We’d intended to stay in Les Saisies until Saturday, then drive to Lyon and take the TGV to Paris. That plan changed when the weather forecast called for up to three feet of snow and blustery winds for Friday and Saturday, due to a big storm associated with a cold front moving across Europe. About 5 p.m. on Thursday, the snow started falling, and by the time we were ready to go to sleep, it was falling thick and beautiful:
We’d actually contemplated leaving Thursday, but after skiing in the morning we just couldn’t fathom packing up and heading down, which was in one way a good decision, since we had a fun time with our friends Alain and Isabelle walking through the snow and having crepes and hot chocolate at a cozy, authentic place called Le Chalet des Marmottes.
But the next morning our rental car looked like this (even after a lot of not-very-fun shoveling and snow removal); about a foot or so of snow had fallen, and the winds were whipping.
It was a struggle to get the bags out of the hotel and into the car, and when we pulled out we were both wondering if we weren’t making a mistake — it was about 35 kilometers down narrow, winding, snow-packed roads to the autoroute in Albertville, visibility was bad, and we were in a little bottom-of-the-range rental car with a manual transmission and no chains (but with snow tires, which everyone assured us would do the trick).
Our friends Alain and Isabelle forwarded us this video they took of us pulling out of the hotel parking lot to head down the mountain. “Doucement” was indeed the plan:
About three minutes in, I thought we’d made a mistake. I couldn’t see but about 50 feet ahead due to all the blowing snow.
Next comes a snowplow from the opposite direction, it’s blade extending across almost the whole width of the road. I slowed down (if that’s possible when the starting speed is 15 kmh), moved as far to the right side as I could, yet it was still apparent there wasn’t enough room on the car for both the blade and our car. Suzie was freaking out, I was wondering myself what was going to happen, when at the last minute … oop! … the blade hinged and the part that would have hit our car folded back, just as the vehicle went by.
So on we went, going between 10 and 30 kmh, in second or first gear, me straining to see the curves in the road, me reminding myself that in a past life I was, you know, a professional transit driver with a ton of experience driving large vehicles in adverse weather conditions including snow. But for about 25 minutes, it was as intense a driving experience as maybe I’ve ever had.
Then, within a couple of minutes, we were below the intense snow zone. The sky lightened, the snow cover on the road became less and less, and then shortly we were in Albertville and the on the autoroute on the way to Lyon. From there it was a piece of cake — a few snow showers but nothing serious.
At St. Exupery I dropped Suzie off at the SNCF station to see about exchanging our train tickets, took the rental car back, then took the bus to meet Suzie at the Gare Lyon St. Exupery. After a remarkably good lunch in the airport at the OL Brasserie (la brasserie officielle de l’Olympique Lyonnais soccer team), we then went back to the Gare Lyon St. Exupery to wait for our train to Paris.
The gare itself is a very modern, architecturally interesting building, from the outside it looks like sort of huge bird:
And inside, for a guy travelling with a fisheye lens, the building creates many opportunities for interesting pictures, including this one:
The train (a TGV, or train de grande vitesse) arrived right on time, and got to Paris right on time (a trip of over just 2 hours, with speeds up to 185 miles per hour, amazing). The Gare de Lyon was a madhouse, but we found the cab stand and a short ride later we were at our apartment.
Unpacking, start the laundry, dinner (wonderful omelette at a cafe), grocery shopping, then a cold walk along the Seine. Paris!
Les Saisies to Paris, snow to the Seine, in less than 10 hours. What a day.
Categories: France, Travel -- France