rounding out 2013 with a lustrum celebration

     Bonne Année! Last week we drove to the French Alps to see how the other side lives and celebrate 5 years of marriage. Little did we know that St. Gervais-les-Bains would mean meal upon meal of utterly delicious, though decidedly oversized, cuts of meat. A meat cleanse, if you will. We spent our days sleeping in, cross-country skiing, eating, visiting a thermal bath, eating, taking an eerily speedy gondola up Aiguille-du-Midi (3842 meters) for a spectacular panorama with a closer view of Mont Blanc, and strolling around mountain villages...and eating. Our first night there we stumbled upon a Cirque du Soleil-style theatrical performance complete with an elderly dwarf ringmistress and pyrotechnics. After strolling through the main street, the trio stopped in the cold to worship the moon and stars with song, dance, fireworks and confetti. Oh France.