It’s amazing how at home I feel in Corrençon en Vercors. This tiny little mountain town is where I did an internship last summer for one month. I lived in Villard de Lans with 6 other students from Denver, and we all had our own jobs throughout the town. The program was to live and work and improve our spoken French skills. That it did, and we made some solid friends along the way. My favorite memory is EASILY the time when I drove through the town on the voiturette éléctrique with Cameron and Courtney laughing hysterically at the number of people staring at us and just getting high on life. 

I went back to this little patch of sunshine for my week long winter vacation which brought back some good memories. The first thing I noticed was that the entire region was covered in snow, which made my Buffalonian heart happy. Even though it rained most of the time that I was there, I still managed to enjoy the outdoors, the food, the people, and the simplicity of life. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and gossip is a favorite past time, like any kind of small town you’ll find. The residents work just to make ends meat, not necessarily because they have some burning desire to succeed or get ahead or what have you. It’s a no pressure situation but everyone still works hard (and just plays harder afterwards). 

Also considering the fact that this is a very outdoorsy area (high glacial valley surrounded by exposed rock faces and hills and vibrant greens of every variety), these people, or les Corrençonais, are all a laid back breed of French. This area reminds me a lot of mountain towns in Colorado, except everyone speaks French. They all sport their latest spandex fads and warmest polertech fleeces, and even the birks. I feel very comfortable there. A very relaxing and rejuvenating week full of cheeses, meats, tiny french children, drinks, friends, just the good times.