18

March 7 

Me, Mathilde, and Eloi decided to sleep in an igloo. 

It was an idea that Mathilde had wanted to do for awhile now, and it just so happened that Eloi and his parents had spent the afternoon a couple of days ago building one. Luckily it hadn't melted. 

First Mathilde and I put together two large backpacks with every article of warm clothing we could find, and two sleeping bags each. Then we put on ten thousand layers, three pairs of socks each etc. and marched out the door to the waiting car. We also brought our instruments: mandolin and guitar. 

After driving to Freydières, we unloaded and started walking down a trail with all of our stuff, and dragging sleds full of firewood behind us. Tattooine the dog ran back and forth along the path from person in front to the back very fast. 

After about half an hour we got to the igloo and dropped our stuff. We quickly set to work building a fire, as the sun was swiftly departing. Eloi's mum and dad went to gather firewood and pine branches, while us three stayed and made little snow seats around the flattened snow fire pit. Eloi cut snow blocks with a saw, Mathilde carried them and placed them on the ground where they should go, and I packed snow in between the layers and on the ground to keep it from falling over when sat on. It was a pretty good system if'n I do say so meself. 

When they returned, we made a bed of pine branches, placed a metal sheet on top, and made a fire on the metal sheet (it was completely dark at this point by the way). Next we placed three sticks in a tee-pee arrangement over the fire, and suspended a medium-sized caldron thing by a chain from the apex. There were about seven snow seats that were made in a circle around the fire. 

When I write it down it sounds like it didn't take that long, but it actually took about an hour and a half to go from snow to flattened snow with seats and fire and caldron. 

The next part is the yummiest. We all sat round the fire and cheese was dumped into the caldron. As it was melting, various spices where added and it was stirred vigorously. 

Next bread was provided along with fondue sticks, and we dipped the bread into the melted cheese and ate it on our snow seats in the freezing cold night. It was at once a tasty and messy experience, because the cheese strings left after you pulled your bread from the pot froze almost immediately, leaving you stuck with a very long frozen cheese string attaching you to the pot. It was super fun though. 

Later on, Mathilde's parents and sisters arrived and we got out our instruments and played some jigs and stuff. I played melody, Mathilde played chords. Olivier and almost everyone else started dancing as well (partly to keep warm, I think) and with a synchronized choreography even. 

Then it got really late and people got really tired (myself included) and so the Croisats left, Eloi's parents went to their tent with the dog and Mathlide Eloi and I prepared for a night in an igloo. Basically we covered ourselves with as much fabric as we could. 

I got to sleep in the middle, but unfortunately my head was slightly lower than my feet, so I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep. And I was very squished. I wasn't cold, though. 

Even though I didn't get a lot of sleep, the next morning Mathilde said she'd slept quite well and was feeling quite refreshed. We ate breakfast (hot chocolate and bread) as we watched the sun rise over the mountain. It was really beautiful. 

Then Olivier came in the car to pick us up and we drove home. It was a fun thing to do, but next time I would try to get a better night's sleep.