a bientot paris

i would love to come up with an incredible discription of the journey out of paris but other than to say it was slow that was about it.
however once we left paris the road unfolded rather delicately, pretty french castles dotted the countryside, designers of children's play areas had lots of fun (as in, they created mushroom parks for them to play in) and then after a few motorway links we were swirling through alpine roads: giant viaducts standing proud of the mountain valleys, by-passing villages and making the route a little like some sort of space travel. the mountains were peaked with snow and some villages were blaketed in heavy frosts that i'm sure will only get thicker until the spring arrives.
we stopped in chamonix/argentiere for a coupla days to see my bro before heading off to our new home for the next few months: val d'isere. altitude 1850m, attitude: very cool. there are clumps of leftoversnow hanging about, up to no good and a pretty mountain stream running through the town. the mountains rise up around the village menacingly; their sharpteeth tops grinning at the sun. aiie, mountains: fresh thin air rosey cheeked madness.
so, we unpacked (poor maggy was filled to the brim) put it all in its place and relaxed.
we start work in about 2ish weeks.
in between times we will be going off to istanbul to buy some pots for making wintersoups and a chopping board and maybe a nice rug to welcome our toes in the morning.
hope you, like us, have got a great surply of thermals somewhere cos if you read this blog further into the winter it'll make you cold!!!
keep warm and happy
xxxx
b