We spent a week in the beautiful village of Les Houches/Chamonix in the savoie region in the French Alps, along the border with Italy.
This picture on the right looks harmless .... but the aftermath of this sledding run is on the left. The sled was a well engineered rocket that flew down the hill and struck a padded barrier head on. Lily broke both her legs and Hannah had a concussion. It was truly a freak accident. So, we headed to urgent care in Chamonix France. At that point, I did not think either of the kids were really hurt. Much to my surprise they confirmed two broken legs with a quick x-ray and that Hannah had a concussion after not remembering what had happened. All of this happening, while the attending physician berated me in French and English for the lack of helmets. The girls are true Minnesotans and have done a lot of Winter sports, so this was not expected. They casted Lily and recommended Hannah stay overnight in a regular hospital in the town of Sallanches, so they went in an ambulance with mom across the mountains to the next major town. They stayed on night and were out the next day. I even broke my rule of tasting hospital food - and it was French and good. Only in France, would a hospital serve freshly baked baguettes. Except for that one urgent doc, everyone was truly wonderful to us. Lily was known as 'La Petite Lily'. With some broken French and English, we were able to communicate to everyone and they received exceptional care. A friend of the Chalet manager drove to us the urgent care on his own time, a taxi driver let me slide without paying since I was out of euros, were just some of people that helped immensely. The bill including hospital stays, ambulance ride, several x-rays, etc, was so tiny compared to US healthcare. Luckily, we took out travel insurance for the trip. They ultimately provided a smooth transit back home and allowed us to fly into Edinburgh with extra seats for Lily (as opposed to Glasgow, where we were scheduled to fly back to).
So that was terrible and it occurred on the first day of the trip. Yet we managed to make the holiday work and truly adored France. So much so that we are planning a second trip to coincide with my conference in Lyon in May. Part of it was the weather. Every day crystal clear blue skies and around 50 degrees. There was tons of snow which dried overnight in the chilly evenings, so it was always perfect for the next day. The food was incredible - savoie is known for cheese - so we had some regional dishes, fondue (of course) and tartiflette. Now some more photos. Lily did not have appropriate clothes for her cast. So she obtained a designer French wardrobe in the lovely town of Chamonix.
We stayed at a gorgeous chalet that had fresh croissants and French bread delivered every morning from a local bakery. I can't even look at bread and pastries since leaving France. They invented the stuff and it shows. Every bakery was exceptional. We also had unbelievable views of Mount Blanc from our place. The chalet also had an amazingly beautiful indoor pool, turkish bath, sauna, to relax after a day in the snow. A nice sled hill (not the one with the accident) was right next to the chalet. The town of Les Houches also had outdoor ice skating.
One fun thing we did was take the Montenvers train in Chamonix. This old-style train from the turn of the century goes up into the mountains and follows along the Mer de Glace - the largest glacier in Europe. Some photos the ride and glacier views are shown. If you look carefully you can see skiers around the blue ice of the glacier.
Chamonix was right next door to us in Les Houches. It was a great town for walking around - lots of buildings, churches, and quaint little shops.
Annecy was another beautiful town. Lots of towers, castles, history. It had old cobbly streets that followed canals. It is dubbed the Venice of France. It was also bordered by Lake Annecy and this expansive beautiful park. One of the most stunning cities we've visited.
Here are some pictures of the girls cross-country (aka nordic) skiing on the outskirts of Chamonix.
Finally, some pictures of our little trooper Lily. Since we've been back in Edinburgh has casts were changed to pink. They will be off in a week!
