Ending Up Anywhere

What a difference six weeks makes in the French alps. We took Cleopatra back to Camping Caravaneige Le Champ Du Moulin near Les 2 Alpes in the middle of February, having spent a week there at Christmas. This was actually our third visit, and the second visit skiing. This time it was far snowier, but also busier, being both French and UK holiday weeks. Equipped with our own skis and still learning on the free baby slopes, it was an inexpensive week of skiing. We each bought a six day walker's cable car pass for 52€. A ski pass would have cost about eight times more. Clearly on a walker's pass you can't carry around your skis and so before checking in at the campsite down in Venosc, we drove into Les 2 Alpes where Brun Sport offer ski lockers for 26€ for a week. With our skis stored in the resort, we had a cheaper and easier ride up and down in the cable car between Venosc and Les 2 Alpes each morning and night. Our days ran almost like clockwork. We'd g...

Today has been our last day at Camping Champ du Moulin in the French Alps. Initially I'd been worried about our lack of planning which meant we'd be skiing without lessons. I fully expected at least one of us would break a limb. But we haven't. It was a shaky start and I almost called it a day on the first morning, but five mornings of skiing later we've really progressed and I've felt quite confident by the time we have left the slope for a late lunch for the last two days. Knowing how to stop is everything. The rest has just come from experimenting. I'm so proud of what we've accomplished on our own, and I know we've enjoyed the holiday more for the freedom that we wouldn't have had if we'd been tied to four hours of lessons every day. Skiing can be very expensive but we've saved money everywhere. We bought our ski boots from TK Maxx for £35 and £25. The skis followed months later from Decathlon; they were last season's and r...

After four hours on the ski slope on our penultimate day, we headed up to La Bergerie Kanata for lunch, as we have every day this week. We both ordered the bacon and potato pie, and it was fabulous. Today though, is New Year's Eve and also Tony's birthday, so I suggested we order dessert of myrtille tart. I told Tony I needed the toilet, but in actual fact I went into the restaurant to ask if they had a candle for when they brought out our desserts. They fetched me a chef who spoke good English and he explained to the other staff what I had asked. After much rooting around in cupboards they found a tea light which I said was fine, thank you. I could see our order sitting on the pass and when the waiter picked it up I said to Tony: 'This is ours. It's coming.' But the candle had extinguished in the wind. 'Oh, and now it's going,' I said, as our desserts went back into the kitchen. It was obvious the candle wasn't going to stay lit but the wai...

Last year when we stayed in Venosc we spent all of our days up in Les 2 Alpes, only discovering dozens of walks back down near to camp as the holiday drew to a close. One walk I particularly wanted to do was to Lac du Lauvitel, the pictures of which looked stunning. So, after two days of ski practice, I persuaded Tony we should do this walk. We were up out of bed as the village churches were, two minutes apart, striking eight. We'd dressed ourselves in many layers and were off on our way by 9am. Despite being a beautiful day with clear skies once again our entire walk was in the shadow of the valley. That made for a cold but atmospheric trek up to 1,500 metres. The first half of the distance was alongside the river. Once the route turned at right angles it was uphill for the rest of the way, at an unrelenting gradient. Tony doesn't do hills very well - I walk at a reasonable pace for a minute, look behind me to find Tony has covered less than half the distance...