Today I felt like I climbed to the top of Mt Everest. Well, I may as well have for I skied down a bloody big mountain. I’ll admit my expectations weren’t high starting off ski lessons this week. If I could just ski down a little hill, that would have been a major accomplishment. Well skiing down a mountain is sooooooo much better! Just think, two days ago I could barely turn and now I can ski a mountain. I even did a little bit of a red run 🙂 Mind you, small children can still ski better than me, but I’m not letting that ruin my sense of achievement.

We now come to the sporting part of our itinerary: skiing in St Gervais, France. Now St Gervais is like a poor-man’s Chamonix. It’s actually a really nice town, you just don’t get rich women swanning around in fur coats carrying little dogs… and that’s no bad thing. We’re staying practically at the bottom of the ski lift so it’s all really convenient to get to the slopes.

We’ve booked private lessons and that turned out to be a godsend. Well for me anyway, as I’m a skiing virgin (no jokes please Tuss). Chris is skiing down the slopes already with aplomb, because he’s done this before, but I’m giving the 5 year olds a run for their money and I managed to ski for the whole two hours without falling over (partly due to our ski instructor ‘guiding’ me downhill 🙂 ).

The only bad thing about this holiday is that yet again there is no internet where we are staying and the places in town have time restrictions (the bastards!) so we can’t drink the bar dry while we download copious amounts of movies from iTunes. The downside to life in the cloud I suppose. Still, I guess the purpose of a holiday is not to spend your whole time on the internet although the withdrawal symptoms get worse when I know a basketball game is on. Go Wildcats!

Now I’m not big on the whole cultural experience – seen one cathedral, seen them all, I always say – but today I saw something so beautiful I can scarcely put it into words: The Basilica at Notre Dame in Lyon. I was so utterly gobsmacked on walking into the cathedral, that I stood for several minutes just gasping at the incredible mosaics and stained glass windows. If I can’t put my faith in god, at least I can believe one could be closer to him in a place like this. Words are so inadequate here – it was unexpected… to say the least.

The gallo-roman museum we traipsed to next wasn’t as awe-inspiring for me, although they did have a special ‘history of medicine’ exhibition going on with some fairly interesting items on offer such as a four-valve vaginal speculum! What did they get up to in the old days? Culture out of the way, we proceeded to walk practically every street of Old Town in Lyon; shopping, then attempting to find a restaurant that wasn’t too touristy. At some point you just give up and sit down at the next bar you find. Unfortunately that doesn’t bode well for the wine choice, but one drinks on regardless…

OK, I’ll admit to being a bit thick here, but I really haven’t understand why people liked to travel so much. I never had the inclination when I was younger and when I finally joined the party I was always happiest when I was on my way back home (and only then could look back fondly). And let’s not forget that the longest period I’d ever been away before was for two weeks and my excursions were few and far between. But last night was a bit of an eye-opener for me (plus I was pretty drunk so that always helps to make the experience a good one). Actually the way that reads you might be thinking I’m about to give details of an orgy or something, but I assure you, that is not the case 🙂

No, it was simply a trip to Annecy which is an adorable little town in France that is my new love. Cobble stones, chateaus, 18th century buildings, lake, segways and a tonne of shops – what more could you want? Oh, yeah and a few hip wine bars like the one we propped up the bar at last night. From the cute French waiter who had been surfing at Margaret River to the world weary wine connoisseur who gave us $150 bottles of wine recommendations, I could stand a bit more of this… Well, my midriff might not stand too many nights like last night but the rest of the growth experience is good!

Edit: the B&B where we stayed: http://www.maison-acote.com/uk_home – a contemporary room tucked into an attic in a lovely old building.