My Driving Experience

Some of you think I am just one lucky person. Well if you think so, this story reinforces my luck. After we finished tearing down after the snow meeting in Sweden, we were asked if we would be interested in doing the driving experience at the hotel….

Now this would have been exciting no matter what, but at the Kall Auto Lodge where we were staying, the cars they do their driving experience with just happened to be Porsche Carerras. Yep, Porsche’s.

So 8 of us hopped into 4 cars and drove about 25 minutes to the lake where we were doing the ice driving experience. Oh yeah, it was on ice!! First up we were taught how to accelerate, brake and swerve through cones while sliding on the ice. Next up was the ice slalom course. I did ok on both, and really loved the accelerate as fast as you can and slam on the brakes part.

From there we were let lose on a 2km track winding around the lake. For the next hour or so we took turns practicing our newly learned skills as we cruised around the course as many times as we could. I spun out about 3 times per lap, but it was so much fun! Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

Coming to an End

Today’s blog is good news and bad news. The bad news is that my assignment is ending early due to the financial crisis. The good news is I get to come home early. Not sure if those are contradicting or not, but it is what it is. I will be ending my stay in France on May 7th. My sister and Henry can no longer make the trip over to visit and we had to change my parents’ flights so they could still use their tickets. They will come over for my last 2 weeks here and fly home with me on May7th.

It is sad that I will not finish my time here in France, but I have had some wonderful adventures already and am sure more lie in store for me in the next 6 weeks. Of course Kate and Shannon are coming over here in 10 days and that will be a great trip for all of us.

I have been blessed with this opportunity to live overseas for almost 4 months and will remember it for a long time. I have learned a lot about the people, my job, and myself. I am thankful for all of that.

Finally... Sweden

Well here it is, finally a blog about Sweden. The meetings went great and I am glad to be done. We had a lot of different adventures while we were there, so I will let the pictures tell the tale….

The hotel where we had the meeting

Me and Thor working hard setting up for the meeting

Playing in the snow while snowmobiling wtih some work people

The winners from our night of go-karting

There was one more great adventure that I will blog about soon. It was another great trip to Sweden. Ate Moose, Elk, Reindeer..... you know, the usual. I am home for two more days and then back to France.

Hope all are well. Miss you.

I Promise....

I know I have been a horrible blogger while in Sweden. I have been super busy with the meeting, and all is going great!! We have tear down tomorrow.
I hope to write more and share some pictures when I get home Thursday or Friday.
Hope all is well with everyone.
I am excited to be home in 2 days!!

Welcome to Sweden

Hey everybody. I made it to Sweden. Spent one night in Ostersund and then went to Kall, about a one hour drive. Got the apparel all set-up and then stayed there last night. Got to sit in the Jacuzzi in the snow and in the sauna last night before dinner.

Ate reindeer for lunch and dinner last night. Not too bad. Food is really good at this place. Today me and Thor from the Polaris office got all of the display units in the showroom and the demo units lined up outside. We may have taken a couple units for a quick spin, just to test them…

I am tired and ready for sleep, but am going to dinner soon with Johan, another guy from the office.

Tomorrow we will go back to Kall to clean the units and hang the final banners. Should be fun. I hope to be able to add pictures, but it may be next week. We are going snowmobiling on Saturday so I am excited about that.

Martigny and Shopping...

So my weekend went almost according to plan… kind of. I set off for Martigny (sounds like martini) Switzerland Saturday morning about 8:30. My GPS told me it was a one hour drive. Obviously my GPS did not know that it likes to snow in the mountains. The road from Chamonix to Martigny was winding through the Alps. An absolutely gorgeous drive, but a little scary at times winding around huge drop offs with the slushy snow. I did my best to stay focused on the road and not get lost staring at the amazing scenery.

As I rounded the last corner for Martigny, the view was pretty spectacular. The entire hill side leading down to the valley was lined with vineyards. They are all brown now, but I can only imagine what they look like in the spring and summer when in bloom.

I found my parking lot at the museum I was going to. The museum did not open for 10 minutes so I found a sign for the Roman amphitheatre ruins and walked there. This entire city is a Roman ruin! There are walls all over the city that date back to 50 B.C.-50 A.D. The amphitheatre once seated 5,000 spectators for gladiator games. You can see the gates where I can only imagine a tiger being let out as the gladiators face off with it.

From there I went to the museum. It was very cool. I happened to take an illegal picture of a random wall of paintings. As I got closer I realized it was paintings by Cezanne, Van Gogh and Picasso!! Pretty cool. There was also a neat sculpture garden otuside... I give it a thumbs up!!

There was also an old automobile museum inside with cars from 1900-1940. It smelled like an old attic, but was still very cool to see.

From there I walked the city. That took about 30 minutes. There is not a lot to see and if I go back I hope to do a hike through the vineyards to the castle.

From there I drove back to Chamonix, had lunch and did a little shopping. End of the season sales… I love them!! Got a new hi-tech vest and hiking backpack.

On Sunday I had planned to ski, but still nursing a small running injury and decided to just do a nice walk around the lake and pack for my trip. I leave tomorrow for Sweden and then for home on the 19th. I am excited to be going home. As most of you know I am close to my family and friends and those I love so being here is great, but also lonely at times. It will be nice to see some friendly faces soon.

Take care. Au revoir!

My Annecy Adventure

I was lucky enough to get o experience yet another new thing in France. I got o go to a Dr., in France, who doesn’t speak English very well. And get an x-ray of my lungs and chest!! What a day. Let me explain.

In order to get my residence card for my work visa, I had to get and exam in France and be cleared to live here. To bad I’ve already been living here for almost 2 months, but oh well. So I had to Annecy, about a one hour drive. I got there early so I could find where I needed to be, which was luckily next to a mall!! So I got some new jeans. Anyway, then I went to the x-ray place, no one spoke English, but the sign for take off your jacket and sweatshirt is pretty easy to follow. So after one minute I was done. Waited in the waiting room and got my x-ray. Then it was off to explore Annecy with the woman who showed me my housing, she lives there. We walked around downtown, the lake and stopped for lunch and tea. It was raining, but the town is amazing. I will go back when it is nice out. There are awesome little cafes along the rivver that runs through the old town and a beautiful lake to walk around.

So then we went to the ANAEM office and I set there for 30 minutes waiting for the French doctor. She spoke a little English. Asked about my health, did blood pressure, height, weight, etc. They gave me a clean bill of health. So I got my papers stamped and was on the road back home.

All in all, a stressful day, but in 2-3 months I will have my official residence card for France!!

This weekend I am off for some more exploring and maybe skiing, depends on the weather. Then some packing before I leave for Sweden on Tuesday.

Hope all is well. Au revoir!!

Monte Carlo... the City

This was one of the richest, coolest cities I have seen. The drive along the coast I am sure was amazing, but we did both drives at night so I am not sure exactly what it looks like. I can image the little towns nestled in the valleys and the amazing harbors of the Mediterranean. I was able to be a tourist for one hour and walked to the palace and the small village area of the town. Some pictures are below and I posted a new slideshow of Monte Carlo on the right.

Small streets lined with shops and cafes.

The harbor filled with multi-million dollar yachts.

The cathedral on the right where Grace Kelly is buried.

The harbor and up on the left is the palace.

This weekend there has been a change of plans. I am going to cruise into Switzerland to a town called Martigny. About 1 hour driving for me. They have an amazing museum and a cool hiking trail to a castle through some vineyards. Still hope to ski on Sunday, but probably solo.

Hope all is well with everyone. I am home in just over two weeks!! I cannot wait.

Miss you all, thanks for checking in.

Monte Carlo... Part Two

Who I met this weekend.... These people were in the RZR VIP race. A RZR is one of our cool products. I'll add pics soon. But this is the highlight of the all-stars.

Sébastien Loeb- (like Dale Earnhardt was, only bigger!!) is a French rally driver and winner, with co-driver Daniel Elena, of the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, and of a record eleven world rallies in 2008, all, save for 2006, with the Citroën Total World Rally Team. Loeb has the most WRC wins with 49 and is the most successful rally driver in history.Loeb is also a three-time winner at the Race of Champions, after taking home the Henri Toivonen Memorial Trophy and the title "Champion of Champions" in 2003, 2005 and 2008. In 2004, he won the Nations' Cup for France with Jean Alesi.

Cyril Despres- Two-time winner of the Dakar race for KTM motorcycles. Huge star from France. I don’t know who I would compare him to.

Luc Alphand- (like Bode Miller, only bigger!!!) is a French former alpine skier, who is now a race car driver. Born in Briançon, Alphand made his World Cup skiing debut in 1984. In 1997 he won the World Cup. He retired in 1997 and started a career in auto racing. First in the Nissan Micra Stars Cup (1997–1998), then in the European Le Mans Series (2001), the FIA GT Championship (2002), and the Lamborghini Supertrophy (2002). He won the 2006 Dakar Rally, in which he had finished runner-up a year earlier. With this victory, he was the first ex ski driver who won the Paris-Dakar.

Carole Montillet- Born in Corrençon-en-Vercors, Isère, she became a member of the Villard de Lans ski club in Grenoble. In 1994 and 1998, finished 14th in the Super-G at the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer and Nagano respectively.In January 2002 Montillet was chosen by the Comité national olympique et sportif français to be the flag bearer for the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City.Her victory in the downhill ski event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City was her first major triumph. It was also the first gold medal won by a Frenchwoman in Alpine Skiing since Marielle Goitschel's triumph in the women's slalom event in Grenoble in 1968. She dedicated this to her former teammate Régine Cavagnoud, who was killed in a training accident in 2001. She now races rally cars and competed in the Dakar race.

There were also other race car drivers, realtiy TV stars, a comedian, and more. It was truly an All-Star VIP race event.

Pictures of the city are coming soon....

Monte Carlo... Part One

Where do I begin? This past weekend in Monaco/Monte Carlo was insane!! It was such a beautiful place, such a fun event, such a long weekend….. I don’t know where to begin. I have not downloaded my pictures yet so I will add more pictures and stories later tonight. All I have to say is the hotel might have been the nicest I have ever been in. I saw Yacht’s that cost $1 million just to fill with gas, and met 5 or the top 15 sports figures in France. It was a wickedly cool weekend. I was a tourist for about 1 hour and got some amazing pictures of this little city/country.

Here’s the deal with Monaco. It is its own little country. It has no taxes, therefore the rich and famous go there. The cost to buy property in Monte Carlo is about 20,000 Euro per square meter!! That’s one square meter!! I can’t tell you how many Ferrari’s, Mazzerti’s and Bentley’s we saw driving around. Here, a Mercedes is like a Toyota. Sad, but also fantastic to behold.

I will show you all about it later today and this week. It may need more than one blog because it was an eventful weekend!!

Check back soon.