A visit to a Chateau and a pyrotechnic display in the skatepark

After a fantastic white Christmas is France the six travellers descended on Saint-Maurice for a bit of a relax in between travels. Something fun I discovered in the supermarkets before we left for Les Houches was the fact that they sell small fireworks so people can have their very own pyrotechnics display at New Years. We stocked up on some so we could have some fun of our own. As soon as the sun ducked behind the mountains and the sky become dark and starry, we rugged up in our jackets and walked across the road to the local skatepark with a shopping bag full of fireworks. There was still some snow scattered about and in the middle of the park was a flat platform which was covered in snow which provided the perfect place for us to set off our fireworks. Our photographer set up his tripod and camera so he could capture the sparks. Four of us stood ready with our matches to ignite our fuses at exactly the same time. We stood in awe at our 15 second light show and admired the colours that spewed out of the top. Luckily we stocked up so we had multiple shows all to ourselves. 

We had planned on going to Zermatt for a day of exploring but the weather forecast said that it was going to be cloudy and since it was a huge effort and a significant price to get there, we decided to go to Montreux instead to admire the lake and to check out Château de Chillon. Our travelling was a little disjointed because not all of us fit in the car so Roy and I caught the train up and met the rest there. We started off exploring the castle together, finding nooks and cranny's and reading engravings on the walls. We also saw Lord Byrons name carved on a pillar in the dungeon. Lord Byron was a famous British poet who went to the castle to write a poem called The Prisoner of Chillon (1819). 

After a while we split up because the guys wanted to look at things a little more thoroughly and us girls were happy walking through quickly and having a quick glance at things because lets face it, once you've seen a castle.. you've seen a castle. None of us are history enthusiasts or castle fanatics so it was just nice to wander through quickly and have a gander. Girls being girls we spent the rest of our time in the gift shop and the cafeteria (if you could even call it that - a few tables and chairs and a couple of vending machines, but it was warm so that's all that mattered). 

I must thank Mitch again for the use of his fantastic photos! He creates great reminders of all of the holidays we go on with them.