Residence Maeva Bellecote La Plagne

... the week but on Saturday we leave for St Anton - apparently it's an 8 hour drive so up at 6AM.... when we get there we get to go to our permanent accommodation - we're living with the other couple and apparently our appartment has en suite bathrooms and a washing machine so sounds pretty good to us!

attached a couple of pics showing the view from our window when we arrived and the view now...

speak to you all soon!

Gemma and Dave

... a glimpse of a massive glacier on our way to the mountain and later got a great view from a peak further down the ridge. I saw a glacier this summer in Montana's Glacier Nat'l Park but I have to say that despite the parks breathtaking views, its glaciers were hardly impressive compared to Chamonix. This was a legit, man eating, climber scaling, cavernous abyss kind of glacier. We were able to take a gondola that ascended the peak parallel to the glacier some 12,000 feet. After nearly ...

... worn out.



Friday


< br>Friday turned out to be a
****** day and the clouds were hanging in the mountains just above
the city buildings, so therefore I knew that sightseeing would be
wasted effort. I got up lazily and went down to the reception to
read the International Herald Tribune and around noon headed downtown
to see what was happening. I did some shopping (it had to be dreary
out for me to do some shopping) and then was getting hungry ...

... for
one night on the front end and one night on the back end of the trip.
We spent three days in Majorca and had a great time. The weather
was good for two days and then it rained for the last day and the day
we left. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach and had a great
balcony that overlooked the beach. We took a boat trip to the other
side of the island and a beach that was very relaxing. Barcelona is
a very happening city and we took a open deck bus ...

... is already dropping here.
We finally arrive just after 7pm..a long day driving and I wish I felt comfortable enough to drive, if it was an automatic I wouldn't have a a problem. Too many variable with the manual and the wrong side of the road! The L'Oustelet is a cute hotel with only 15 rooms, and the lovely manageress looks at us blankly when we ask her about our reservations, no matter..she has room. Strange we had booked it on booking.com. Anyways, we go to our top ...

... half bottle of wine at dinner, so realistically, we barely drank anything. I told them we had 1 glass of wine each at dinner ( to make things simple), but they still made Jon blow into this gimmicky balloon and it showed that Jon was over the 0.025 limit. That kind of freaked us out, because we had no idea that the limit was a lot more strict in France. So they say that Jon needs to go back to the station with them to do a real ...

... from 1250 to 2360 meters in the morning, and then walked all the way back down to Chamonix. Wonderful views, but we were shattered in the evening, so we treated ourselves to a fondue savoyarde, mmmhhh!!

The next day was slightly shorter, but we still walked for 5 hours. We even did a bit of 'trail running' when we realised we were half way up the mountain and had a train to catch to get back to Geneva!!

... was served every evening at 20:00 and was always a three-course meal. And I don't think I was ever disappointed. My only problem on the first couple of days was lack of appetite. The first dinner dished up was really nice Lasagne, and while eating the next three of our team arrived, this being Grant, Tanya and Karen, and thus the holiday had officially begun... or had it...? We had to allocate a Fines Master and after extensive deliberating and voting (not ...

... I get a little bit of speed up, then see I'm coming up to a flat or uphill bit. I start thinking 'okay, just keep balanced, keep going, just don't fall over, because then you'll have to get off and walk and that sucks...' and will promptly fall over from concentrating too hard. Then the only option is to remove your bindings and skate along, while skiers zip past, or even worse if it's uphill take your board off altogether and start trudging. Some time in the morning I fell off ...

... of the last word) but it is pronounced meadie, then when u get to the top ur guide will find you and will take you on a 150 ish metre walk along a norrow part of the peak to a place where you will be able to put ur skis on and get on down the hill.
this run's length depends on how much snow they get. but it took my group about half the day.
I loved it. I stayed in a very confortable motel as well. everything was great.
Definately do it.