Back from the mountains

After a three year break we went back to La Grange.  Tons of snow awaited us. O & C didn't come with us for the first time, instead Gaby bought along a friend and MK her rabbit.

A great holiday had by all, good food, lots of skiing, time for books and games of chess. Even managed to watch Lord of the Rings again.

Probably last time staying at this gite as it's up for sale, leaving me quite nostalgic after many holiday's here, first time which Alexis turned 7 and now he's 13!

I think La grange will be snapped up fast, and I love Norman & Gabrielle"s home that is up for sale at the same time as the gite, it's just beautiful.

Photography from the Chartreuse by Norman C

Norman (who owns the gite "La Grange" along  with his wife Gabrielle) is very artistic who takes great photographs. This time I brought two of his photographs home.  They were taken close to where he lives and he edited these two to give them a kind of spooky feel. 


In April some of his photos will be on exposition, I'll have to find out where exactly but I think it's Chambery.
I did have a problem with the size of the photos and the Ikea standard frames I bought. There was a gap between the mat board and the photo, so I had a choice, get some custom made matting boards, in other words wait to hang them, or paint the back board white or black, black in this case and hope that the contrast between the photo, the paint colour, the mat board and frame worked.   I like it.  The photo above isn't that good (I'll try and get a better shot) but in-situ they are just fine.

February in the Chartreuse (4th stay at La Grange)

If there's a place we love going back to each year, it has to be La Grange situated in a tiny hamlet in the Chartreuse region of French Alps. 

The gite is amazing, with space for twelve and it's just so cosy. Norman and Gabrielle, the owners, who live next door are just adorable and we just love these guys.

See the photo above, this is what Gaby did when she arrived, I think you can see that there's a girl and a dog sculpted in the snow.  She also sculpted a couple sitting on the bench, but I'll have to get some photo's off Alexis' camera as this couple was the talk of all the hamlet, giving Gaby quite a reputation.

Here's the view from the gite, we'd just arrived and the children went out and re discovered the garden and fields around about.

 The second day it snowed a little, but this was the only time it did.  Before hand, Alain and I had managed to trail down to the nearby village (St Pierre d'Entremonts) and buy some ( to die for) muffins from the local bakers (just for those it's worth going back for).  The way back was tough though, three and a half kilometers with over a three hundred meter denivelation....guess what though, we did it again a couple of days later, faster and carrying back meat for the butcher's shop too.