We spent four lovely days in Northern Italy in the province called South Tirol or Südtirol in German or Alto Adige in Italian. Even if it is located in Italy, practically everyone spoke German, and all signs and place names were both in Italian and German. It took us one […]
It seems that this may become another bad skiing season; it has been too warm and it has not rained enough for the snow to accumulate, or it has come down as rain. This past weekend we took a chance and booked a trip to Briançon (with its elevation of […]
End of the year is probably not the best time to visit Finland, when it is cold, grey, and dark there, and especially Northern Finland, where the Sun stays below the horizon all day. However, that did not stop us from enjoying our week before Christmas in Helsinki, Tampere and […]
We wanted to take advantage of the great year-end weather and reasonably good skiing conditions, and booked a weekend in Alpe du Grande Serre, a small ski resort at the altitude of 1368 meters in Isère department. The daily newspaper’s ski report promised that all of their 20/20km of cross […]
We bought skis and shoes very late last Winter season, so we did not have many opportunities to practise our skate skiing skills. This year we decided to start early, as soon as there was enough snow and there were tracks somewhere. Last Saturday we drove to Gève in Autrans […]
(October 21, 2018) Sometimes, way too often here actually, it happens that the weather turns out nothing like it was forecast (and only after the fact the forecast is updated to match the reality!). This past Sunday was supposed to be all sunshine, but we only saw a glimpse of […]
(October 6, 2018) It is nice when you plan the weekend according to the weather forecast, and the weather actually turns out exactly like predicted. For this weekend, Saturday was supposed to be warm and sunny, and Sunday chillier and rainy. And that’s how it has been so far. Therefore, […]
(October 3, 2018) We took our moderately acrophobic friends to a mountain hike yesterday. We thought that Charmant Som (1867m) on Chartreuse would be a good compromise between ease of access, gentle slope, spectacular scenery, and lack of vertigo inducing drops or cliffs. We were right, but somewhat miscalculated the […]
We have recovered very well from last Sunday’s marathon in Berlin. We had planned to hike to this 300-year-old oak tree since we recently learned that just last year it was added to the list of the most remarkable trees in France. It stands alone on the top of the […]