Long time no see! and skiing in France

Hi All,

Well, I've been reminded by several folk that this is horribly out of date (again), and so , since I have some time on my hands, I'll get us caught up!

Quite a Lot happening since before Xmas....I guess most majorly, we bought a flat in London, and have moved in as of the 28th Dec.
No photo's yet (even though it is now March), as the place is still a bit of a tip, and isn't really ready for public scrutiny yet...nothing serious, as the place was newly done up when we bought it, just no wardrobes or storage, so everything is everywhere if you know what I mean!...you'll just have to come for a visit instead!

Anyway, the point of this is to get caught up on the travel we've been doing, so I'll get onto that.

Over Xmas we decided to go Skiing in France at a place called Alpe D'Huez, despite there having been no snow in Europe for nearly 6 weeks! Risky, but never the less, we booked a ski Chalet, convinced Caren's cousin Lauretta to come along, and of we flew!
So long ago now, I can barely recall the detail's of how we got there, but got there we did ..flying into Lyon, and roughly a 2 hour bus journey from there to Alpe D'Huez (google earth kmz to follw).
Caren had booked us in a shared managed Chalet, which are the preferred skii holiday option of most European (well British at least) skiiers.The Chalet itself was great, brand new and very comfortable, with Spa and Sauna, + a crew to cook and clean for us!
Once we'd all arrived (about 13 in total I think?), we settled in for some afternoon tea, and to listen to the snow report from one of the local skii guides who came along to the chalet....his name was Julian....he was tall dark, french and all of the ladies in the chalet (and I expect on the whole mountain) fell utterly in love!...Loretta declared herself willing to have his babies on the spot.
Anyway, more on Julian later...

So, the Chalet was great, and the young couple that look after it and cook for us were nice (both in mid 20's, an English guy and his Aussie girlfriend). Turns out we were only the second group of people they had looked after, and the last batch had been a bunch of uni students, happy to live on pies'n'fries all week...Our group was a mixture of folk , all english (except for us 3 Kiwi's) from 16 to mid 60's.So, it must be a very daunting task to cook for so many people, and have to produce good quality food and entertainment , but the managed very very well...still...not sure if I'd ever recommend it as a career option to any young folk...looks like BLOODY hard work, and I'm sure they don't get paid much either, having been enticed by a season pass on the mountain that they never get to use as they are too busy cooking and cleaning!

(Caren and Lauretta outside the Chalet)

After having hired some skii gear and had afternoon tea and dinner, it was a fairly early night for all..travel days do have a tendency to really tire you out....of course the 2 16 year old lad's were up to all hours, but that's to be expected (heh..feeling so old now :( )

Next morning Caren and I were keen to hit the slopes, and Lauretta was going to catch up with us a lunch time, preferring to actually holiday on her holiday (wtf??..hmm...strange behavior!)

I had decided to try Skiing instead of boarding for the first time, as I always seem to hurt myself boarding, and I'll tell you now, I'm glad I did!...Skiing is SOOO much easier, and more fun as a result!

As I had mentioned above, there had been no snow for at least 6 weeks, so the slopes were VERY bare, and only about 50% of runs being open with man made snow on them (all though some of the higher ones were on a glacier and were still ok, though quite skii'd out).

As it was my first day in Skii's I started out on some easy green runs, but soon had the hang of it and were onto some blues.

Lunchtime came, and Lauretta and I went to do some beginners lessons, whilst Caren went off for a proper ski.

Anyway, long story short, we all had a pretty great time!..Lauretta was Excellent company, and we all managed to get on well and thoroughly enjoy the week there.

Alpe D'huez itself is a nice little town...dominated by hotels and the like, but great Food to be had.

(bottom of slopes, Alpe D'Huez)

Our favourite was a restaurant on the mountain, which had great food, but , most importantly, Sun chairs, woolly slippers and blankets for sleeping off that big bowl of cheese and cream!

Anyway, the days seemed to fly by, with us skiing most of the day every day (all though of course stopping for an hour or 2 for lunch).

Lauretta managed to swindle some private lessons with Julian, which of course I had to go along to chaperon (really..a young lady shouldn't be left alone with such dubiously good looking gentlemen!) , and I swear she was falling over on purpose just so he'd come and help ;)

the other folks that were in the Chalet were all very nice, and by the end of the week, we had become very friendly.

I taught the youngsters how to play Asshole (card game from my Uni years), which was a nightly highlight, and we all went Ice Skating etc.. together.

We were there for Xmas night, which was strange for all, but the Chalet folks put on a fantastic Xmas feast, Turkey, Ham and all the classic english trimmings (roast potatoes, brussel sprouts etc..), and all the youngens (that does not involve Caren, Lauretta or myself by the way) went off clubbing.

All too soon though, the week was over, and we had to leave and come back to the UK.

Good stuff though!