagne" class at school

View during the snowshoeing trip

Annecy in the snow

Elisabeth ice skating with her school

Elisabeth ice skating

Ski Race at Le Grand Bornand

Scottie places 4th and qualifies for the Rhone-Alpes regional races

Mary in the club race (the fleche)

Alex in the club race 

View from Semnoz, the local ski area 20 minutes from our apartment

Annecy Semnoz Ski Team

View from our apartment

Elisabeth the "ouvreuse" - she takes her job very seriously

Elisabeth and Alex at Semnoz

Scottie, Mary, Jimmy at Semnoz

Jimmy congratulating a racer

Mary on the podium

Mary on the podium

New Years Day began with the monthly swim in the lake.  Again, I documented the event, but did not participate.  Fortunately the weather was relatively warm – about 45 degrees, but of course the water was freezing!

2012 started out a bit dicey.  We were finally invited to someone’s house for dinner. We had a wonderful time.  The next day Scottie had a race and the directions to the area were confusing.   Stephane (the father of the family who had us for dinner) drove out of his way to show us exactly where to go.  He then decided to stay and ski with us.  It was an incredible foggy day and he was leading Mary, Elisabeth, and me carefully down the mountain toward the race hill.  The girls dutifully stayed behind Stephane UNTIL . . .  we got a bit lower on the mountain and the fog lifted a bit.  Elisabeth (Mary calls her our downhiller) couldn’t stand it any longer and was like a horse heading back to the barn.  She picked up speed and had her eyes on the open slops below.  Next I see poles, skis, goggles, and bodies, flying everywhere.  The exact story is a bit vague, but I am quite sure that I can figure out who was responsible.   Elisabeth and Stephane turned toward each other at the same time, collided, and took an enormous tumble.  Elisabeth is crying because she is scared.  Stephane is not crying, but he should be because it turns out that he broke his collarbone in three places and he broke a rib.  Disaster.  Fortunately Stephane does not need surgery (although that was a possibility) and he and his family are still very very friendly to us.

During the month of January we have spent a lot of time skiing. Between the normal weekend skiing schedule and different children skiing different days during the week, there is someone from our family on the slopes at least 5 or 6 of 7 days. The mountains are spectacular, and fortunately there has been decent snow thus far.  Most importantly, the ski team continues to be a great way for the kids to make friends and to be part of a group.  We are mastering the basic French vocabulary that pertains to skiing, which surprisingly, we had never heard before.  I’m talking about very basic words like: chiarlift, poma, pole strap, bindings, gs suit, helmet, goggles.  We were paralyzed without the basic vocabulary. For example, the coach tells Scottie that a “combinaison” is obligatoire.  He eventually figures out this means GS suit.   Elisabeth gets yelled at by the “mechanic” (liftie) who is saying something about her “dragonnes” which sounded very much like “dragon” to us. Needless to say, we were confused. In fact dragonnes = pole straps. 

Elisabeth and Mary are in a ski group called “microbes.”  Their coach, told me one day that the girls’ equipment was just not adequate and that they “deserve” more.  For example – he says, Elisabeth’s skis have absolutely no wax, they are very dull, and her poles are too bent.  (I thought to myself – of course the skis have no wax on them.  She is only 6 years old!  And in fact, not only are they not waxed, they even have dirt on them from when Mary skied on them last spring, and I know her poles are bent – but they are not broken, and the poles have served us well since Scottie was her age, and I am sure that we can get a final season out of them.) However, the same coach has taken an interest in Mary, and tunes her skis before races. 

Scottie’s season is going well.  His age level is called “les Benjamins.”  Ski racing in France is different at this level since the first weekend of racing for the season, kids have to qualify to race at a regional, rather than a district level for the remainder of the season.  Needless to say, there is much discussion and a good level of anxiety about “qualifying.”  Fortunately, Scottie was one of the 20 or so kids that did qualify, and so he was delighted.   Now, however – he now has to travel to races with coaches and kids who he does not know from other mountains, which presents a different sort of challenge, and is not easy.

Jimmy’s first race was at the end of January . . .a stubby slalom in the fog.  The ski area was tiny, with only 1 chairlift and 3 pomas.   However, the race hill was great and the lunch house was cozy!  Jimmy had a great day, placing 10^th of about 120, nine and 10 year olds.  His age group is called “les poussins” which translates directly to “the chicks.”  He earned a medal, and was thrilled. 

Our local mountain (Semnoz), about 20 minutes up the hill from our house.  In the summer it is a large cow pasture / grazing area that converts nicely into a ski area in the winter.  Semnoz is a small area, with a great training hill and an absolutely spectacular view of Mont Blanc and the Aravis mountain range.   The kids typically ski here during the week due to its proximity to Annecy.  Our ski club hosts two races each year and the other night I found myself at an organizational meeting for these races.  I told the coach that Alex and I would be happy to help in any way we could, we were not “debutants” and that we had helped on plenty of races back in Utah.  Later that night I get an email with a list of assignments.  They have assigned Alex to be on the hill with the coaches at 7:30 to help set the course! He then had to report to the top for “lisser” (aka side-slipping / course maintenance), and sadly I have been assigned the job of a “controleur des portes” (gate keeper).  I should have kept quiet at the meeting. . . .

We learned that Elisabeth was too young to race (even though she considers herself to be one of the best on the team!!).  So she was assigned the very special job of being the “ouvreuse” (forerunner – but doesn’t it sound so much more official and important in French?).  She got to wear a bib, and so was content.  Mary started her racing season off with a bang, winning both runs and beating all the boys as well (about 150 kids in all).  She received trophies, two bouquets of flowers, a bag of school supplies, and many double kisses.  Based on the ceremony, awards, and "bravos," one might think she had won a World Cup instead of a microbe race! 

Unfortunately the success on the ski slopes has not filtered down to Alex and me. There was a “fun” race for parents and kids.  I tried to pretend that I did not understand that parents could sign up as well.  Finally after many people asked if Alex and I were going to race, I felt the pressure to sign us up.  The president of the ski club miraculously drew bib #1 while Alex drew # 126 (aka – last).  I was around # 40, and determined to beat all of the 11 year olds against whom I was racing – not to mention the other parents. I am sure that I was skiing very fast, probably the best I have ever skied in my life, and I am sure that I would have probably won IF somehow or other, I had not hit a hole, lost my ski and fallen!  In a NASTAR equivalent??? Oh la la.  I tried to make a joke and said that I needed a new binding (fixation en francias) technician, but as it turns out, jokes fall a little flat when you don’t speak the language well!  My agony of defeat.   Alex had more luck (because he tells me, he is a better skier) than me, dropped into his tuck whenever possible and was convinced that the timing was wrong when he finished in the middle of the pack, the president of the club beat him, as did Scottie and Jimmy.  He was just able to squeak in front of Mary by barely a second. 

Jimmy and his friends on his ski team kids with whom he goes to school, prepared an “expose” on the history of skiing, ski racing, and ski resorts in the USA.  He put a great deal of work into his presentation, making sure that his cursive was near perfect, his facts were correct, and his pronunciation was accurate.  Monique our neighbor worked very hard with him.  He did and excellent job and fielded all of the questions just like an expert. 

We have come a long way integrating ourselves into French culture.  This is most clearly manifested by the ease at which we (but especially the children) are able to give, what we call, the “double kiss.”  In September, after her tennis lesson, Mary said thank you to the teacher, who told her he was delighted to have her in the class, and he then gave her the double kiss.  Mary was so surprised.  She immediately ran away and yelled across the court, “Mom, Dad, did you see that? The coach just kissed me!!!”  Later in the Fall, the head coach of the ski team made it clear to us that all the children had to say hello, goodbye, shake hands, and/or double kiss the coaches, parents, and teammates every day before and after practice.  (This of course means that we have to show up to practice early, just to get all of the kissing in so we are not late for skiing.) Jimmy has been a bit slow embracing the double kiss, but the rest of the kids jump out of the car, run up to the coaches, and greet them appropriately without giving the kissing a second thought.    Jimmy is quite happy shaking hands, and Scottie insists that Jimmy is being rude.  The other day, a woman told Alex that he should shave more frequently since it is not pleasing to double kiss him.  Really, there is a new lesson for us almost every day!

That sums up January for us.  Many skiing reports.  Happy February everyone!