Saturday/Sunday,
December 29/30, 2001
We arrived
in La Plagne on Saturday having had a really easy 8-hour drive in
the new Landcruiser. We especially appreciated the Landcruiser as
we were heading up the mountain; all of the cars were being pulled
over to the side and forced to put on chains in order to access the
higher altitudes, but we were simply waved through in the Landcruiser
which had no problems whatsoever in the snow and winding roads up
the mountain.
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We
slept Saturday night after unloading the car and getting settled into
our apartment. Sunday morning started with Kevin and the kids running
up to Aime 2000 and getting ski passes for the week and making sure
that Nick and Katie were properly enrolled in their respective ski school
classes (2nd Star for Katie and 3rd Star for Nick).
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011230_BellecoteFromChairlift1.jpg |
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011230_KatieAndMGMBuilding_edited.jpg |
011230_KevinAndBellecote.jpg |
011230_MGMBuildingFromChairlift.jpg |
011230_NickAndMontBlanc.jpg |
011230_NickBalconyLaPlagne.jpg |
011230_NickOnPiste.jpg |
011230_SnowyEvening.jpg |
New
Year's Eve
We awoke
on Monday, December 31 to a glorious day. Nick and Katie began, as
they always do, with ski school in the morning while Kevin snowboarded
around La Plagne, and Kate, Alexandre, Paris and Penny explored La
Plagne (mainly Aime 2000) on foot.
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011231_AlexandreDaddy KatieInRestaurant.jpg |
011231_DaddyKatieNickOnPiste.jpg |
011231_GroupShotBeforeDinner1.jpg |
011231_GroupShotBeforeDinner2.jpg |
011231_GroupShotDinner.jpg |
011231_KatieJumpsIntoPool.jpg |
011231_KatiePrepares ToJumpIntoPool.jpg |
011231_KevinInPool.jpg |
011231_KevinParisInPool.jpg |
011231_KidsParisPool Mountains3_edited.jpg |
011231_MoonAndFireworks2.jpg |
011231_MorningMontBlanc.jpg |
011231_MorningView.JPG |
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New
Year's Day, 2002
The
big news on this first day of this new year is the Euro. Now replacing
the currencies in several EU countries (including France, The Netherlands,
Germany, and Greece, which is convenient for us), the Euro is causing
minor headaches and inconvenience (longer check-out lines) in shops
around La Plagne.
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020101_KatieAndMontBlanc.jpg |
020101_KatieNick AndMontBlanc2.jpg |
020101_KatieNickBellecote.jpg |
020101_KatieRabbitEars.jpg |
020101_KatieRacing1.jpg |
020101_KatieRacing2.jpg |
020101_KatieRacing3.jpg |
020101_KevinAlexandre ParisPennyNick.jpg |
020101_NickAndMontBlanc.jpg |
020101_NickAndMontBlanc1.jpg |
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Wednesday,
January 2, 2002
The
highlight of Wednesday was the kids racing. Nick has been skiing each
afternoon with his Daddy while Katie has relaxed each afternoon, opting
to play in the apartment rather than continue skiing. Nick is also now
in ski school at a level higher than Katie (having attained his 2nd
Star and now going for 3rd Star level while Katie is in ski school for
her 2nd Star). At Nick's level it starts to get serious and the kids
can no longer snowplow and are expected to be able to handle themselves
on any run including Red (the ski runs are, in order of increasing difficulty,
Green, Blue, Red, Black, where Black are only for very experienced skiers).
In the racing on Wednesday, Katie did very well, placing 13th out of
25 students in the 2nd Star class. Nick was the star of the day, however,
when he won the race for the 3rd Star class.
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020102_DaddyAlexandreInSled.jpg |
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020102_Katie'sSkiClass.jpg |
020102_MommyAlexandreInSledDaddy.jpg |
020102_MontBlanc DuskFromBalcony.jpg |
020102_NickLiftsSkiForPhoto2.jpg |
020102_Nick'sClassShot.jpg |
011230_AlexandreAndMGMBuilding.jpg |
020102_ParisNickKateInFuniPlagne1.jpg |
020102_ParisNickKate LaGrandeRochette1_edited.jpg |
020102_ParisAndMountains.jpg |
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Thursday/Friday/Saturday,
January 3/4/5
Paris
and Penny left on Thursday morning to head back to Paris where we joined
up with them again upon our return on Saturday night. For our final
three days in La Plagne the weather remained perfect and the snow conditions
were good to excellent. Unfortunately, Katie became ill with a fever
and was unable to ski on Thursday.
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Katie did ski in the ski class on Friday, but was unable to demonstrate
sufficient confidence and aggression to get her 2nd Star. Nick did successfully
attain his 3rd Star, and will be in Gold Star class when he skis in
February. Nick also spent the final two afternoons and Saturday monring
snowboarding with Daddy, developing extremely quickly at that as well.
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020103_NickOnSnowboard.jpg |
020104_AlexandreTheCoolGuy.jpg |
020104_LunchInAime2000.jpg |