Relaxing holidays in the Alps.

In this article Pat describes her holiday in St Gervais in the Alps.

My name is Patricia. I live in a Parisian suburd. I've been learning English with Mich�le for three years and before going on holiday she asked me to make an summery about my short holiday in St Gervais.

So I left on Friday 13th July for St Gervais ( Haute Savoie). It is a beautiful place in the Alps and I recommend staying there. Lots of English people have settled in St Gervais and every summer and winter there are lots of English tourists. The hotels and restaurants have adjusted their cooking to the English taste but without losing local traditions. It's an ideal place for walkers and skiers. The " Domaine skiable" is 380 kilometres situated in woods and forests and local authorities help keep this environment which is unique.

St Gervais is the summit of Europe because the " Mont Blanc" is on the St Gervais commune and not on the Chamonix commune. On a long walk you can discover some Baroque chapels and a wide variety of flora and fauna ( eagles, marmots ect...) If you stay there for a while you will find out by yourselves and you won't be disappointed. I go to St Gervais about twice or three times a year . So on that day ( Friday), after having driven for seven hours and a half, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten the keys of the flat at home. We had two solutions either we drove back to Paris to get the keys or looked up in the directory for a locksmith 's address. After thinking over it , we decided to go to a charming shopkeeper who we had hit it off right away . While she was listening to our story she laughed and said : "You're not the first ones who have forgotten their keys and I'm sure you won't be the last ones! " Then she went to her office to get a locksmith address list and recommended one. The shopkeeper was an energetic woman and it is necessary to be energetic when you are a volunteer in the local professional ice-hockey club. She called the locksmith who first refused to come and help us. She insisted and finally he decided to come to my flat. My boyfriend and I drove to the " Bettex" which is a lieu-dit where my flat is. We were waiting for the locksmith near our car when a white van arrived. It was the locksmith! We were very glad to see him. He was a charming old man. He took his tools out and began to drill the first lock that gave way right away. I applauded him. Then he tackled the second lock but this time it was much more difficult than the previous lock. I was suffering for him as he was drilling and he sweated a lot because of the efforts he had been making. Then the lock gave way.We praised the great job. He broke the locks without damages. He 's a good prefessional and finally I relieved all the stress!!

On the next days, I slept a lot. I was exhausted when I arrived in St Gervais. The days went quietly and smoothly, going out for dinner, swimming for one hour and a half or going for a walk for a couple of hours every day.

One day I decided to go to the " Nid d'Aigle" by train. We travelled through the mountain, it was a two-hour ride from St Gervais, the scenery was splendid. The weather was not very good , it was cloudy with sunny intervals but when we got to the "Nid d'aigle " the landscape was covered with fog and it was very cold.

We didn't know if we should stay or leave, finally we decided to get the train back and got out of the train 2 stations further down. We had lunch in a restaurant I came across at about 30 minutes on foot from the train station it was called le " Hors piste" I recommend it , we had a delicious meal.

I enjoyed this short break in St Gervais and now I'm looking forward to leaving Paris for Corsica at the end of August .

Acknowledgements : Photos provided under creative commons licence by : Ianus ( St Gervais) mrlemonjelly ( Mt blanc), jezs ( white van) eti ( marmot)JV ansanten ( train )