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March 20, 2008<\/u>.\u00a0 We skied today <\/a>and it was much colder than it has been.\u00a0 I’d guess around 20 degrees in the morning but warmed up to 35 of so by afternoon.\u00a0 The off-piste is difficult as a result of freezing and thawing so we’re on piste with some short excursions to the off-piste where it’s manageable.\u00a0 We did find some fine snow in a few select places and enjoyed the clear day.\u00a0 Tomorrow they are expecting up to half a meter (For those of you who don’t know, my new affectation is to only use the metric system).\u00a0<\/p>\n In the evening, we went down to Meribel (about 250 meters below our town, Mottaret) for dinner and a hockey game <\/a>between Meribel and Moscow.\u00a0 I thought it would be nice to see how Moscow teaches hockey to these French guys, who likely have day jobs.\u00a0 They all skated well; the Russians won 6 to 2 and were clearly more skilled.\u00a0 But the Meribel team did a pretty good job and were not completely overwelmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n March 21, 2008<\/u>.\u00a0 First day of spring, maybe, but here in Meribel it’s really snowing — as in about two or three inches per hour.\u00a0 They are expecting a lot by tonight and more tomorrow.\u00a0 Should make for a challenging drive down to Albertville.\u00a0 We skied two hours in very hard to see, windy and snowy\u00a0conditions with good snow.\u00a0 That makes 17 days I’ve skied this season, probably more than many in the past.\u00a0 Of course, not one day cross-country, uphilling or doing anything aerobic on snow.\u00a0\u00a0 We’re done and when we return to Barcelona, we’ll get all our ski stuff shipped back to Aspen along with everything winter.\u00a0 Both Anne and I like the paring down aspect and we’re leaving a lot of worn-out stuff here.\u00a0 Joshua lost a tooth <\/a>this evening.<\/p>\n March 22, 2008<\/u>.\u00a0 Off we went<\/a>, down the mountain from 1,750 meters to probably about 400.\u00a0 I had to dig the car out of about 50 cm of snow, and then luckily was able to get it out of the snow banks and drive a way down the driveway, load the luggage and get going on the prudent and slow 15 kilometer trip out.\u00a0 Many people actually had chains and were putting them on, only to remove them about 4 or 5 kilometers later.\u00a0 I was glad to make it down without incident and then four hours later we were in Provence at L’isle sur la Sorgue where we found one of the only rooms left in a mediocre hotel.\u00a0 It’s Easter week-end and on top of that they have an annual antique show so you know what that means – it’s like Gay Ski Week here.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We had a fantastic meal for dinner in the town, served wonderfully and gracefully.\u00a0 All our meals have been wonderful in France, but this one stood out for quality, taste, and wonderful service.\u00a0 This part of France is just wonderful, which explains why Peter Mayle liked it so much.<\/p>\n March 23, 2008.<\/u>\u00a0 We went to the L’isle sur la Sorgue fair today in town where everything was being sold <\/a>from food to ceramics to antiques (which we saw yesterday).\u00a0 It was a lot of fun and we bought some table cloths and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n We are glad there is finally something to buy (table cloths and napkins) but given the dollar exchange it’s the first stuff we’re buying and bringing back to the US.\u00a0 The wind has really picked up – it’s the Mistral, which blows from the mountains past Provence and into the sea.\u00a0 There are all sorts of legends about how it blows, how often, how many days, but I won’t bore you with the details.<\/p>\n After that we went to another popular tourist destination, Fontaine de la Vaucluse<\/a>, about eight kilometers away.\u00a0 They have a “source” of water that is well known, an emerald-colored river and lots of old buildings and stuff.\u00a0 This is, I think, the source of the rivers that create an island at L’Isle sur la Sorgue, where we’re staying.\u00a0 It’s a big tourist destination (there were lots of Italians).<\/p>\n Dinner tonight was also good even wonderful in its own way — different from last night.\u00a0 Not as good a value, but wonderful.\u00a0 The desert was unbelieveable — a choclate round very rich cake made with bananas and more with a choclate cookie stuck in it and a side of ice cream — probably 2,000 calories.\u00a0 The strange thing is there aren’t a bunch of over weight people eating at all these places, which you’d expect given the calorie intakes.\u00a0 For the first time ever, I sent a bottle of wine back since it tasted terrible.\u00a0 It was corked as in horrible.\u00a0<\/p>\n March 24, 2008<\/u>.\u00a0 We left our depressing hotel today<\/a>.\u00a0 It actually snowed this morning.\u00a0 At breakfast there were two pathetic people, overweight and with nothing to say to each other, who wouldn’t stop starring at us.\u00a0 It was just strange.\u00a0 The entire breakfast thing was strange, in fact.\u00a0 Boy were we glad to leave.\u00a0 It really detracted from the entire Provence experience, unfortunately.\u00a0<\/p>\n On the drive back<\/a>, through Provence, there were kilometers of tree-lines streets.\u00a0 Someone really thought ahead since the trees were really old.\u00a0<\/p>\n March 25, 2008<\/u>.\u00a0 While Rocket is still on vacation with the dog trainer, we are taking advantage of the time off to get stuff done so after both Anne and I worked out and had a Spanish lesson, and we went to the Museu Nacional D’Art de Catalunya at the Parc de Montjuic.\u00a0 Here are photos<\/a>; we had a nice time, ate some very good food, and enjoyed the art for a few hours.\u00a0 It’s a huge place.\u00a0<\/p>\n March 26, 2008<\/u>.\u00a0 I went for a run this morning and ended up running into an acquaintence who just ran a marathon and is planning another in five weeks!\u00a0 We ran a hard pace (for me) for about 50 minutes — my first real run in about eight weeks or more.\u00a0 I immediately took some Ibuprofin on returning home in anticipation of many aches and pains.\u00a0<\/p>\n