2011/2 Finie La Neige

Well the fact that we arrived in France a little later than originally planned has worked out to our advantage – we have found the snow, French school holidays are over, we don’t have to worry about water freezing and we haven’t had to use our chains yet. What’s more with daylight saving, we are now able to sit out in the sunshine for aperitifs or even dinner. It isn’t dark until 8.30. 

We continue to ski in the Le Val d’Oisan to the SE of Grenoble, a favourite climbing and ski mountaineering  area for David in days long gone, when he distained those who were dragged uphill time and time again – times change, as Lamartine’s famous saying warned, never say – “Fountain never will I drink your water.”

Ski lifts in this part of the world run very high – up to 3560m altitude (over 11,000 ft) in Les Deux Alps.  The snow dry and squeaky. We are learning to be crafty, following the sun around the skifield to get the snow at its best.

We are gradually changing our ways from the rush of NZ skiing to the French style

with a start not before 10am, coffee just before the lunch crowd arrives at 12 sharp (see photo – it must be 12.15pm),  lunch when the chairs become available at 2pm (next photo), and on the way home a beer and/or wine(photo again).

We have quickly adopted the French methods of queuing in lift lines. We are pretty good at it - have learnt a lot over the years skiing with teenagers in NZ. Anyway, most of the time the queues are non-existent, so we have nothing to complain about.

We are now in a position to rate camper van stops with electricity, access to ski lifts, view, boulangerie close by, hard tarmac underneath, wifi nearby, and a bonus here at Deux Alps – ‘crazy hour’ cheap drinks as we ski homeward on a little groomed ‘piste’ through the town.

Moved on from Les Deux Alpes, down the Val d’Oisan, with a day’s skiing at Serre Chevalier, a day off at Briancon for rest, restocking at the supermarket, serious washing time, internet time at McDonalds. A quick visit to the old fortified town – a frontier town for centuries – thank goodness for the European Union.  On to Montgenevre, on the Italian border. Brilliant skiing, through the trees, little gullies, tres ambient. So much snow here – marshmallow stuff.

  The second day here we skied the Via Lattea or Milky Way – an incredibly long event, which involves many kms of skiing, 22 ski lifts and lots of up and down, BUT fantastic. A sort of Haute Route for softies. We skied from France, past the 2006 Winter  Olympic resort of Sestriere, well into Italy.  We can never get over the instant change of language – suddenly you have to speak Italian to the lifties. Thank goodness for David’s multi-lingual thing.  And the restaurants – the menus change immediately to polenta, pizza and pasta.  Love it. We turned back 30kms down the road from Montgenevre. David is getting back into his local beer research (as his stocks of English Spitfire run low) and was very happy to tuck into a Biera Moreti at  the summit of our tour.

Arrived back, skied out,tired, sore and really happy.

Have moved on through Puy St Vincent – a small resort in the heart of the Ecrins National Park. All very scenic and lots of great skiing through the trees, which we are quite partial to- just because it’s different for us really. We also love the old villages with charming little restaurants scattered around some of the skifields.

Then even further south at Orcieres,but still on the edge of the Ecrins National Park. So a summer and winter resort. The snow is a bit thin there –no off-piste skiing. The softer snow means we had to use our muscles a bit differently, hence a few new stiff bits. However the highlight of the place for us is the Aire de Camping(or campervan site) which is on top of a multi storey carpark, hanging out over the valley.  The whole town is perched precariously on the side of a steep valley. We use 3 escalators to get up the steep hill from carpark to skilift.  The view is magnificent – 5 Star hotel stuff.  Dinner on the terrace (carpark roof) of pintade (guinea fowl) sauteed in white wine and some Vin de Savoie. What  more could you wish for? Happy campers.(and skiers.)

Back to Les Deux Alpes for a few more days of high altitude skiing (and free for David). No more Crazy Hour – the piste had melted, however we found other means of apres ski. I have to say that our version of apres ski really is apres ski,definitely not after dinner. It’s early to bed for us these days.

Back to Grenoble for further reunions of David’s climbing friends. Wonderful French hospitality with long lunches, starting with Pastis, wine, Genepi (from the cellar) oh and did I forget - some excellent food. A great lunch in a rural environment with old friends –a few less brain cells but what the hell.

We noticed the arrival of Spring suddenly (in the space of about an hour really) as we moved down from the mountains into the valleys. The trees were all green, the daffodils almost over but all the gardens a riot of colour. The difference between our start at Flaine with zero degrees in the van when we got up, to spring now is amazing.

Drove on to Lyon with Brian Daynes – the end of the  mountains. Spent time with more of David’s friends –  Brian and Margaret Page, staying in their lovely house above the city and exploring old and new Lyon with them, making good use of the public transport system. Time to wash all the ski gear and pack it away, take out the bag of summer clothes and head south.