Stephen and Therese's voyage to redemption
together we must fight this false reality!
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Ok – so not really posted anything about the holiday as yet, due tom arriving back, unpacking, repacking, going to Zurich, coming back, unpacking, repacking and going to London.
In the meantime, here’s a photo of the view from our chalet. More to come in next couple of days.
Tags: arc 1800, bourg saint maurice, les arcs, skiing
Lyon to Bourg Sainte Maurice. An easy 200 minutes. Arriving early, it’s to the local Super U to stack up on food (and wine) for the week.
From Bourg to Les Arcs isn’t so simple. Snow chains on …
And the accommodation …(ski in and out)
Night one …. typical France meal.
Tags: arc 1800, bourg saint maurice, les arcs
It’s only 40km from Bourg Saint Maurice to Meribel. Thanks to the Saturday morning ski traffic, it takes over two hours to approach Restaurant Martagon.
We’re at around 1400 metres. The hairpin bends posed no problem, following on from our experience in the Sierra Espuna – one exception being an overly-keep coach driver who nearly clipped us on a bend.
Here’s where we’re staying . the motorhome is parked just to the rear of the place and provides excellent views into the valley. Note the new silver screens . they really do work at eliminating condensation.
We take the Navette to Meribel Village. Though only five minutes by bus, it would be impossible to walk due to the lack of pavements. It’s chalet central.
After picking up some ski passes for the coming week, we eat at the Lodge du Village.
It’s awful. Painfully slow service and a pizza with a topping which appears to consist of Mediterranean vegetables which have been marinated in a vinaigrette.
The return bus appears shortly after and we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing. Tomorrow it’s back to skiing.
Tags: bourg saint maurice, caravaneige, europe spring 2009, france, lodge du village, meribel, motorhome, pizza, skiing
It’s one of those catch up days we have every couple of weeks.
Long lie in.
Clean the van.
Clean the garage (it’s got sand in it from Portugal! …. hmmmm)
Wash the linen. And dry it.
Do a “targeted” food shopping. This involves ensuring all the staples we have are used to best effect, rather than allowing us to be overrun with rice, pasta and pulses.
Unfortunately, this also means we get a couple of supercalorific cakes with some coffee. Never mind, the skiing will have worked it off.
We then check where we’re off to tomorrow. We know it’s Meribel … but not sure where exactly. Never mind … that’s not the first time that’s happened.
And in between, we chilled.
Spot the difference. Therese at the top of the Grand Col at Arc 2000 … wearing a helmet.
We’d both bought them the previous evening. One thing we’d noticed is the number of younger people wearing them. Like other types of protection, it’ll just take a while to become the norm. In 10 years time everyone will be wearing them (when skiing).
There’s a partial strike on today. Some of the staff are not getting appropriate insurance for their dependants in the event of an accident.
Anyhoo … the aforementioned helmets are worth their cost almost instantly as some idiot pulls the brace down on a chairlift way too soon and hits Therese on the head. We’re complete converts.
The day consists mostly of reds …. including a wonderful extra steep moguley one which I struggle to get down. The lifts are a little busier than usual, since around one third of them are closed in support of the strike.
It’s a relaxing night with our usual toggling of channels …. Paul O’Grady, 30 minutes of relocation relocation then the one show, followed by the last two episodes of Six Feet Under. We’ll need to find a new show to get hooked on now …
Tags: bourg saint maurice, europe spring 2009, helmet, six feet under, skiing
It’s another day at Les Arcs, which I mostly manage to spend on the Reds.
Here we are at the top of Aiguille Rouge (3226m). OK, I fell only once on the way down – within around the first 50 metres - but around a third of the people did too!
Late afternoon and there’s a rush for the Navette back to the campsite. The van has room for 7 and there’s around 20 people waiting. Though we manage to get in on the first round, a large French woman eyes me up suspiciously.
I’m faced with two choices. She can either sit on my knees, or I can squash up and share a seat with the less large man beside me. I choose the later and live to ski another day.
Tonight … French bread pizzas with the leftover bread from yesterday.
Tags: Aiguille Rouge, bourg saint maurice, europe spring 2009, les arcs, skiing
Michael Foot: A Life by Kenneth O. Morgan