On y va

Our last day on the pistes was excellent except for one thing - James' day was curtailed by a sudden and excruciating neck pain as he was going up on a lift. There was no apparent reason but he had to return to the balcony before lunchtime to read his book. Not such a hardship on such a beautiful day but of course he was disappointed that his last day was cut short. He generously insisted that the rest of us continue to ski. We skied around our favourite areas in twos and threes and met for lunch at the top of Roche de Mio where I wisely chose a delicious raspberry tart instead of a heavy (albeit delicious!) tartiflette. Off we went to ski for a few more hours - I was amazed to find myself still skiing all afternoon because normally my legs are done in by the last day. I think they are better this year because my skiing has improved so I have not damaged them as much. At about 4.30 we all (except James) met up at the beautiful Restaurant Arpettes where we sat on deckchairs in the sunshine having drinks.

Later we all had dinner at our favourite Belle Plagne restaurant - L'Alpage. We sat round a big square table and ordered fondue savoyard and pierre chaude; it was a very happy and convivial occasion to celebrate Alasdair's recent 21st birthday, followed by champagne back at the apartment.  

The Vanoise Express

So much to blog about but too tired to write much! The weather continues to be brilliant; our lovely ski instructor says it is the best week of the entire season because there is lots of snow and lots of sunshine. It is so hot; almost too hot at times when skiing! Today we took the Vanoise Express over to Les Arcs and skied to Arc 1800 and Arc 2000, where we had a delicious but rather large lunch sitting outside a restaurant on the piste. Then we took the cable car up to l'Aiguille Rouge which has spectacular views of all the mountains including Mont Blanc. It was quite a big day for me - 41 km which is a lot for my legs! I fell near the end of the day and twisted my knee but I think it will be fine tomorrow if I wear my knee support. David won a zip wire session at the quiz night on Tuesday so he went on it before dinner and loved it. We all went along to spectate. I'm falling asleep here so I will sign off for now. 

Pub quiz champions

Today we met Jamie and Aisling at Bellecôte and the seven of us spent the morning skiing together. It was absolutely brilliant. We skied up to Roche de Mio and over to Champagny in blazing sunshine and had lunch at our old favourite, Les Borseliers. Sometimes part of the group would head off piste and rejoin the rest of us further down the mountain, but we mostly skied together and it was great. After lunch we made our way back to Belle Plagne and Cat and I met up with Jéremie for our lesson while the others set off for the glacier. We had a lovely afternoon practising our turns and chatting on the chairlifts. Among many interesting facts, Jéremie pointed out that the animal tracks that we could see from the chairlift were those of fox and deer. 

Later James and I went out for a drink together and got pizzas for dinner. And then it was time for the pub quiz night. We had a good laugh and the questions seemed to have been designed for us! There was a whole section on flags which was perfect for Ally and Davie, and there was a music section which all of the young ones were good at. We won a bottle of Prosecco and a zip wire session for which we nominated Davie; he was delighted! A lovely evening. 

Bonjour le soleil

The sunshine arrived this morning and James excitedly hustled us all out onto the slopes just after nine o'clock. The mountains and valleys looked beautiful and we could see Mont Blanc. We skied down past the Vanoise express to Montchavin which is the lowest village in La Plagne at only 1250 m (Belle Plagne is at 2050 m and you can ski as high as 2770m). From one of the chairlifts we saw a little squirrel with tufted ears, prancing lightly along on the snow; so sweet. The snow is so good just now that you can ski right down to Montchavin even so late in the season, but it's really weird because it's like Spring down there and the piste reaches down into the village like a long finger of snow surrounded by grass and trees. It was such a great run that we did it twice before heading back to Bellecôte for a pleasant lunch with Jamie and Aisling, who had spent the morning at the glacier. Then Cat and I made our way back to Belle Plagne to meet Jéremie for our ski lesson while the others headed for Montalbert. Again our lesson was both fun and useful. We went up to the top of Roche de Mio and Jéremie pointed out different mountains and runs to us, he showed us Les Arcs in the next valley and Courchevel in the distance. We skied some lovely runs; my favourite is Levasset which is long, wide, and steep enough to go nice and fast while you take in the beautiful views. All the while Jéremie kept an eye on our progress and gave us individualised tips on how to improve. I really felt that it was helping me to ski in a more efficient and therefore more relaxed and enjoyable way. Our pre-dinner drinks were taken in the atmospheric Le Cheyenne and we went back to the apartment for chilli con carne and a relaxing evening. 

Un jour blanc

All went according to plan on the first morning of our ski holiday. James' plan that is; he is very efficient at getting us organised in the morning. We all got ready while James went to the patisserie to buy our pains au chocolat for breakfast; we left the apartment at 9, went to the ski hire shop and were on the  slopes by 10. We started off by skiing down to Bellecôte then skied around the area above Arpettes to get our bearings and get used to being back on the pistes. We met Jamie and Aisling for lunch, then Cat and I went to our ski lesson pour deux. I was a bit concerned that we would be allocated a wizened, cigarette smoking old ski instructor, however we were given cute twenty-five year old Jéremie. who was just lovely. He was brought up in Chambery and works as a ski instructor in the winter and as a carpenter in the summer. We explained to him that over the next four afternoons we would like to brush up on technique while enjoying exploring the resort, and he totally understood. So he guided us around and he gave us advice on what to work on, it was great fun. Cat was absolutely brilliant and Jéremie couldn't believe that she has only had four ski lessons on an artificial slope and has only skied on snow once, for two hours in Oslo. She is already skiing nearly parallel and will soon be way ahead of me, however for this holiday it's really nice to have lessons together and we had such a good laugh. Today the weather was cloudy with light snow and in some places quite misty, so it was hard to see the pistes clearly and it was reassuring to have a guide who knew the layout of the resort like the back of his hand. Jéremie told us that this is called "un jour blanc". At one point he warned us that there was a steep drop to our right which we couldn't see at all in the flat light - as we skied along we saw a man fall off it! (He was fine.) Meanwhile the rest of the gang were skiing around together at a lively pace and they skied up to us on one of our runs and we introduced them to our instructor. 

The two and a half hours flew by and we just had time for showers back at the apartment before meeting Jamie and Aisling for drinks at La Têtine, where there was a good country and western duo playing. We all swapped ski stories and listened to the excellent music and I felt very relaxed and happy.

Journey to Belle Plagne

After what seems like rather a long journey we have arrived in our apartment in the ski resort of Belle Plagne in the French Alps. First of all Tom and Ruby went on their own holiday to the cattery. They cried all the way in the car (probably because they thought that they were going to the vet!) It's the same excellent cattery that Jack and Jill used to go to, spacious and comfortable with lovely owners whom we know well, so I have no qualms about leaving them there. We then set off for the airport and had a leisurely lunch after checking in. There was a stag party of about eight young men sitting beside us on our flight who became increasingly drunk during the journey because they were refilling bottles of tango with vodka that they had bought in duty free. They offered me some but I declined! One of them was dressed as the disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile (I always thought he was creepy but I was shocked when it all came out after he died that he really was a child sex abuser) and his friends shouted "Jimmy! Jimmy!" endlessly. I heard a little girl asking her father "Is Jimmy a pop star?" to which he diplomatically replied "Yes that's right." To make matters worse one of the inebriated band asked the steward pointedly if the co-pilot was having a bad day and whether he would be landing the plane. This was clearly a very poor taste reference to the co-pilot who locked his captain out of the cockpit last week and deliberately crashed his plane into the French Alps, killing himself and all on board. The steward understandably just walked away without replying.

I suppose the whole journey was only eight hours or so including car, flight and bus journey. which is not at all unreasonable, but it felt quite long, perhaps due to the stag party who although friendly were rather wearing, or perhaps due to arriving at the resort in the dark which I always find a little dispiriting. We were cheered by the large amount of snow on the mountains; Belle Plagne has had more snow this past week than in the whole season up to now, which is good news for us. And our apartment is clean, well appointed and more spacious than we thought it would be.

We soon met up with Jamie and Aisling who flew out from Edinburgh earlier today and had a lively and enjoyable supper in the nearby K2 restaurant. Everyone was in good spirits and looking forward to our holiday.

Holiday haircut

I'm sitting in the hairdressers feeling very happy to be on holiday. It was a busy but productive week at school and everything is up to date and in good order. Ally arrived home from Oslo yesterday, hooray! After work I drove through to Edinburgh, met Cat at Ingliston tram station, and drove the short distance to the airport. After accidentally driving through the drop off area (for which mistake we had to pay £1 to get out again!) we parked in the short stay car park and had a lovely coffee and a chat at the arrivals gate while awaiting our boy. It was so great to see Ally and we headed home where Davie had kindly cooked haggis, neeps and tatties for tea. A convivial evening followed and Ally showed us some amazing photos from his trips around Norway. 

I'm mostly packed for our holiday and have a pleasant day planned including meeting Heather for lunch - her and Ewan's birthday present to me.