Camping in France

I've finally gotten around to finishing a blog post. [gasp]  I just haven't been in blog mode lately... I just post the photos on Facebook and act like it's sufficient in letting people know what we do and that we're alive.  However, for some reason, I forget to email our non-facebook family members the link to our albums.  :(  I'm sorry.  After this post, I'll be sure to link them up on here.

Last month we went camping in Annecy, France.  It's about a 45 minute drive from Geneva and it is b-e-a-utiful.  On Friday afternoon, we crammed the clown car with every camping essential you'd need for living at Everest Base camp.... for one night... with the dogs... with a chance of rain... not knowing if we'd even find a campsite.  It was highly likely that our evening wouldn't work out well.  We wanted to go because we have planned a couple other more 'intense' trips with friends soon.  Also, Adam was SOOOO excited.  5-year old style.  So this was practice for us.  We want to make it appear that we know what we're doing when our other trips roll around.  Here's a map of our drive, courtesy of Google maps.

We headed off, got through the French border (quite busy during rush hour), found more traffic in downtown Annecy, and made it to our campground in about an hour and a half.... not 45 minutes.  Annecy is a hopping little town!  Most campsites didn't officially open until the Sunday after we were there, but we stopped at the tourist office and asked them which places were open and if they accepted two small beasts. Jackpot.

Off we went again... heading around the lake away from Annecy a little.

Another twenty minutes and we arrived at Au Coeur du Lac... which means 'heart of the lake.'  How cute. We wound up having to drive a little bit further than Annecy, but it was worth it.  It was a great campsite and even had toilets and showers!!!  I know.   That's cheating right?  We didn't take showers though.  Ewww.  I will mention that we were one of two spots that had a tent.  Seriously.  Everyone else had a camper or mini-rv.  We were entertainment for them.  Here's a picture of our spot.  This was taken the next morning after we packed up because I forgot to take a photo of our hard work. :(

Here's a run down of how our night went...

• Tied the dogs to a tree [the PETA freaks scream].  You don't know our dogs.  They're untrustworthy in new situations.  Plus, they lack thumbs and couldn't assist in setting up 'base camp.'  They sat there and looked cute while we struggled to keep our dignity in front of all of the people watching from their campers.  
• Laid the tarp down and proceeded to get out 'the big green monster.'  Our new tent was literally delivered 6 hours before we had planned to go... perfect timing.  This is a picture of it.  This is from Amazon and ours didn't exactly look this perfect when we finished setting it up.  The bottom picture is more realistic.  And yes, you can stand in it.

  

One side didn't cooperate with us.  It was our storage room, so we didn't care.  Saggy-lopsided room wasn't priority #1.  Eating was.

• Rocco escaped.  He heard a scream (from our neighbor's special needs child) and decided he needed to investigate... or save them.  He darted away from his tree and I had accidentally leashed his tag ring instead of his collar ring.  Ooops.  More entertainment for everyone... crazy dog being followed by crazy lady screaming.  I caught him and put him in the car.  He had to get used to the random screaming.  He loves the car, so he was happy as a clam.   
• Decided to let Brontosaurus off  his leash... and roam wild.  He did great and always does better when T-Rex isn't around to instigate trouble.  He followed me around the tent to stake it down.  Look at the sweetness!  

 

• Time to get grilling... the sun was going down.   Adam set our new grill up.  Yes, every single piece of our camping equipment is new.  We're not campers and we don't have a patio for a grill at our tiny apartment.  We have a tent and a large grill stored at our house in Phoenix, but we didn't bring them because we don't camp and we knew we wouldn't have a patio.  The new grill worked like a charm.  Grillmaster Adam cooked up some chicken, burgers, and veggie kebabs.  I may have over packed on food. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Decided to let T-Rex out of the car while the food was cooking.  He LOVES people food, so we knew the vulture in him would make him stay.  His favorite is vegetables, but he'll eat anything... even a bag of raw pasta noodles... or an entire loaf of bread... or even a pack of 8 waffles.  He was obviously ashamed of what he had done.  He got out of the car and followed me closely and turned sweet again.  

•  Dinner was amazing and the boys just lounged around with us on a blanket while we played cards, drank wine, and had a nice little chat about life... and how weird it was to say 'Oh yeah, we just went camping in France for the weekend.'  We still have moments where we don't believe we actually live here.

• T-Rex took off again.  The second time, he saw a young boy running back to his campsite and decided he didn't like it.  He chased him down and gave him a good 'barking at' while the boy peed his pants and scrambled to get into his luxury camper.  More embarrassment. 
• After we finished our bottle of wine, it was time to settle in.  Let me give you a quick reminder of our campsite:  lots of older people, kids, completely gated, a tiny French town, showers/toilets, office where you could buy snacks, ping pong tables, etc.  We were not in the wilderness.  However, once I laid down... the paranoia began.  I was sure that a serial killer was on the loose and targeting the only dummies in a real tent... easy victims.  The shadows on the outside of the tent, the sounds of nature, and the fact that we were sleeping in a bag... within another giant bag... with zippers... outside... all played into my mental lapse.  I didn't sleep a wink.  Seriously.  The movies Friday the 13th and Blair Witch even crossed my mind.

At one point (approximately 2am), I woke Adam up with my heart racing.  I thought I heard footsteps through the grass and our grill being messed with... stolen in fact.  Here's how it all went town

Me in whisper voice: "Adam! [poke, poke] Adam!  Someone is stealing our grill.  I think someone is outside!"    

Adam: [leaps up, unzips the tent in .3 seconds, and rushes outside ready to get the grill snatcher]

Me: [trembling with fear and hoping the grill snatcher wasn't going to kill Adam]

Adam: [comes back in] "Nope.  It's still there... and my socks are soaked."

Me: "I swear I heard someone walking around."

I checked the time and laid back down. 

• 3:00am :  Serial killer threat level: 10

• 4:00am

• 5:00am

• 6:00am: sun rises.  Serial killer threat level dwindles to a mere 0.  

• 6:30am: I woke up because I had to pee and our tent was slowly becoming a sauna.  
• 7:30am:  everyone was up and I was thoroughly made fun of for being such a weirdo and not sleeping
• We decided to take a little walk by the lake before heading out.  Here was our view:

 

  

Cue the mosquitoes.

 

• We got out of there quickly once we realized we were being attacked by mosquitoes.  It was such an amazing view though.

After we got back to our little campground, we took everything down and loaded up the car.  It came down pretty fast and we actually got the tent back in the bag!!!  Woohoo!  We were out of there by noon and on the road back to Geneva.  Once we got back home, I took a shower and then an 8 hour nap.  :)

We'll let you know how round 2 goes.  I'm hoping I'll get more sleep next time.   

Au revoir!

Ashley

Dog Sled Races

This past weekend, we traveled to Les Mosses, Switzerland with S&S from SchwigenandSwitzerland. 

The mission:

To see hundreds of fluffy snow dogs, watch some dog sledding races, get some sun, and maybe pet a few of these fluffy puppies.

It was about an hour and a half drive from Geneva to get to this Winter wonderland in the Alps.  Les Mosses is in a valley nestled between stunning views of snow-capped peaks.

When we arrived, it sounded like a zoo... a dog zoo.  There were hundreds of dogs barking, getting ready to race, relaxing, and making yellow snow.  A dog lover's paradise.

  

In dog sledding, you can have as many dogs on your team as you want.  However, it seemed that most teams had between 5 and 10.  Apparently it's a fine art placing and picking dogs.  Put the smart dominant ones up front and the crazy/strong ones in the back.  The trainers said that not every dog has what it takes.  Some never learn their left from their right and some just can't handle being harnessed and pulling with other dogs.  I tend to think that Jackson & Rocco would fall into that latter category.  Although we saw a few different breeds, there were no schnauzer/cairn terrier mixes.  We're still thinking of putting together a Geneva mutt team.  Filled with small crazy dogs.  I think we have a chance.

The team would run up to the starting line and the dogs would stop on command... all of them.  It was amazing to watch.  Handlers would hold a pair of dogs until it was time to start. This kept them from going anywhere.  It seemed as though the dogs were given crack just prior to pulling up to the start line.  They were c.r.a.z.y.  Jumping, barking, and sometimes even fighting with each other because they were so excited.

Exhibit A:  This shows how crazy they were.  "AAAAAAAHHHHHH  WE"RE RUNNING!!!"

My sister's dog looks just like this crazed black and white one in the front.  She'd fit right in.

  

We even saw labs... hmmmm.  Sled dogs?  They were sort of the outcasts, but still proved to be efficient sled pullers.

Giant husky puppies in training.  They were sooo cute and I kind of wanted to take them home.

We learned a little bit about the whole process from this trainer.  We wandered up to her little dog camp where she had a giant family of dogs who were all on the same sled team.  The dad of the bunch was up front leading the bigger dogs, while the youger pups stayed behind and just took in the atmosphere.  

    

  

I've never seen dogs that love the snow as much as huskies.

We stayed away from the yellow snow and mullets.

   

I told Adam we needed a sled so he could pull me around next year.  It looked so relaxing.

 

  

  

Tired after finishing their 10 mile race.

  

 There were other breeds of animals present too.  Like this cow below.  The owner had him harnessed to his waist (crotch straps included) because he was so big.  At only 8 months old, I can't imagine how big this beast will get.  

We even saw skiers being pulled by dogs... I need to try this.

 Mush!

  

 We saw this amazing thing... a stroller with skis.  Genius.

  

 After the races, we found a little restaurant and sat out on the deck for some burgers and beer.  Yum.

  

  

On the road back to Geneva!  We had such a great time.  We even talked about scheduling our own little dog sledding adventures.  Apparently there are places that will allow you to take a sled out and run a course with a set of dogs who are trained to run a certain route.  Sounds awesome.

Check out S&S's post about this too.  There's a little more technical information and history behind it.

This was my favorite photo I took during the day...

Au revoir!