. . .
When
6th – 9th January 2022 (~3 months from now)
What
A celebration of us getting married, but not the wedding. We’re doing the ceremony the day before with just Stefano’s parents and our witnesses. Think of the celebration as a snow sports holiday with close friends, with one evening dedicated to “officially” celebrating our marriage. This celebration will be more akin to a Stag/Hens Do than a wedding (minus the strippers, unless there are volunteers).
We are having the “official” celebration on the second night (Friday 6th) with some low-key games, drinks and food. There will be no suits or white dresses, the dress code will be smart-casual. We are accepting suggestions for games (and volunteers to orchestrate them).
Where
Location: Saint-Gervais, Mont-Blanc (France)
Close to the Italian border so we can get married in Italy the day before with Stefano’s Parents in attendance, but not in Italy because there were no chalets for >10 people for hire!
Accomodation
We have hired a large chalet in the french Alps. We can sleep between 24-28 people. We’ll have chatted to you all separately about how this works with sharing rooms to try and accommodate everyone as best as we can, but we may have to ask a few people to find other accommodation. Regardless of sleeping arrangements, everyone is welcome and encouraged to hang out in the house at all times 🙂
This is the PDF guide provided by the host if you want additional info 🙂
Transport
Coming from the UK:
You are best to fly into Geneva (Switzerland). It’s a 1 hour drive from Geneva to the house in Saint-Gervais, Mont-Blanc. We are going hire a van to get people from Geneva airport (Swiss side!) to the house and will aim to leave the airport ~1pm. We will ask everyone for flight details closer to the time to set this up, but please try to book flights that arrive before 1pm if you’d like to get in on this. (Route)
For anyone catching an early flight home on Sunday we are doing a trip to Chamonix for 8am on Sunday morning. There is a bus from Chamonix to Geneva airport at 8am that we will line-up a drop-off for. We will also be doing a van trip back to Geneva airport (Swiss side!) arriving there by 12pm if you’re leaving in the afternoon.
Coming from Italy:
It is roughly 2hr drive from Ivrea through the Mont Blanc tunnel. We will create a Whatsapp group ahead of time to organise ride sharing between everyone. Make sure you have winter tyres and chains for your car!
Another way?
If you’re coming via another route and there is some way we might be able to help just let us know (e.g. we might be able to organise a pick up in Chamonix)
What to bring
- Snows sports gear if you have some (there will be places to hire gear)
- Whatever you eat for breakfast if you have specific requirements, we will have tea and coffee and some staples
- Whatever you like to drink (we will be setting up a basic bar, but contributions are welcome)
- Toiletries etc (the normal stuff)
- Boardgames (if you have some) in case of bad weather
Itinerary in detail
Can be found here. This is an evolving doc, so make sure you tell us if you are relying on us for transport anywhere!
Also worth knowing
- We have the house for a long weekend from the 6th – 9th January 2022, but if you’d like to come earlier we are planning to spend NYE near Torino (Italy)
- If you are not interested in skiing/snowboarding there are also some nice things to do in/near Chamonix (which is a 45min train ride from Saint Gervais Le Fayet, near where we are staying). We are not specifically organising these activities, but have accounted for drop-off’s and pick-ups from Saint Gervais Le Fayet so you can get there easily 🙂
Expected cost (assuming a long weekend stay)
- Housing: Free, we’d just love to have you there! (If you are itching to contribute you can make an accommodation-donation here, but we do not expect or encourage this and would much rather you just felt excited about joining us!! We are only providing a link for this because we do not want gifts under any circumstances (we will already have shipped our things to NZ so if nothing else, it’s not practical). If you do want to contribute, please donate anonymously.
- Food: We will provide some basics (bread, cereal, milk, tea, coffee, snacks, drinks, etc) and a meal on the evening of the 7th, but please budget for meals outside of this.
- Snow passes: There is a tonne of skiing near the house, and according to the AirBnB listing it is possible to ski in/out (presumably to the slopes of Domaine Evasion Mont Blanc). Information about passes for this slope can be found here.
- Gear hire: The cost depends on what you need, but a quick google suggests it’ll be roughly ~€80-100 for Skis, Helmet and Boots for 3 days (as a guide).
- Return flights from London to Geneva airport: This varies depending on when you book, but seems to fluctuate between £30-100.
- Geneva airport to the house and back by van: We will cover this
- Drive from Torino: petrol and tolls add up to roughly ~€100 per car, we will create a chat so you can organise ride sharing