Every winter the mountains start calling and I begin to yearn for our trip to Morzine Avioriaz in the Portes du Soleil area of the French Alps. There’s a whole host of reasons that I love a week in the mountains, none more significant than any other, it’s all wrapped up together; a feeling of being at one with nature, insignificantly small in a vast mountain landscape and more alive than I feel anywhere else. Here’s some of the reasons I’m drawn back each year…
1. The Views and the wide open spaces. White-topped peaks, soft, billowing drifts contrasting with rocky terrain and the bluest of skies I’ve ever seen. I’ll let the views speak for themselves…
Looking down on Avoriaz
2. The Air is cleaner, fresher and more invigorating than anywhere I’ve ever been and it’s the only place I can really breathe properly – I have allergies but the air is so pure in the mountains they all seem to disappear.
3. The peace and stillness. It’s so, so quiet at times with just the faint sound of skiers schussing through the powder, a muffled laugh in the distance, the breeze, and the sound of my own breathing and I want it to last forever.
4. ‘Jubilee de Neige’ is a french term which I heard for the first time this year which describes the sparkles of sunlight dancing on the snow in the sunshine. Lovely.
Ski Tracks, Avoriaz
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5. Hot Vin Chaud. You knew that was coming didn’t you!
Vin Chaud
6. Evenings cosied around a roaring log fire with friends, wine, comfort food and feeling like you’ve really earned it after a hard day’s skiing.
Back at the Morzine Chalet
7. Ski lifts – I love the journey to the top of the piste – time to really soak up the views and that fresh mountain air.
Ski Lift
8. The fact that you can just ski over the border to Switzerland without checking-in or going through security. No passport required.
The top of Avoriaz
9. Cheese, oh yes the cheese! The alpine shops are full of gorgeous, tasty, gooey, smelly cheeses! Comte is my favourite.
Alpine Cheese Shop
10. I love the sense of achievement at the end of the day when I’ve kept up with all the others who’ve been skiing for 10 years longer than me!
What do you love about the mountains…?
Avoriaz, The French Alps
Fun Ski Bunnies
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Bonjour Suzanne, I’ve just discovered your blog and this particular post about the French Alps. This year my wife and I had the choice between moving to Eastbourne/Portsmouth or Annecy. We chose the Haute-Savoie and yes, this place is stunning – and the cheese is indeed divine! 🙂
Bonjour Pierre, Haute-Savoie is a fabulous part of the world and we love it there. Coincidentally, I live just a few miles away from Eastbourne!
The French Alps are stunning! This is an excellent post, Suzanne!
Thanks Agness – easy to write because the French Alps are stunning 🙂
Beautiful photos, Suzanne! The French Alps look like quite the place to go skiing. I love your #10 as I felt the same way recently. I hadn’t been skiing in about 13 years and my friends heli-ski, you can imagine it was hard to keep up, but a great sense of accomplishment after!
It made me all the more determined – now I’m often the one out in front!
I love the French Alps too … but only been around Grenoble in the summer on our way to Nice … 2 times – and if I wanted to I could had ski … and they who was skiing was so tanned. Food in the Alps are fantastic … and as you say the views. Wonderful gallery – great deceleration of love … from you.
What’s not to love heh!
Beautiful! I’ll have to add snowboarding here to my bucket list.
It’s fab for boarders too 🙂
Cheese, oh yes please!
And lots of it!
Reblogged this on 2 Travel Now and commented:
I like the beauty of the mountains.
Thank you so much!
Reading this after sorting out photos for a post on Meribel-Mottaret has given me a serious urge to get out on the slopes! Hopefully I’ll manage to get out there again next year. Love ‘Jubilee de Neige’ too, such a lovely term for a beautiful thing!
Thanks Lucy – I learned to ski as an adult too and really love it. Especially now I can handle the red runs. Wouldn’t attempt a black though…
I’m about the same. Found it does vary quite a lot between resorts though, some reds are more like blues and some are more like my idea of a black!
Beautiful post and pictures. Really made the fresh mountain air come alive. I can almost breath it :). While I only visited Annecy and Chamonix, I loved the French Alps too!
There’s nothing like the mountains to make you feel really alive. Annecy is beautiful – I’ve not visited Chamonix though. Thank you for your comment
These are lovely images of the mountains, I can understand when I look at them why you are drawn to the place. Clean, invigorating air sounds so good, it makes me wonder about the air I breathe on a daily basis – traffic fumes and all of that.
It’s the only time I can breathe clearly – as soon as I get back home I’m all snuffly again 🙁
Love those ski bunnies 🙂
They were fun!
It looks like they were enjoying themselves 🙂
Lovely pics 🙂
Thank you
Wonderful reasons Suzanne! The quiet beauty has always drawn me, and now you’ve given me the romantic term ‘Jubilee de Neige’ – I love it. Have a great time. ~Terri
‘Jubilee de Neige’ really struck a chord with me. Unfortunately I was unable to capture any images