Courchevel, France

We raced in Italy on Saturday as a practice for the World Cup on Tuesday. I fell at the bottom of the first run, but I was able to forerun second run! The next day we drove about 7hours to Courchevel, France.

On Monday we trained and free skied on the race hill. Today we raced! I started 47th. The hill is fairly easy. It has a side-hill on the flats at the top, a moderate pitch and more flats at the bottom. However, the course was crazy! It was pretty tight in places, but then straight into the combinations and turny out of them... my kind of course! I felt ready to go, more ready than I've been all year. I felt good the first gates, but then I fell inside on the side-hill. I was able to just squeak by the next gate and finish my run. After my mistake I had nothing to lose and tried to make up as much time as possible. I was 68th from the start to the first interval (where I fell), 11th between the next two intervals and 25th from the last interval to the finish. I ended up 32nd overall, just missing top 30 to get a second run.... CLOSE CALL!
We are racing here tomorrow as well, in a FIS race, so all the Canadians have a chance to redeem ourselves!
After the race we decided to walk around Courchevel and found ourselves smack in the middle of Christmas in France! And I thought I would miss all of the Christmas spirit... but...
There was a Christmas market!

With Christmas candies...

Chestnuts roasting...
Anna let me try my first roasted chestnut ever! They are amazing!!
Lights...

Bright snowflakes!
The girls getting into the Christmas spirit!
Anna peaking through the frosted branches.
We decided to get chocolate covered apples for dessert!

MMM....

These men ran out to pose for me.... only in Europe would you see all this...

More uncomfortable than ski boots... ski boots with heels?

There was even rock climbing in the mall. This tiny little boy made it all the way to the top!!
We will head back to Kirchberg tomorrow night for a couple of days off. My Dad gets in the 23rd!! (So he can teach me how to use my camera... more effectively!) Merry Christmas everyone. I'll have a Christmas blog coming soon!!