... To Champagne.

After we returned from the slopes and cleaned up, we sat down to an absolutely outstanding. The first course, of bread and cold cuts was followed by veal and olives in a seasoned tomato sauce with rice pilaf. I think I ate three times more of this than I've eaten of any food in the past 6 months. It was amazing. We continued working on the chocolate after lunch (left over from the previous feast) and then our host (who had worked hard all morning keeping us from killing ourselves or our fellow skiers) and we took naps to sleep off the food and wines.

After we awoke, we sat and chatted a bit before a light dinner (a very light and fluffy cheese omelet) and drank wines. We even got into a 1994 Bordeaux that was really unique. Wonderful tastes and far more character than most of the wines I had had back in the states.

After we'd eaten and drank our fill, we broke out just two more bottles of champagne, so that we could try opening a bottle the traditional way, using a method very similar to one I tried last Christmas, called sabering.

You can see Quatre-Vingts trying it below.

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Paf!

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And here I am working on the second bottle.

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Fore!

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Pretty neat, huh?

After we'd polished off most of the second bottle, we again retired relatively early, since we had to be up at 6 the next morning to prepare for our trip to Annecy by car with Philippe. He would drop us at the train station there (saving us the two-hour local train ride from Sallanches) and we would continue our travels towards the south.

- Patrick