Bar hopping in Grenoble

Time since the New Year has flown like no other. Time always has a way of flying, but this time it must have taken the Concorde to some unknown destination where it broke down at the airport thus obliging at least 2 weeks of repair work before taking flight again at which point it had several backed-up trips to recover before it finally arrived.

Which would explain why I haven’t seen Nico (Mathilde’s boyfriend), Mathieu, and Olivier since before the break.

But I got a fabulous text message from Nico last Friday night which I had not the heart to delete:

« Ce soir rando à Chamrousse, depart 19h de Grenoble. Ski ? Raquette ? Luge ? »

“Tonight, ski de randonée at Chamrousse ski resort, leaving 7pm from Grenoble. Ski? Snowshoe? Sledding?”

I was tempted to get a cheapy plastic sled from the grocery store and head up with it strapped to my back, but decided instead to pull out my hiking boots which would have to serve as snowshoes and my downhill skis for the decent.

I somehow seem to show up ill prepared for every adventure I have with Nico – and it often involves having a huge backpack full of way too much food or something bulky and impractical to lug a long ways… But I have at least become accustomed to these types of adventures – what better way to learn to do better the next time, right? Ahem.

We set off around 8pm for the summit of the ski resort, following the resort’s slopes towards the little building lit only by a few lights and the glowing full moon. I was pleased to keep up with little difficulty most of the way, but on the iced-over black slopes I found no respite even on the snow to the side of the slopes.

A strange combination of digging my ski poles into the ice, kicking the hill to make little toe-sized stairs, and sometimes just trying my best to increase friction in any way possible, I finally arrived at the summit, completely beat and totally content.

In French we say “tout le monde” when we want to talk about “everyone” or “a lot of people,” but the literal translation is “all the world.” After about 10 minutes at the summit of the resort, it seemed as if, indeed, the whole world had arrived.

Mathieu and Olivier were giggling to themselves and explained to us how they had been in a bar the night before with nowhere near as many people as were here at the summit with us.

Though it would have been nice to not be surrounded by a crowd of people after our very relaxed and quiet climb up, I must say that I do love the priorities of the Grenoblois.

After a nice cup of tea, a few more warm layers, and some of my favorite French cookies, we geared up for the decent.

I am never at ease when I cannot see, and my night vision is absolutely terrible – so, naturally I was a little nervous as we started the moonlit decent. But quickly the concept and the spectacle of it all hit me. Skiing by the light of the moon.

Deep breath, loose hips, and I let myself be guided by the glow of the snow…