ZimZam Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 and unlike compassionate conservatism, sarkozy's new cabinet is a diverse amalgam of the french citizenry. Vive le france. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlpineK Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 what about the south of France? C'mon, guys. You could live a few hours from Verdon and Chamonix,  Having spent a few weeks in La Grave that place fucking kicks ass :moondance: Fantastic skiing!!! I hear the climbing is good too   This picture is right from town  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_like_sun Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 OK, now we are thinking out of the box........ Â France it is. Forget Seattle! Â What about the Swiss Alpes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZimZam Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Then where would you surf? Lake Geneve? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattp Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Cle Elum: the south France of the U.S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 What about the Swiss Alpes? Â Expensive. Â I prefer France and Austria to Switzerland. Austria still has towns/villages dominated by locals, and not brits and nordics (not that nordic females are unwelcome in my ideal mountain town) Â you want laziness, surf, sunshine, munchies and nubile women? try Bali Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i_like_sun Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Europeans are wonderful people, I find. For the most part it seems like the whole western/american obsession with video games and fast food hasn't hit yet over there. The people I know over there still eat raw whole milk and homegrown potatoes! Â Also, mmmmm. I'm off to Bali now. I'll see all you Spray losers sometime next year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snugtop Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 So I've lived in Twisp (well, part time) and as cool as it is you either need to be indepedently wealthy or retired (i.e: don't work), earn minimum wage in the service industry, work for the state, or be a doctor/nurse/vet. Since those don't apply to me, it's not sustainable in my book (driving 7 hours each weekend, which I've been doing for almost a year) Â Which is why I'm moving to Nederland CO! 25 minutes to Boulder, 10 minutes to a ski resort (and an hour from Winter Park I think) great climbing, hiking and running trails, 8300 feet, and a frozen dead guy festival...And if you want to go out at night and want see a band, go to an art exhibit or eat in a nice restaurant you can go to Boulder or Denver. :tup: Â Oh, and I forgot to mention the 300 days of sun per year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-spotter Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I heard that there is a flying saucer base inside/underneath Mount Shasta. I think that would be a pretty cool place to live in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 One thing to consider is that while some of the smaller towns are quite nice and close to great climbing, it can be actually harder to hook up with partners. People from such places often rely on a small cadre of partners. In a big place like Seattle, even though it's a bit of a drive to the rock, you can almost always find a like-minded partner for whatever it is strikes your fancy.      Chew dat.  Hey catbirdseat! Fancy some rat hunting? Whatever floats your boat, dude. I keep the rats under control with poison. What else would a self-respecting chemist use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayB Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 So I've lived in Twisp (well, part time) and as cool as it is you either need to be indepedently wealthy or retired (i.e: don't work), earn minimum wage in the service industry, work for the state, or be a doctor/nurse/vet. Since those don't apply to me, it's not sustainable in my book (driving 7 hours each weekend, which I've been doing for almost a year)Â Which is why I'm moving to Nederland CO! 25 minutes to Boulder, 10 minutes to a ski resort (and an hour from Winter Park I think) great climbing, hiking and running trails, 8300 feet, and a frozen dead guy festival...And if you want to go out at night and want see a band, go to an art exhibit or eat in a nice restaurant you can go to Boulder or Denver. :tup: Â Oh, and I forgot to mention the 300 days of sun per year. Â Colorado is not quite as high on the list as the PNW, but it's pretty sweet. Â I think if I had to pick a place to live there and there were no constraints imposed by the onerous necessity of having to make a living, I'd take Salida or Buena Vista. When I was there both were relatively undiscovered and affordable, but that could have easily changed by now. I've heard even a couple of the odd little towns like Fairplay up in South park have started to change from the mix of crazy-ass survivalists, ranchers, hold-out prospectors, resort-town burn-outs, etc into satelites of greater Breckenridge. Haven't been there for a while, so its hard to say how true this is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Â Christchurch, Dunedin, or Wanaka, NZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZimZam Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 What about Russell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlpineK Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 OK, now we are thinking out of the box........ France it is. Forget Seattle!  What about the Swiss Alpes?  I've been in both Verbier and Zermatt. Those places are fanfuckingtastic. Skiing/Ski Mountaineering kick ass from personal experience. Alpine climbing looks great. La Grave might have those 2 places beat for alpine rock climbing, but I may not know everything about those 2 areas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motomagik Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Mmmmm, France. Yes, definitely. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTM Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Since we're talking about France....I might as well join in. Grenoble is an awesome small city. Enough culture and nightlife to make it fun, but like Seattle, close proximity to great climbing. La Grave- 2hrs (plus lots of good ice routes between Grenoble and La Grave) Chamonix- 2hrs (no explanation needed) Presles- 45mins (best multipitch rock climbing north of the Verdon Gorge) Plus crags accessible by bus/bike in town. Mt Blanc and Grenoble seen from the Vercors plateau Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weekend_Climberz Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I'd pick Skardu. Low cost of living, though low living standards and I'd have to tell them I'm Canadian. But look what's around the corner  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlpineK Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 If you want to live in a big city Grenoble looked like a good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 check out Innsbruck for a decent sized city - city buses are free with ski gear. Tons of good skiing/ski mountaineering close by, plenty of rock in the dolomites. tons of ice in a good winter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marylou Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 1. Twisp 2. Bend, OR (though less and less..) 3. Stanley, ID (no one said I had to support myself, and hey! what a town!) 4. Red Lodge, MT (I haven't fly fished over there yet or it may have a higher ranking 5. Cle Elum, maybe  If I had to be practical, and could wait a few years, maybe Wenatchee. It pains me to say that, but the mountain access....yeah, baby.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tvashtarkatena Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 There's only one problem with Wenatchee and Cle Elum... Â Â ...they suck ass culturally. Â Â Forks. Electric City. Umatilla. Â Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TyClimber Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Ok, as someone who lived in France for a year I think I should chime in. France is a nice place to visit, it just sucks to live there. Yes they have easy access to some mind blowing mountains but unless you are going to spend 300 days a year in the hills you are screwed. That is unless you are such a gifted linguist that you can speak French with a perfect accent and convince them you are not an outsider. I am fluent and they still act like bastards to me everytime I go to a restaurant and order with an American accent. You talk about places being culturally and politically stale, France is the top of the list. They want nothing to do with anything non French. Just because their culture is different from ours doesn't make it special or cool. Â I would highly recommend anywhere in the Austrian, German, or Swiss Alps, the people there are far more friendly. Chamonix will always be there for the long weekends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat_Roslyn Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Have you guys even been to CleElum?? There isn't even any good bars and the bakery sucks. Roslyn on the other hand has culture. There is a choice of 4 fine watering holes, a good bakery in the summer, and a movie theatre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattp Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Until my last visit, I never felt the French were rude at all as long as I made an effort, however pathetic, to blunder my way through introductions and basic questions in French. I've always tried to respect some French sensibilities, however: talk in a low voice at the restaurant so your conversation is not heard three tables away, say "bonjour" when you enter a shop, etc. etc. Even in Paris, I have found nearly everyone I met to be friendly enough for my taste. I haven't tried to actually "make friends," though. Â On my last trip we kept wondering: were WE doing something different or had our President pissed them off or just what was going on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlpineK Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 As long as you make an effort to speak french you'll probably be ok. I liked it since I had a few years of french in high school, so it was kind of an adventure just trying to remember stuff you learned a long time ago. Â 10 min gondola ride above town. Â Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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