France Ski Trip Day 6: Break!

Day 6 of the trip was our day of rest.  We slept until about 11am and it felt wonderful.  Eventually we rolled out of bed and headed to buy our lift tickets for Thursday and Friday.  Pinball also filled our very short morning.  We were getting good at the Spiderman machine and stuck with that the whole week.

We hopped on the shuttle to Meribel-proper for some souvenirs and groceries.  We ended up going back to the same souvenir shops that we had previewed earlier in the week.  Prices were...expensive but I guess that is expected since it is a tourist area full of people who want something to remember their awesome time.  Looking back at my purchases, I should have bought a more diverse array of souvenirs.  The T-shirts were way too expensive so I didn't even look at them.  It was ~20 Euro for a regular T-Shirt which is close to $30.  I did revisit the magnets.  The cheapest was 5.50 Euro while the most expensive was...8 Euro I think.  I grabbed two different magnets.  I then approached the cash register and there was a small basket full of iron-out patches and stickers.  I should have grabbed every sticker in there because they were WAY cheaper than the magnets and about half the price of a patch (which I bought).



After souvenirs was the grocery shopping.  We picked up a couple of things at the super market and then went down to the local cheese/wine shop.  Robo wanted to by a huge hunk of cheese off the large cheese wheels on display.  They gave away a couple of free samples as we entered the door.  Robo was sold, he requested the woman to cut a large hunk off the sample cheese wheel.  It weighed in at around 2/3 kilos.  The price...23 Euro!  I did not buy anything in the shop, Jason picked up 2 pieces of chevre.

Photo Credit: R. Bradley

Packing everything into the duffel we had brought along, we headed toward the fitness center to take a dip in their pool.  After paying admission we walk into the changing area.  You had to remove your shoes before entering the changing rooms.  After entering the individual changing room (it had an enter and exit door), you put on your swimming atire sans shoes and then find lockers on the other side.  We stuff all our things into 2 lockers and proceed towards the pool.  I remembered from when I lived in Europe that many pools require you shower before entering...I was correct.  We showered, walked through the shallow pool of water to wash off your feet and then we were in the actual pool area.  I noticed I was the only minority in the whole pool complex.  After hanging out in the pool for a while, we get out, shower off and head back to our condo for the night.

Side note: Us Americans were the only ones in swimming trunks, everyone else had a speedo style suit or something a lot more form fitting.  Some of the families there were helping their kids with their swimming skills.  As with skiing, it seemed everyone there knew how to swim to one degree or another. There were lifeguards on duty just in case.

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