The Innocents Abroad, 21st Century Version

Post III from les 3 Vallées

21 fevrier 2025

Bonjour from our chalet where we settle down after a day on the slopes so Andy can start his workday. This time is when I can read, write, go to the grocery store, make dinner and do laundry — très excitant. 

Of course, we love entertaining guests and our routine changes slightly with visitors. We welcomed Andy’s HBS friend Will for a few days which included glorious skiing and delicious meals. 

Les 3 Vallées spans many miles, horizontally and vertically, so the crowds had been quite manageable until recently. Everything changed last weekend as the two week Paris school vacation commenced. After a few mornings with longer lift lines, Andy and I have figured out what side of the line moves fastest, where the crowds don’t go and when the majority of skiers break for lunch. We have taken late lunches but more likely, we carry our protein bar and our gel flask of water, which conveniently fits in a jacket pocket. We find a nice mountainside spot with a view to picnic and take a break.

Speaking of taking a break, perhaps in honor of our friend William, who has been known to skip slope-side lunches, washing down his Snickers bar with Gatorade, we recently found the ski area Val Thorens plastered in Snickers signs. It turns out that Snickers is a partner of Val Thorens.

Enough of this fast-food eat and ski. When we do dine on the mountain, it can be delicious, fun and quite the scene. We save those lunches for our guests and reservations are mostly required. 

Le Ski en Rose (Skiing in Pink)

Today, I focused on the mountain fashion scene. Sure, one can put “pink ski fashion” in their search engine and get photos of beautiful outfits but it was kind of fun scouting out the pink: it’s everywhere this season, kids and adults, in varying shades. 

We have even seen pink skis!

Valentine’s Day 2025

Andy booked us a couples massage at our local Relais & Chateau, Spa la Bèla Vya, a short walk from our chalet. It was a bluebird day so we skied in the morning and began our spa experience at 2:00 with an hour of pre-massage hot tub and steam room. We enjoyed our sports massage with the added Valentine’s bonus of a Nuit Étoilée otherwise known as a candle massage. This was new to me: specially formulated candles are used and as the candle melts, its warm wax is dripped and massaged into one’s body. The result is soothing and calming — both good for the muscles and helpful in relieving stress. I just happened to be in need of some skincare product and along with a bonus Valentine’s gift of a moisturizing mask, I purchased a serum at the spa. As I looked at the product information, I was struck by the translation of lait d’ânesse, one of the key ingredients; it translates to asses’ milk. Not sure one can get that back home. Speaking of donkeys, we finished the evening at La Ferme de la Choumette. This restaurant was so authentic that we walked into a barn where we watched sheep and cows as they fed. We dined upstairs but had a view of the animals. As most farms and many restaurants are, this was a family affair; kids and their pets were playing behind the bar, under the eyes of their parents, who were busy working cooking and serving. This ferme is accessible from the slopes and serves lunch to skiers. Thank you, Andy, for a unique Valentine’s Day.

We are always looking for things to do on our non-ski days. We learned about Ferme de la Trantsa, a cheese farm nearby and made a second attempt to get there. Following Google Maps, we hiked down a hill, over a bridge and followed a snow-covered path (used by a dogsled tour) only to hike up a snow-covered hill, to a dead-end. C’est la vie. To be continued!

We did have a successful outing to the beautiful city of Annecy, which is at the north end of its namesake lake. It is a fifty-five mile drive from Saint-Marin-de-Belleville / Saint-Marcel. Annecy has been referred to as Venice of the Alps as three canals and the Thiou River run through it. Because Annecy sits between Lake Annecy and a few stunning mountains, it has also been called the “Pearl of the French Alps” (attributed to French geographer Radulovich Blanchard (1877-1965)). we enjoyed a delicious lakeside lunch and spent the rest of the day in Annecy’s Vielle Ville (old town). It was charming and crowded with pedestrians and no snow in sight. For me, it was like re-entering civilization and it was nice to just walk around and go in and out of shops. In Annecy, we found and did very well at a local cheese shop and at Jeff de Bruges, a chocolatier. Our little hamlet of Saint-Matin-de-Belleville is lovely but it’s a “blink and you’ll miss it” sized village with one pharmacy, one butcher, one bakery, one tobacco shop and one tiny supermarket. On our way back to Saint-Martin / Saint-Marcel, we stopped at a big supermarket, always a fun to activity in a foreign country. 

The coming weeks will bring some new adventures, more friends and hopefully more snow. À bientôt!