New Years in Auvergne

Esther and I had the great pleasure of spending a few days around New Year's in Auvergne with some of her friends from Sciences Po. It was a great time, we had beautiful weather and a great time with everyone.

Moreover, I successfully conquered (with plenty of help from Esther, of course) one of my most deeply buried fears from my childhood; I learned to ski! At times it was genuinely terrifying and often quite painful (I must have fallen at speed at least 20 times over the course of the day), but at the end it was approaching “controlled” and “fun”. I feel that I should dedicate an entire post to the skiing experience as it was rather memorable, rather than taking up a bunch of space with it here.

We rented a fantastic old farmhouse in the town of Salihes (Population: 40, Cheese makers: 3) and had a bunch of fun together. Our numbers varied from 12 to 15, we ate dinners together at the big table (just like at the co-op!) and had fires in the fireplace which was so big that you could sit in it with the fire.

We had a good time hiking around, getting in snowball fights, skiing, playing games, and celebrating the New Year. It was a great time, really more or less ideal, the only fault being that it was too short. Hopefully we'll get back there sooner or later. Thanks to Renaud for organizing everything!

Auvergne