Our Trip to France Day 4 - Skiing Day 1

Well, there are some things that a 40 year old opera singer should start, and after today, I am starting to believe that skiing is not one of them. To see little 3-6 year olds HAULING ASS down the slopes is very disconcerting, but I am willing to give it the old college try. After putting on my ski gear and walking in the boots, I go and find the place for the adults that have never, ever skied before, and sure enough I found it and it was full of younger, and hipper people form all over the world. England, Denmark, Finland, French and the couple of Americans. We learn how to put on the skis and how to walk in them, which I found very strange and difficult, especially uphill. I could not for the life of me, get going uphill, until they showed me how to out the skis perpendicular to the slope and take little baby steps upward.

Then came the snow plow, which I kind of got, except my skis started going forward before I was ready and I could not lean forward fast enough and back I went and then down I went. I was the only one that fell doing that. It had to be someone, why not me. After getting helped up....more on this later....I finally slow plowed and thought that I was doing great.

Then came the part of going up the hill. In the beginner classes, you don't get to ride on a ski lift, you get on a magic carpet. You stand on a moving conveyer belt and you are taken up the hill. That was the easy part, then you head downhill. It was not until later, that I learned I had to be more spread for the snow plow, and I got going faster and felt that I could not stop, so in order to not hit anyone, I took a dive that would make Sonny Liston proud. Then came the part of getting up. I have never been one to get off the floor like the pro athletes who just sit on their haunches and up they go. I can get on my haunches, but that is it. So here comes the instructor again.....more later....and off we go. Snow plow here I come.

Next we go to a little bit steeper bit if the beginner hill. This time we are pulled up by a rope that you have to grab onto by hand. But first, you have to walk uphill to the rope. Not a chance for me to do that. Here comes the instructor to give me a hand and I grab the rope, and I turn into Sonny Liston again. He helps me up.....more later.....and make it about halfway up the hill with the rest of the class. We start to snow plow down the hill and I get going really fast and can't slow down, so in order not to get injured, down I go. Now, the instructors are up the hill helping the younger students, so I ask someone to have the instructor come down at his leisure to help me up. Then I go to get back to the rope, and I can't get near the damn thing. I start trying and I end up 15 yards farther down the hill than when I started and get help again from the instructor about 10 minutes later.

As the younger students start at the top of the hill learning how to do turns, I proceed to gradually get the hang of the snow plow, and I find a relatively flat piece of snow to get to the rope, and have about 4 successful runs of going up and down the hill. After the others finish turning, we all meet up to see how we have been doing, and I tell the instructor that I'll be back tomorrow to do this all over again.

After spotting Amanda at the bottom of the big hill after taking the tram down, we head back to the chalet, go get pizza at Pizzalino's, take a shower, write this, watch Crocodile Dundy 3, then get ready to do it all again tomorrow.

Until then......