The French Alps

Peter had a four day weekend for the 4th of July, and since I am too pregnant to fly anywhere and am really yearning for cold temperatures, we planned a trip to the French Alps to celebrate Independence Day.   We stayed in a little mountain town called Praz Sur Arly and it was perfect.   We enjoyed gorgeous scenery, cool temperatures, and delicious food.   I took a crazy number of pictures because everything was just so breathtakingly beautiful.   Here are some of the highlights.....
 

The drive was 6 solid hours, so Peter planned ahead for a couple of nice long stops so preggo could stretch her legs and Susannah could release some energy.   

The majority of the drive was in Switzerland, so what better place for a lunch break than a beautiful mountain lake?

 

Pretty scenic see-saw, right?

 

 

This was our hotel.   Absolutely adorable.

 

 It had a pool which we hit up immediately after arriving.  

 

 Perfect place to unwind after a long drive. 

 

 After a good night's sleep we were ready for our first hike of the trip.  

 

 Bye-bye car.   If things go right, we will see you in a couple of hours......

 

 This hike basically climbed through several farms and it was really fun to show our little city girl some aspects of rural life.   Here Peter is showing her some sheep.

 

 How beautiful is this??

 

 It was so nice to be walking without hearing any noise except birds chirping and cow bells ringing.   No cars, no buses, no sirens, no trains.   Just peace.

 

 Checking out a watering trough.

Taking a break to make sure that the trail did in fact continue through the electric fence that was up ahead.

 

 Susannah was a trooper for the most part and really seemed to enjoy hiking.

 

 More scenery pics.......

 

 The only hikes we attempted were ones that the Tourist Office labeled "family friendly" but they each still had there fair share of tricky spots and climbs.  

 

 Susannah was pretty tough though.   Especially when she knew we would have some pie at the end.  

 

 By perfect coincidence, Susannah made this little treasure collector necklace at school the day before we left.   So, of course, we collected rocks and flowers and berries throughout the morning.

 

 I know this isn't clear, but this is the marker signifying that we had made it to the highest point on the trail.  

 

 

 On our way back down the hill we spotted a caterpillar.  

 

 Susannah started to tire by this point so the next obvious step was......

 

 a piggy-back ride of course.

 

 We stopped to watch these beautiful horses play and run for a while.

 

 Before we knew it, we were back at the trailhead, having some coffee, homemade apple juice and blueberry pie.   yum.  

 

The village had a playground that came in handy.....for playing and naps. 

 

 That night France played Germany so we headed out to dinner at a restaurant that was showing the match. 

 

We ordered fondue, a regional specialty.   And it did not disappoint.  

 

 Susannah opted for pizza and quickly made a new friend that really wanted a taste. 

 

 This is the view from our balcony.    We had evening thunderstorms two of the nights we were there and it was the perfect sleeping weather..... mountain thunder and rain on a tin roof.   aaahhhh.

 

 Peter and Susannah noticed that I was taking pics of the scenery and, of course,

 

 wanted to jump in

 and make the photos a little sillier.  

 

 Day 2 we headed to Chamonix......the bigger town that is at the base of Mont Blanc (the highest peak in Western Europe.)    Chamonix is an hour drive from where we stayed and unfortunately, Susannah was a victim of the curvy mountain roads that we had to take to get there.    On the way home we actually saw a little boy her age getting sick in the exact same spot where she did.   His parents had the foresight to get him out of the car in time though.   We, unfortunately, did not.   But we did have spare clothes and lots of wet wipes, so we made due until we could get to the Laundromat.  

 

 And the views were definitely worth the effort.   Our first stop was this wildlife refuge that offered amazing vistas of Mt. Blanc and up close sightings of animals like mountain goats, marmots, and big horn sheep.  

 

 It was the perfect place for a three year old.

 

 Susannah especially enjoyed the binoculars that we rented.

 

 We really could not stop taking pictures of the setting.   It was truly magnificent.   Behind us is the famous Mont Blanc..., it rises 4,810 m (15,781 ft)...we were at 1,500m (~5,000 ft) at this animal park.

 

 Lots of the animals had just had babies so we had a great time wild-life spotting.

 

 The animals weren't tame, but they also weren't afraid to get close.  

 

 Seriously.   I couldn't stop with the pictures. 

 

 Susannah was especially excited with the llama sightings

 

 since the "llama, llama" series are some of her very favorite bedtime books.

 

 I'm running out of captions, but I can't help myself from posting all these beautiful photos. 

 

a bighorn sheep

After lunch we headed to the old train station to take a train ride up the mountain to check out a glacier known as La Mer de Glas...famous glacier that runs 7 miles down from Mont Blanc. 

 Peter and I did this in 2010 (technically Susannah was there too......apparently I really enjoy visiting the Alps while pregnant), but it was so much more fun with Susannah. 

 

 She loved the train, but her favorite part was the "telecabine" ride down to the glacier. 

 

 She wasn't the least bit scared, just excited.   It was really funny to hear her commentary as we descended. 

 

 The adults with us were shrieking and nervous, but Susannah was just excited.  

 

 After you get off the telecabine, you have a TON of steps to walk down to get to the glacier.  

 

 Susannah was a trooper and wanted to go faster than we would let her. 

 

 Finally almost to the entrance. 

 

 We made it!

 

 It was the perfect temperature for this constantly hot pregnant mama. 

 

 Susannah said the "ice cave" was one of her favorite parts of the whole trip.

 

 That night we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the hotel restaurant.   Susannah didn't like the two kid's menu options, so they custom made her this little pasta dish.   She loved it.   This hotel was family run and so family friendly.   They even had a kid's room off the lobby with toys and books.   So after breakfast and dinner, kids who finish early can leave their parents in peace to enjoy the rest of the meal.   We LOVED this thoughtfulness!!    

 

 My melon starter was so delicious and so beautifully presented.

 

 Peter's chocolate tarte with homemade praline ice cream was possibly the highlight of the trip. 

 

 Our last day was crystal clear, so we decided to spend the morning with another gondola ride. 

 

 The views from the top were so amazing.   This was a Sunday morning and I kept thinking that I couldn't think of a better place to go to "church."

 The cows all wore these huge cow bells.   They were so pretty and decorated.  

 

 More beautiful views of Susannah with the mountains of her birth country in the background 

 

 and more.

 

 and more.   (the sweet guy who took this picture didn't know how to use an iphone, so our only family photo is pretty blurred, but I had to post it anyway.  

 

 Time to take the gondola back down to the car.   Just like the day before, Susannah was all about these rides.   We are thinking about introducing her to snow skiing this winter. 

 

 Peter couldn't resist the concrete summer luge so Susannah and I waited for him at the bottom. 

 

 Here he comes!!  

 

 Our last hike was definitely our most challenging.   Lots of steep climbing  (at least when you considered the fact that one of us was 34 weeks pregnant and the other was a three year old.)

Peter gave some pretty significant piggy-back rides on this one. 

 

 But the reward was this amazing mountain lake. 

 

 It was breathtaking. 

 

 And definitely invited some rock skipping action.

 

 This little restaurant is just next to the lake and serves hikers in the summer and skiers in the winter. 

 

 There is something extra fun about hiking to a restaurant.   You feel like you really earned your lunch. 

 

I adore this picture.  

 

 Every single mountain field we passed was covered in wild flowers like these.  

 

 Definitely didn't want to leave this place. 

 

  Happy to be back to the car and ready for a dip in the hotel pool though.  

 

 

I don't have any photographic evidence of this, but I have to record it here because it was such a funny part of our trip........   This past winter in Europe was really mild, which created the one downside to our trip......the flies.    They were pretty bad.   And I hate them even more than the average joe.   And I'm pregnant and a little temperamental.   So when Susannah brought home a pink fly-swatter from the market the first day of our trip, I immediately went to work.   Apparently pregnancy hormones sharpen reflexes because I was unstoppable.    No fly that crossed my path had a chance.   I even brought it with me to the outdoor restaurants.    I know the other patrons were one part grateful, one part amused, and one part annoyed by the crazy pregnant American lady with the bright pink fly-killer.   But I would venture to say that they were probably pretty darn impressed with my accuracy as well.  

 

 

Hope all of you had happy and fun weekends too.   Happy Independence Day to you all!