La Clusaz Part 1

We had a fantastic seven days in La Clusaz, a busy ski station in winter but in summer it has plenty of other activities on offer and is a very busy little town. We had a short-ish drive from Champagny, travelling up some quite windy and spectacular roads and through gorges to get there. Our apartment was right on the edge of the main "activity" area of the town which was great positioning and only required short walks when we wanted to do anything or get something to eat. It was also the biggest apartment we had stayed in with 3 bedrooms and a huge balcony, so was especially useful on the one rainy day we had. One advantage of our stay was signing up for the La Clusaz "Detente Card" which allowed unlimited access to most activities - at 45 Euro for adults was pricey but we definitely got our money's worth. Matthew had his own special "Enfant Roi" card, complete with photo, to use as well. On the first afternoon Matthew and I caught the telecabin from just near our apartment to the Plateau de Beauregard where there are some good views and a restaurant/bar for a coffee. Matthew loved the ride up so we decided to do it again.....this time with Heather and Jordan on board too! Over the week we did it several times, the journey being about 10 minutes each way. The photo is the heading up to Beauregard with La Clusaz in the background.

Sunrise viewed from our balcony, overlooking the centre of town

During our week's stay Matthew spent alot of time on the bouncy castle (chateau gonflable!), bumper boats and summer luge. The luge was great fun and could be ridden as tandems with little kids (taller then 80cm). Both Heather and I made numerous trips up the Patinoire telecabin with Matthew to make the 800m run down the hill where you could build up alot of speed up if you wanted. There were plenty of sharp bends and a couple of tunnels, the longer one being where Matthew would shout out to look out for the bear! Unfortunately Jordan will need to wait till our next trip before he can have a go.

Always fun in France is town market day. All sorts of local producers have stalls and fortunately for us market day was on a Monday and early on in our visit to La Clusaz. So we stock on up fresh fruit/veg, all sorts of cheeses, plenty of saucisson (dried cured sausage), lots of meat and finally a huge chunk of nougat! Despite there being a little bit of drizzle we had a great time and finished off with a coffee at the local restaurant (no babycinos here so its a "lait chaud" for Matthew). As a result we had some great meals during the week (thanks to Heather's cooking of course).

Matthew had heaps of fun on the bouncy castle, and it was a great way for him to burn up his energy
and be very tired by the end of the day!

Heather and Matthew coming into the finish on the summer luge

Matthew driving the bumper boat, with the bouncy castles in the background

Market Day! Our usual coffee venue is in the background.