Ducs Savoy Hotel Val d'Isère

... re staying in a nice posh chalet (one of the ones our company rents out) and just practicing the cooking etc. We're living with all the people who are going to be in working in our resort. There's only 6 of us - another couple and two single girls. also one resort manager.

Monday night Dave did the cooking and exploded one of the desert dishes under the grill so a good start - had to bin the whole lot but not my fault so all good! we seem to have done quite ...

... liquor just before the bar was due to close, and then someone persuaded the owner to keep open a little longer. We probably had the French equivalent of a Lock-in!

Then a brisk walk back to the site, and to bed. I decided the best thing was to go to the washrooms to get undressed, Derek just got into the sleeping bag as he was. By the time we'd both got in, we realised how little room there was. If either ...

... town of Seez. We must have taken some wrong turning around here, because the GPS went a bit mad. So we found a place to turn round (not easy on those roads) and went back until we could agree with the direction the GPS wanted to take.

We'd sent a text to Tom to say we'd arrive about 2 p.m, and could he arrange for some food to be left for us from the barbeque which had been arranged. He confirmed, and said he'd come down for us at that time.

... Ferret ou un taxi nous attendait pour nous conduire au refuge de l'Arpette tout près du village de Champex. Comme vous pouvez le deviner, le diner s'est résumé a une bonne fondue composée de gruyère, de vacherin et de fromage a raclette, arrosé d'un petit Fendant du Valais de derrière les fagots.

Citation du jour:
La Suisse, ça n'est pas si formidable : ôtez les montagnes, qu'est-ce qui reste ?

J 4/ Auberge de la Nova - col de la Seigne - mont Fortin - col Chécroui

Mercredi 2 Septembre, au petit matin, nous passons le village des Glaciers, jusqu'au refuge des Mottets. Le temps a subitement changé avec un gros orage pendant la nuit, et durant toute la journée nous n'avons pas pu voir la chaine du Mont Blanc et les majestueuses Grandes Jorasses.

On commence par une montée de 700 m jusqu'au ...

... Haute Savoie en Savoie. Au sommet du col, on se croirait en terre bouddhiste, il y a des drapeaux de prières accrochés a un monticule de pierres. Puis nous montons à la Tête Nord des Fours (2 756 m), et là-haut, belle récompense, un magnifique panorama, le Mont Blanc sur son versant sud ouest.

Après avoir mangé un morceau, on fait une petite halte au refuge, et là je n'y tiens plus, je m'offre une ...

... répartition dans les dortoirs (j'ai repéré les ronfleurs cette fois ci), douche et diner vont s'enchainer dans une atmosphère joyeuse pour certains, mais lourde pour d'autres, qui ne savent pas dans quel état seront leurs jambes au départ de la 3eme journée...

Citation du jour:
Une des rares caractéristiques des visages fatigués, c'est que les sourires y restent imprimés une demi-seconde de trop.

... season here, but can imagine some excellent biking and festivals. Sometimes the Tour de France even comes through! I am going to keep this posting short because we've spent most of our time exploring the mountains and I think you might enjoy some photos more than a bunch of chatter. I will let you know that we drove the length of the valley, along which are several small villages. The older houses are made with stone and you can see some of the interesting roofs here. We ...

... deck chairs out the front which were spread all over the mountain.

Meribel village was also hosting a mini jazz festival, each cafe's outdoor seating was packed, a few places had bands playing and everyone was kicking back in ski pants and t-shirts having a lazy afternoon beer - it's one of my favourite times of the season after doing the hard yards in January, Feburary and March.

... and lots of it. It saw me skiing in waist deep powder for so long that I forgot what my skis looked like - I've not skied in anything like it before. Unfortunately, along with not seeing your skis, deep powder also means that you can't see other objects. Like tree stumps. I only mention tree stumps because whilst skiing down a tree-lined run under the chairlift, I managed to plough a ski straight directly into one. My bindings, bless them, worked perfectly in ...