Have Yourself a Very French Christmas

This holiday season was bound to be different for us. Not only because we are newlyweds and are celebrating our first Thanksgiving and Christmas as a married couple, but also because we planned to stay in Europe and embrace holiday adventures came our way. Thanksgiving was spent in London with extended family, and for Christmas we really lucked out as well. Tom's best friend's family owns a chalet in La Salle Les Alpes, a small town located in the French Alps. We were invited to join them for the week of Christmas and eagerly accepted.

We made the seven hour drive the Saturday before Christmas. The drive itself was extraordinary. We drove along the west side of Germany, through Switzerland, into the notoriously long tunnel in Italy, until we were finally winding our way through the mountains of France. Our friends had arrived just hours before us and we could not wait to see them, the four months we spent apart was too long!

I have been to the town La Salle only once the previous summer. I remembered it well and was looking forward to spending time there with a great group of people. Twenty one people to be precise, family and friends, were staying in the chalet. That alone guaranteed an eventful week. 

Our first evening there was spent relaxing, eating, and catching up. One of the most fun events is everyone getting together to play games after dinner. That night we played a couple of rounds of Perudo, which was helped along by some limoncello, and went to bed around midnight. We awoke somewhat early the next morning since most of the group was going skiing. As I had never been skiing before, I decided to hang back with a friend. I consider our day to be much more relaxing. We enjoyed a Coke on the sun soaked patio of a cafe downtown and meandered through the peaceful streets. It was Sunday so unfortunately all the shops were closed. We made the trek home, had tea on the beautiful patio above, and were finishing lunch of one of my preferred simple French foods (salmon paste on toast with lemon juice) as the others were arriving home.

Another fantastic end of the day routine is partaking a pre-dinner sauna. This was something I took advantage of more days than not. While the sun was magnificent during the day, the weather turned cold at night and nothing squashes a winter chill like a hot sauna. We ended the day with cocktails, snacks, dinner, and a new game before calling it a night. I was anxious to get to bed at a decent hour, for the following day I would be attending my first skiing lesson.