Kristin and I fell upon the right place and met the right people and we don’t know how we got so lucky. I am especially happy with it all because these people happen to love skiing and they invited us with them for a weekend in the Pyrénées sleeping on couches and sleeping pads in an apartment way too small for the twelve of us. We giddily accepted (okay, I giddily accepted, Kristin hesitantly said yes while I jumped up and down poking her telling her she had to go) and off we went, renting our gear along the road and playing music and singing the whole way.

The sun filled up the whole blue sky and after eating a little in the apartment we headed to the slopes. We played games and filmed each other tempting jumps and skiing backwards. It was like something I might have invented in my mind. Everyone was smiles.

By nightfall we were cozy in the little mountain apartment playing guitar waiting to eat la raclette (a French winter specialty where you melt cheese in little trays and pour it over ham and potatoes. So good.) and drinking wine from the region. Fabien brought home made foie gras and Cyril provided 3 kilos of Nutella. After dinner we moved to the next activity, a group card game involving dares and trivia in which Kristin gave Cyril a spanking and a blindfolded Luc massaged Fanny’s clothed breasts. Let’s just say it was a strange evening with a loveable bunch of goof-offs. Then it was time for the Galette des Rois (cake of the kings, or magi) which the French eat in winter after Christmas. It’s a little round dry cake with a ceramic toy, or fève, baked inside. The one who gets the fève is the king or queen and gets to wear a crown all day. So at about 3am I thought it was time for bed but noooo, they all wanted to go out dancing so we put on our shoes and bounced out into the street.

Barèges is a tiny ski town. There is nothing there but a few cafés, banks, ski apartments, bakeries, and a night club. Of course there’s a night club. This is France. So we danced until about 6am, slept for three hours or so and got up to go skiing. These people are crazy and I love them. This sort of thing makes it hard to go to work on Monday, even knowing those few hours with the students are what allows me to stay.