Short, Back & Sides

Hi all,

Well a much quieter week this week and not that much to report.  

The weather seems to be changing now but I guess we are approaching Spring after all.  When we arrived here on 14th January the days were shorter and the sun low and even on the sunny days it felt quite cold but now the birds are singing in the trees in the mornings and the sun is much higher and much warmer when we stop for our lunch out on the mountains.  Earlier in the week we had a day off in the sun and did our chores around the van although they are hardly chores as we enjoy doing them as they don’t take that long.  Julie stripped all the bed and caught up on washing, had all the carpets out and did her housework while I got up on the roof and cleared off some sycamore seeds, filled the van up with water and had a general tidy up in the garage - funny really as no different to being at home Julie doing her chores in the house and me in the garage!!  The sun was glorious so we decided to get our chairs out and cook some bacon for our brunch on the Cadac BBQ and some sausages ready for the next nights sausage casserole in the slow cooker.

After lunch we decided to catch the bus up to Meribel Mottaret and go for a walk round Lac De Tueda which is 1755m above sea level.  We usually only see it from the pistes above or when we are ascending in one of the gondolas.  It’s a beautiful and tranquil place,  in fact it’s a nature reserve within the 3 Valley’s and a haven for the Nordic skiers with groomed trails especially for them.  It must be lovely in the summer too so we will have to Google it to see what it looks like without the snow.

It’s quite strange really as we both feel like our time here in Meribel is almost coming to an end which feels quite odd as tomorrow it will be March and we will be thinking about moving on to pastures new.  We have some friends in other resorts, La Clusaz & Chamonix so we may head there for a few days, it will be nice to catch up with them.

We tried to have a detox this week but failed miserably as we only managed one night alcohol free, it’s so hard not to pop in the bar and have a beer with the locals and then wash our dinner down with a glass of wine or two in the van!

I decided that I needed to get my haircut and when you are living in the mountains there is not a great choice of places to go and it was a choice of the local Unisex salon or Julie with a pair of scissors and a disposable razor after a few beers so it wasn’t a difficult decision!  They were able to fit me in straight away and spoke a little English so after a nice shampoo and a sensual head massage (god job it’s quite chilly up here if you get my drift) she set about my hair with the clippers.  It was probably the most expensive haircut I have ever had, €23 with a €2 tip, more than our beers in the bar!!  When we leave here I will be buying a set of clippers!!

We went for a nice walk in the snow the other afternoon and found the animal trail through the forest so I just couldn’t resist jumping on this old horny mountain goat for a quick ride.

Back home our shed alarm has been playing up and going off at all hours so we have had to have that replaced.   Our tenants Andrew & Lesley have been great so thanks very much to them for keeping us posted and being very understanding.

We had an early start on Thursday as we had had some fresh snow so decided to go out on the boards for a change so got up early to beat the rush and catch the first lifts - it was well worth the early start as we managed to catch the first chair up to the top of the Olympic, and we even beat Chris & Ron who normally set the standard for early starts, they were most surprised to see us at the front of the queue at that time of the day!  Once at the top we were greeted by freshly groomed runs to ourselves with the light dusting of fresh snow which fell overnight so we made the best of the conditions before they got too cut up by the mid-morning traffic -  it's so true that the early bird definitely gets the worm.  As the runs were so nice I decided to have a play at riding switch (the opposite foot forward to normal) which was going well for most of the day and felt quite natural as we do this while kitesurfing but by the afternoon I was getting too cocky and too fast and caught a nasty back edge and went down like a sack of spuds right in front of Julie, much to her amusement.

Been out again on the boards this morning and it’s snowing again now as I am writing this and it’s forecast to carry on overnight so think it will be another early start out on the boards again tomorrow :-)

That’s all for now.

J&J

Sleepover

Hi everyone,

It’s been quite a busy week here for us so sorry that our weekly update is a bit late.

Since our last post we have been all over the 3 Valleys mainly on our skis unless we have had a big dump of snow which means we go out on our snowboards, it’s brilliant to now have a choice and to be honest I think I actually prefer the skis now and am absolutely flying which Julie finds quite annoying as 2 weeks ago it was her telling me what to do and now she can’t keep up with me!  Last weekend our fellow campers Pete & Debbie took us over to see the Indian Village in Courchevel where there is actually a blue run down through the trees called “Indiens”.   Half way down there is a real small Indian settlement with a large Teepee complete with animal skin covered benches inside with, a large fire pit in the centre with a cooking pot etc and you can even join them and have your lunch with them and there 2 dogs and outside you can even have a go at shooting some bows & arrows.   On the way back we stopped at the kiddies “Inuits” (meaning Eskimo) Village” for our lunch and Julie liked the look of one of the Igloos although she had to fight off a few of the kids off to get into one, which was a very a tight squeeze too!

James & Charlie arrived in Val Thorens the next valley over on Saturday evening along with William & Emily so we arranged to meet up with them to collect some vital supplies which Charlie had very kindly bought for us and we had also planned a “sleepover” on Tuesday night which the children were really excited about.  We didn’t manage to meet them on Sunday as when we woke up and it was absolutely dumping it down so Julie & I were quite excited to get back out on our boards so off we headed and although the visibility wasn’t great we had a great time and even did the Face (a black run), the snow was deeper than ever we just couldn’t believe it in places it was knee deep!  The snow was so heavy and the visibility got worse so we decided to head back to the van for lunch, after lunch Julie & Debbie went off for a spot of shopping while Pete and I decided to go and have it large and make the most of the superb conditions even though the visibility was poor, the snow was so heavy it was covering our tracks as quick as they were made and most pistes were like riding off piste.  That evening we had been invited over to Chris & Ron’s van for drinks and snacks, it was a great end to a fantastic day.  The snow carried on most of the night and when we got up Monday morning Julie had to use the door as a snow plough to get it open so I knew what my first job of the day would be……shovelling snow!

We had arranged to meet James & Charlie in Meribel-Mottaret so we met up and found some fantastic powder on an untouched black run on route back to Val Thorens as we had to meet the kids from ski school.  Charlie and I cut a few corners and Julie followed but we soon discovered some seriously deep powder and if you don’t keep forward momentum you simply sink to your waist and then have to roll around to get out unlike Charlie who used her ski poles to get herself out, the picture says it all.  Once in Val Thorens we met two very excited children from ski school and headed off and did a few runs with them in the afternoon before heading home.

That night we packed our sleepover bags ready for our night over in Val Thorens.  We got up and out early with our skis on for the first lifts as this week was “silly week” (busy half termers) and was in VT by 10am so we dropped our backpacks off at their apartment and headed off with James & Charlie with a lunch stop on route before picking the kids up.  It was our first mountain lunch so a real treat for us, it’s funny how simple things can mean so much, god it was a mean burger & chips and no washing up washed down with a large beer and a couple of Vin Chaud’s for Julie.  

Again we did a few runs with the kids and then headed back to the apartment for a home cooked chilli & rice (thanks Charlie) and a few games with the kids before an early night.  Before dinner the light above the dining table was not working so James called the handy man who came to fix it.  While he was there I said get him to straighten a large picture above the sofa, with that James said I’ll do it so he removed said picture to reveal a very large graffitied male genitallia on the wall in black marker pen which was obviously why the picture had been strategically placed there, luckily the kids were upstairs playing on their iPads while us four just fell about in fits of laughter and quickly re-hung the picture and luckily the handy man didn’t spot it either!!

Wednesday morning we woke up opened the curtains to snow and poor vis so we decided to would be best to head off back to Meribel, James & Charlie joined us some of the way back but it wasn’t nice and wasn’t getting any better, infact it took us almost 3 hours to get back as you could only see one piste marker at a time.  It was nice to get back to the van for a cuppa and a chill out after the difficult journey back.  Thursday we met up with James & Charlie once again and did a few runs in Courchevel including my first black run on skis which was pretty steep to say the least but I love a challenge, Julie waited at the bottom soaking up some rays as it was a lovely day.  Sadly we had to say our goodbyes as James & Charlie had to get back for the kids leaving ski school, so Julie and I did a few more runs making the most of the glorious weather, on our way home we gave Pete a ring to see where they were as they had had a day out with Chris & Ron, we met up and did a few runs working our way home back to the van but as it was getting late some of the runs where getting icy as they were in the shade.  Chris & Ron are so fast for pensioners, so there’s hope for us yet.  Sorry Chris & Ron!!

Friday we scrounged a lift down the mountain to do a bit of shopping as our 10 litres of wine was running low, thanks to Pete & Debbie for the lift. 

Today we reached day 25 out on the slopes which means that our season ski passes are now paid for so we are skiing/boarding for free from tomorrow!!

Result of the week was that every Sunday they run a competition on Meribel radio to win a Jack Wolfskin jacket and I had missed out the last couple of weekends so I was glued to the radio then I heard the question which was related to the weather report that she had just read out so I quickly rang in and to my surprise I got through and answered the question correctly so I was a winner.  A few days later we went up and picked the coat up and asked how much it would be to buy and to my shock he said about €300 so I’ve had a right result but the trouble is that now everybody we know is going to be trying to win another one this sunday  - good luck, quickest dialler wins!

We have learnt a few new phrases from Pete & Debbie this week, “speed it up”, “flatten it” and “get it down your clacker” but we are not sure if they are technical terms meant for on the piste or for apres-ski in the bar!  We may have to have a detox next week as this week there has been plenty of apres-ski as another couple we met who were here for a week’s holiday have been leading us astray - great to met Richard & Aline and their children Bethan & Finn who actually only live in Hollingburne near Maidstone so I am sure we will catch up with them when we are back in the UK.

We really don’t know how we used to fit work in and hate to say it be don’t miss it at all, and I have been eyeing up some new machinery.

Well that’s about it for this week, looking forward to tonight as we are out for a lovely meal with our fellow campers so that means only one thing NO WASHING UP!

Catch up next week.

J&J

A.W.O.L

Hi everyone we are still amazed at the amount of people viewing the Blog and it’s quite strange how some people are also in strange parts of the world following us.

Big news this week was our cat Millie that was adopted by Julie’s mum & dad (Dave & Brenda) went AWOL last week for 4 days but they kept it quiet from us both as they didn’t want to worry us.  While she was missing they didn’t sleep worrying and also went knocking on doors, putting up missing posters and even driving around the local area and even to our house in case she had made her way back there.  Friday morning Dave went down to breakfast and to his amazement there she was in the kitchen having a drink as though nothing was wrong, they believe that she had managed to get herself shut in somewhere and as Friday was bin day in that area that somebody opened a garage/shed to do the bins and she escaped but luckily she knew which way to head back to Dave & Brenda’s. BIG BIG thank you to them for looking after her and going to so much effort to find her.

The other news this week is that we went and picked up our ski’s, boots and poles and have been out for 4 days now and can honestly say we are loving it but before we made the change we had had a massive dump of snow so wanted to make the most of it on the boards so we headed over to the Dent-de-Burgin area where there is some amazing off-piste.  You just can’t put into words what it’s like to ride down the side of a mountain zig-zagging through trees and around rocks up to your knees in fresh powder snow, it was so good that we did that most of the morning until basically we were both knackered so we made our way back to the van for lunch and to change equipment to ski’s. Well that afternoon we got onto a lift up to some nice green runs around the Altiport, when we clipped in we thought OMG what the hell were we thinking when we can already snowboard pretty well and go anywhere we want.  But hey ho while we are here for this length of time we might as well learn to ski. Julie had had approx 6 days ski school back in 2001 and I had only done about 20 minutes on some friends skis in Canada back in 2005 so you can imagine we were a bit wobbly to begin with but after a few tumbles and a few more runs we were getting more confident.  As the sun was dropping we stupidly said shall we do the Le-Raffort run home which is a red run which goes directly to the campsite, wrong move it was horrendous, narrow, steep drops, and too many trees with our names on !!!! but we managed to get back in one piece and we definitely earnt a beer or two that night.

Well we haven’t given up on the ski’s, we have been out nearly everyday getting a bit better each day and gaining confidence, now we are able to do all the blue runs and to be honest we have been places that you wouldn’t normally see on the snow boards. We have been out a few times with Pete & Debbie skiing as they have been giving us a few tips and encouragement which is nice. Ron & Chris another couple staying at the campsite have a wealth of knowledge of the ski area so we asked them the best way over to Val-Thorens for us on ski’s, well bless them both, the next morning Chris delivered this breakdown of which lift to catch and which turn to take and even had high lighter pens and high lighted on the piste map for the way there and the return. So we set off,  just to give you an idea of how far it is to Val-Thorens an average skier/snowboarder would take about an hour to get there, all was going well until we made one wrong turn down beside this long long drag lift so we knew we had to go back up to the top via the drag so we shuffled in took hold of the pole and with an almighty jerk it launched you skywards so poles in one hand and the other grasping the button pole for dear life it started dragging you to the top, as we were going up it went over the brow of a hill so you start to overtake the lift so a bit of snowplough stance then I looked up to what looked like a sheer face of snow and ice I screamed as did Julie just behind me, I don’t think I have ever been on a lift or drag as steep as this one ever, at one point your feet aren’t even touching the ground as the cable thing is pulling you so up hill, eventually we made it to the top and we carried on with our day out to Val-Thorens (must go back with my GO-PRO camera and film the drag lift) We headed for our favourite picnic spot as the sun was out and it was so so warm, Pete & Debbie joined us for lunch and we had a bit of a chill out in the sun for a while watching people have some major stacks (shouldn’t laugh really) after lunch we followed the highlighted map back home and as we were more confident we said lets do the Le-Raffort run home, well we certainly saw an improvement over last time apart from me having a stack right at the end while Debbie had her camera to hand !!!

Been enjoying watching the Winter Olympics, great that Jenny Jones won our first bronze medal and the first on snow since 1924 - those men & women have nerves of steel on the slopes.

We have also been watching the news and just can’t believe the weather in the UK and feel for all those affected.

We have some friends James & Charlie and children arriving this w/e in Val Thorens so we are looking forward to catching up with them and doing the highlighted run back over there but avoiding the drag lift from hell unless I decide to brave it again with my Go-Pro!!

That’s is for now.

J&J

xx

The End Of Our First Month....

Hi All,

So we are now into February and still enjoying our season snowboarding.  We have met up with another couple Pete & Debbie who are doing exactly the same as us so we have been having a little more apres ski than normal but it's nice to sit and chat over a beer or two and exchange stories.

This week has again been a mixed bag of weather, sun, snow and wind at altitude, I took this picture of Julie on our way back from one of the summits earlier in the week, strange as 5 minutes later down the mountain we stopped for lunch in glorious sunshine on the side of the piste.  We also went over to Courcheval one day to see the International Polo Championships which was being played at the snow covered Altiport but as it was snowing it was difficult to make out the ball let alone the horses but the horses seemed to be enjoying tearing around in the snow but we couldn't work out the scoring system, seems that you can score at either end, or the bloke doing the scoreboard couldn't see either and was making it up!

Our numpty neighbours left the other day, they had borrowed our electric heater for nearly 2 weeks as all their heating & charging system had failed in their van and it was frozen solid.  The morning they left we heard the van start and thought they were doing a runner with our heater so I chucked a few clothes on quickly and knocked on their door, to my surprise I was given a bottle of cheap red wine and moody chocolate plus the heater and a quick thank you, we gave the bottle of red to Pete & Debbie and the chocolate has got an appointment with the bin as we have had one lump and nearly choked!!

Had a lazy day round the van,  did some spring cleaning, washing and clearing of snow and decided to have a day off from snowboarding and seeing as it was so sunny and warm decided to get the chairs out and have a cuppa and catch some rays.

Julie went to see Eclair & Elios the hunting dogs that belong to the owners of the campsite they are super friendly, Julie is the one on the left!!

We went walk about around town and Julie spotted a mini cooper made of chocolate in this amazing shop but it was priced at 69 euros!! Almost too good to smash & eat but I bet it tastes better than the chocolate we got from the neighbours!

Last night Pete & Debbie invited us to join them and a group of their friends the majority of them from Wales for a meal at our restaurant Le Martagon at the campsite.  We were due to go up to Meribel and meet them for a few drinks beforehand but due to the amount of snow plus an accident further up the road all the traffic & buses had come to a standstill so we said it was easier for them to come straight to us.  The meal as always was amazing and it was nice to see people trying the traditional dishes of snails & frogs legs.  Was a great night and nice to meet new people.

Today we made the most of the fresh snow that fell last night so it was up and out early to catch the fresh powder and enjoy the sun as the forecast says more snow is on the way :-)

The next blog update could be quite interesting as we could be swapping one plank for two sticks so watch this space....

That's all folks, catch up next week.

J&J

x 

The Monthly Shop......

Hi Everyone,

We have had a week of mixed weather so have either been out riding, shopping, walking or doing jobs round the van.

Sunday it was a bit cloudy so we decided to get the bus up to Meribel Village and get the Golf chair lift up to the Altiport and do one of the woodland walks through the forest and make our way back down on foot to the Lodge Du Village (LDV) one of the local bars/restaurants just in time for happy hour.   We didn’t sleep much at all that night as it started snowing early evening and all night we could hear was massive snowflakes hitting the sky light above our bed and at 4am we looked out the window and it was still dumping it down.  

At 7.30am Monday morning we were woken by the local digger once again clearing the snow from around the vans at the Caravaneige, he is fast becoming our early morning alarm clock for snowy days……! We just couldn’t believe how much snow had fallen and when I opened the door of the motorhome it was almost right up to the bottom of the door.  We decided to have an early start so headed out and OMG what a day it turned out to be.  We did a couple of runs but some of the higher lifts weren’t yet open as they were still blasting the snow to clear the avalanche risk.  By 11.30am our favourite run had just opened and we were about the 6th chair off at the top after a few skiers ahead of us who were heading for one of their favourite black runs, we headed straight on towards our favourite run and just couldn’t believe it, pure untracked, untouched powder, the best we have ever had anywhere before, it was a shame to spoil it but it had to be done.  We carried on down the run and shouted at each other to do it again so we raced back towards the lift and on the way ended up going through a tunnel which hadn’t been there a few days before (it turns out that they had made it as a diversion as the usual run above was being prepared for racing), it was quite strange but fun. We carried on doing that run until we were exhausted and decided to stop for our lunch.  After lunch we went to do some other runs and again made the most of the deep powder. A perfect day :-)

Tuesday was very cold with -12 at the summit so we wrapped up with an extra layer of thermals and headed over to Les Menuires via Meribel to try out some runs over there, it was OK but we had been spoilt the previous day.  One of the chairs we went on stopped for about 20 minutes and we were left suspended in mid air, so when we got going again were a little bit cold.  At the top we headed down in to Val Thorens did a couple of runs and then had lunch at our favourite spot before heading back home via the LDV and happy hour again.

Wednesday was again cloudy so we just caught up with a few chores and then went for a drink in town at the Barometer bar although it was a little pricey compared to happy hour at the LDV but it had a fantastic view over Meribel Centre and the runs/mountains in the background!

The owner of the Caravaneige had offered to take us shopping today but last night her husband was taken ill so she had to go to the hospital (everything is fine and he will be home tomorrow) so we didn’t bother her and decided to just take the van instead which we thought would be really easy, Julie did some washing and said while it was in the tumble drier we could go to the Supermarche and be back in time for it to be dry, how wrong could we be……

We asked a few of the other English people if they wanted anything and then I started to de-rig the van which usually takes about 10 minutes, everything was going well until I wound the rear steadies on the back of the van up, one was fine, the other was frozen solid to the ground and in a bit of a hole so I filled the watering can with hot water thinking that would free it, about an hour and more water cans later it was still frozen solid, but eventually it freed itself but was slightly bent which meant it wouldn’t wind up fully so I had to take it off altogether and give it a few whacks to straighten it out - eventually it was sorted and I put it back on the van but it had been a bit of a nightmare to say the least laying on the silver screens under the van in a confined space!  We were now ready to go so I started the van up and I put it in reverse but it just wouldn’t move, it was stuck solid, it must be the handbrake I thought and as hard as I tried rocking the van backwards and forwards it just wouldn’t release and I couldn’t drive forwards on the ice and couldn’t go back either - while we were deciding what to do next another English couple Catherine & Adrian asked what we were up to and we said that the handbrake was ceased on. He came back about 5 minutes later and said that we could try releasing it using the winch on the front of his Land Rover Defender which was parked on the opposite side of the campsite but luckily the winch cable was more than long enough to reach and hey presto it did the trick, it turned out that it wasn’t the handbrake at all it was just that the wheels and tyres had been stuck solid to the ground.  That took us another half hour……

I then made my way towards the exit of the campsite, all was going well until I turned the bend and the wheels began to spin so out came the snow chains and the next problem…..they seemed to be too big for my wheel size although the size on the bag said they should fit…by this time I was joined by two fellow French campers who came to the same conclusion - luckily one of them had a set of chains that fitted and got us out so after another half hour delay we finally headed off down the mountain and decided to buy a new set while we were out as we will obviously need them.   We did a big monthly shop in the Supermarche which included a 10 litre box of Rose wine as we decided a little retail therapy was needed after the day’s antics but it’s all part of our adventure and was more exciting than your usual trip to Sainsbury’s!!

When we got back we headed to the bar for a few beers with Pete & Debbie another English couple who are doing the same thing as us.

The sun back’s tomorrow for a few days so we are looking forward to getting back out on the slopes for a blast.

That’s it for now.

J&J

x

Sun, Snow & Stella Artois.....

Hi all, really pleased about the feedback on the blog and that a lot of people are still following our adventure and looking forward to reading our updates

We got up on Monday the 20th to a bit of a dull day so after getting the usual stuff out the way i.e. emails and bank stuff on the laptop we decided to get our walking gear on and do the woodland/stream walk down to Les Allues which is the next village down the valley.  We set off following the signs and I must say it was lovely even though it was cloudy with light snow.  We arrived in Les Allues in about 40 minutes had a quick walk around the village and then both looked at one another and said shall we do the trail right down to Brides-Les-Bains which it said would take about 1hr 40 mins, it was early afternoon so we said let’s do it.

The trail zig zags it way next to the river all the way down and you just can’t get away from the roar of all the water tumbling down the valley but it’s so beautiful.   I spotted what I thought was a mountain goat watching us but it turned out to be a tree stump - should have gone to spec savers sprung to mind!  When we got to the bottom it had taken us about 2hrs in total from Le Raffort so we jumped on the bubble lift back up to camp for a nice bowl of soup and french bread.

On Tuesday the local radio station said that the weather was going to be low cloud below 2000m so we decided to get our gear on and head for Val Thorens which at 2300m should be above the cloud.   We went the quickest route to get high and at the summit we were well above cloud level, it was kind of spooky as there was a thick layer of cloud below us with just the mountain peaks poking through, Mont Blanc being the most prominent.  Above the cloud there was plenty of sun so we stayed there all day and had our lunch perched on a rock on one of our favourite runs.  We couldn’t believe how much building work and changes are going on over there but it was nice to see Val Thorens once again although its not as pretty as the other valleys due to lack of trees.

Wednesday saw the sun back in the Meribel valley once again and not a cloud in the sky

so we headed the other way to Courchevel and La-Tania to the lovely wide open runs over there and it was really quiet apart from the odd russian blinged up to the eyeballs with sparkly leather jackets, gold skis with matching poles and skin tight white leather trousers, OMG what a sight!  We made our way down into La-Tania for lunch in a sunny corner which was nice, did a few more runs and then made our way home.

Thursday was dull again so Julie caught up with the washing and house work and I did all the blue jobs around the van then we went for a walk around town and a few beers.   I tried something new for dinner, noodles with chicken, red & green peppers, garlic, bacon and chorizo with a splash of soy & chilli sauce, I think we were both surprised at how lush it was YUM YUM.

This morning Julie woke up all excited with an extra 8 inches ……. (of snow that is), so it was a leisurely breakfast as usual and out.  Just as we reached the summit the cloud broke and the snow stopped to make way for the sun.  The fresh dump of powder was amazing and hardly touched, we had such a laugh falling over and not being able to get up in places as it needs such a different style of riding.   It was so much colder today and when the heavy snow started again we decided play time was over so did the La Raffort run back directly to the van had a quick cuppa then went back into town for more free Vin-Chaud.

Catch up next week.

J&J xx