Author: travurple

Didn’t do a blog last week, as we thought you’d all be sick of hearing about more skiing, so this one is a two-week blog about skiing. 

More skiing, starting on Monday (13th), we when up the cable car and then the chairlift, skied down ‘Les Chars’ to the ‘Coulouvrier’ chairlift, which was the busiest lift we have seen in our time here, the queue of people was up the ski run, which was fun, standing on your ski edges and watching the novices falling over. Welcome to the school holidays!

A lot more people on the ski slopes, a lot more ski instructors being followed by usual 10 kids each, forming a little train across the slope. We’ve nicknamed them the ducklings. Avoiding one set of ducklings is not too bad, but occasionally you come across two, or even three, sets following each other which is just a pain to get passed.

Tuesday (14th), we got the ski buses to Joux Plane, a Nordic ski area across and up the other side of the valley from Morillon, the ski bus was busy, we got nearly the last two seats on the bus (only one other seat left, which was filled when the bus stopped half way up the hill to pick another Nordic skier). From the top you can see the top of Les Gets and Morzine ski resorts, but you are unable to ski to them. After Monday’s busyness on the piste, Joux Plane was extremely quiet by comparison.

In the evening, after our home cooked Valentines Day meal, we walked out to join the local Carnival celebrations. This included floats with a Dragon and dancing ski instructors, plus toilet roll and confetti cannons! All accompanied by a fantastic drumming band. As the procession made its way along the road towards the local car park, we took a short cut across the field at the end of our road to get a prime position for the lighting of the Pyre to burn Monsieur Le Carnival, a spectacular sight. We are still no wiser about why this happens on Valentines day, but were pleased we had the chance to see it all unfold.

Wednesday (15th) and Thursday (16th), we both skied together in the morning for a few runs, then Nic headed home and Rog stayed out skiing a few more runs before heading back. 

Friday (17th) Nic has developed a painful knee, probably brought on by skiing, so decided not to ski today but instead walked to Sameons came up in the cable car. Rog skied to the top of the cable car and we met for coffee. 

Saturday (18th) Nic again decided not to ski, Rog had a full day out on the slopes, up to the top of the mountain in Flaine, doing a few more new runs, including some red ones. 

Sunday (19th) Rog skied again, Nic gradually coming to the conclusion that the knee is not up for anymore skiing. We met for a beer at Morillon 1100. 

Monday (20th) we got the ski buses back to Cirque Sixt Fer aChevel, as the skies were clear and we wanted to see the circle of cliffs, we were not disappointed the cliffs were amazing.

Tuesday (21st) Nic decided to take her skis back to the shop, as you’ll recall we were offered a great deal at the hire shop for a up to 8 weeks ski hire for €190 each pro rata (collectively we had used the skis for a total of 10 weeks). However, when we arrived back at the shop they attempted to renege on the deal and charge the full €190 *2 = €380, when we were expecting a total bill of €237.50. After getting everyone in the shop involved because Rog refused to pay the bill, the chap we originally dealt with got a bit stroppy and stormed off in a huff to print out the price list and terms for the “season hire”, claiming that it was not a pro rata deal. We finally agreed that we would pay the full season price for the two sets of “eco” skis we had used, his face lit up as he thought he had won, however Rog then pointed out that the printed price list showed a season price for “skis only” at €120, rather than the €190 which was for “skis and boots”. He did not argue and agreed the final bill should be €240 for Eco Skis Only, wepaid the bill quickly and ran before they could change their mind, paying only €2.50 more than we originally expected.Phew!

Rog then went off to do more skiing on his e-bay bargain blades.

At the end of that day we realised that the electric radiator in the living room/kitchen was no longer working, not a major drama as the temperature in the flat was not that low. Wecontacted the Airbnb host, who arranged for an electrician for the following morning. 

Wednesday (22nd) The electrician came at 9am, established that the radiator will need to be replaced, and hoped to return the following day. We managed conversation, mostly in French, about the local ski runs, while he drank his coffee.After that we headed to the market in Sameons by Ski bus. After drinking our coffee by the Lake, Rog walked back and Nic got the ski bus back, still being troubled by the knee.

Thursday (23rd) and Friday (24th) Rog skied back into the Flaine area, a couple of new red runs including “Satan” and ‘Lucifer”, sorry for the pun but ‘Lucifer” was a devil of a run,the trickiest Rog has done, steep with lots of moguls (big lumps). Enjoyable but tricky.  After two good days skiing Rog decided to hang up the snow blades for this season.

It worked out that Rog managed to ski on 32 days, and Nic 24 days out of a total of 57 days in resort, not a bad average given that for the first 10 days there was no snow, and it has only snowed twice, the last time being on the 17th January!With an apology to any holidaying skiers out there,  Rog managed to ski for just less than £17 per day (including Ski boots, Ski hire, Snow blades, Ski suit and a season Ski pass (with 53% early buying discount), by way of comparison a single week ski pass is €321 (or £284), that £40 a day!! A crazy price. 

Saturday (25th) and Sunday (26th) We started the glamorous packing and cleaning process as we leave on Tuesday to fly back to the UK. Sunday brought a dip in temperatures with just a flake or two of snow in the air, but nowhere near the amount that we would have expected to have seen at this time of the year.

Firstly an apology, last week’s blog was published twice, so the email subscribers will all  have got two emails, this was not intentional, even with the irony that the first line of last week’s blog was “….this blog is getting slightly repetitive…”. We are blaming our dodgy 4G mobile phone signal.

This week’s weather has been fabulous, blue skies and sunny all week, great for skiing but not good for the snow and the ski runs. Thankfully the temperatures have still been dropping below freezing each night. Even so, at lower levels, the runs are becoming really icy with limited snow cover. 

We have skied six days this week, trying to pick off Blue and Green runs we haven’t previously skied. Nic also did her first red run this year (Bergin). Rog has been enjoying the snow blades so much we have taken his skis back to the shop early.

It is interesting to see how the ski runs change, day by day, and also within the day. We can ski something in the morning and ski the same run again later in the day, the experience can be very different. More/Less people,  different piles of soft snow and sheets of ice. 

Everywhere is getting busier, a guy, with whom we shared a cable car, who works for the company running the ski lifts, said (in French) that next week, the Paris schools holiday week, will be like a “war”! A bit of an exaggeration, and a flippant use of a very strong word, but we got the gist.

On our day off skiing we walked to Sameons following the footpath signed specifically for walkers, as walkers are not allowed on the Nordic ski trails. Rog managed to slip on a patch of ice, thankfully his empty backpack took most of the fall and no harm done. But after shopping we did get the ski bus back home. 

At the weekend we watch all the Rugby Six Nations matches, a win for England! We entertain ourselves trying to work out what the French commentators are talking about, we could mute the sound, but we like the crowd noise, and to be able to hear the Ref!

Sorry but this blog is getting slightly repetitive, anybody would think we are in the French Alps for the skiing! 

Monday we did some skiing on the local slopes, Rog did a few more runs than Nic.

Tuesday we headed over to Flaine to do a few new ski runs, before the French school holidays start next week. The school holidays in France are broken down into quarters, so a quarter of schools are on holiday each week for the 4 weeks of February. So it is about to get busy, then throw in the UK February school holidays too.

Wednesday, we had the day off skiing, as we had to go to the laundrette, the closest one being in Sameons, a fairly painless experience, the washing machines had timers on them so you know when to head back. We had half an hour around the market, then back to move the washing to the tumble drier, then another half an hour around the food bit of the market. We bought cheese, saucisson and sun dried tomato paste, all after being persuaded to taste by the stall holders!

Once the laundry was done we headed for lunch at a lovely, small old fashioned creperie,

Rog had a mushroom and roquefort one followed by an apple and calvados one for pudding! Whilst Nic had a smoked ham, cheese, spinach and egg one followed by a raspberry, grand marnier and cream one! All washed down with a (small) pitcher of local cider, which was very drinkable, thankfully we had a bus to catch so didn’t order a second one.

We have applied to be volunteer stewards at Carfest later in the year, watch this space, we’ll let you know if we are successful. 

Thursday, surprise, more skiing, followed by a drink at “La Tetras Lyre” bar, the only bar in the village we had not yet been in to, nice bar, good beer, but the most expensive. You have to walk passed it as you leave the slopes.

Friday, Skied towards Sameons, another new run.

Saturday, Skied to La Carroz. Managed to turn on the TV in the flat for the first time to find the Rugby Six Nations, England v Scotland. A good match, the best team won, unfortunately that team was not England! It was interesting listening to the French commentary – Nic understands more than Rog!

Sunday, Rog went out skiing on his own, just some of the usual runs, a couple of them were really icy, so not to pleasant, the rest were OK. They are doing a fantastic job at keeping the runs usable, but they do need some fresh snow. It has not snowed for 2 ½ weeks.

Nic went to the local market, which was slightly bigger than previous weeks, a couple more stalls making only seven stalls in total, so still not big. But Nic was happy as she got a rotisserie chicken and some veg, which we had for lunch.

More six nations rugby, Italy v France.

Sorry but this blog is getting slightly repetitive, anybody would think we are in the French Alps for the skiing! 

Monday we did some skiing on the local slopes, Rog did a few more runs than Nic.

Tuesday we headed over to Flaine to do a few new ski runs, before the French school holidays start next week. The school holidays in France are broken down into quarters, so a quarter of schools are on holiday each week for the 4 weeks of February. So it is about to get busy, then throw in the UK February school holidays too.

Wednesday, we had the day off skiing, as we had to go to the laundrette, the closest one being in Sameons, a fairly painless experience, the washing machines had timers on them so you know when to head back. We had half an hour around the market, then back to move the washing to the tumble drier, then another half an hour around the food bit of the market. We bought cheese, saucisson and sun dried tomato paste, all after being persuaded to taste by the stall holders!

Once the laundry was done we headed for lunch at a lovely, small old fashioned creperie,

Rog had a mushroom and roquefort one followed by an apple and calvados one for pudding! Whilst Nic had a smoked ham, cheese, spinach and egg one followed by a raspberry, grand marnier and cream one! All washed down with a (small) pitcher of local cider, which was very drinkable, thankfully we had a bus to catch so didn’t order a second one.

We have applied to be volunteer stewards at Carfest later in the year, watch this space, we’ll let you know if we are successful. 

Thursday, surprise, more skiing, followed by a drink at “La Tetras Lyre” bar, the only bar in the village we had not yet been in to, nice bar, good beer, but the most expensive. You have to walk passed it as you leave the slopes.

Friday, Skied towards Sameons, another new run.

Saturday, Skied to La Carroz. Managed to turn on the TV in the flat for the first time to find the Rugby Six Nations, England v Scotland. A good match, the best team won, unfortunately that team was not England! It was interesting listening to the French commentary – Nic understands more than Rog!

Sunday, Rog went out skiing on his own, just some of the usual runs, a couple of them were really icy, so not to pleasant, the rest were OK. They are doing a fantastic job at keeping the runs usable, but they do need some fresh snow. It has not snowed for 2 ½ weeks.

Nic went to the local market, which was slightly bigger than previous weeks, a couple more stalls making only seven stalls in total, so still not big. But Nic was happy as she got a rotisserie chicken and some veg, which we had for lunch.

More six nations rugby, Italy v France.

Finally a week’s blog actually started with Skiing! Monday we spent about 3 hours out on the slopes, enjoying runs we had already skied last week (Biollaire, Marmottes, Perce Neige, Marvel & Sairon). Back to the flat in time for a late lunch.

Tuesday, another skiing day, most of the same runs again, but did manage a new one, Combe, heading down in ‘Les Carroz” the next village along. At 6pm the ticket resale website opened for the Rugby World Cup (Union) in France later this year, so Rog spent 4 hours on the computer trying to get some more tickets, but to no avail. We do already have tickets for the semi-finals.

Wednesday, third day skiing in a row, we are slowly getting better and more confident, Rog possibly a little too ‘confident’ which results in a couple of moments “graceful sitting down”, at low speed or even stopped. Skied the usual suspects, as they all lead away from our closest Cable Car/Chair Lift, we did manage a new run, Blanchot, and Rog did his first Red run this year, Bergin, without sitting down! 😀

Thursday, we braved skibuses and their connections, which worked perfectly, we got the first skibus to Samoens, had a 10min connection to wait for the second skibus to Cirque du Fer a Cheval, which is at the end of the road up the valley. We were the only ones on the bus. The end of the valley is surrounded by high cliffs and many iced up waterfalls. The weather was not great as there were low clouds obscuring the top of the cliffs, but it was a magical place to walk around, especially as there was hardly anyone else there. We had a couple of hours before the return of the skibus, so we had a walk through the woods on a snowy track created by the snow mobile. As the track had been groomed recently, we could see that the only footsteps so far that day were from the local Chamois (wild sheep/goatie thing). Sadly we did not catch sight of them, just the hoof prints. As it was quite chilly in the valley, despite our layers, we then went to the restaurant for a coffee and a warm up. After that we headed over to watch a team of sled dogs being trained on a short course nearby, then retraced the steps of our earlier walk as we had time to kill, before heading back to the bus stop. When the bus arrived it was almost full, and everyone, bar one man, got off the bus, so there were only three of us on the bus back to Samoens, to make our connection back to Morillon.

On Thursday evening, after a long drive, Nic’s cousin and husband (both good skiers) arrived for a weekend visit bearing liquid gifts, it is lovely to be able to host!

Friday, the four of us spent a good few hours out skiing with a drinks stop, ‘Vin Chaud’ (mulled wine) does make ones skiing slightly more fluid. Had a really good day and made a lot of skiing progress.

On Saturday, the “Piste des Cascades” (Waterfalls) the longest single ski run in our area at 14km, opened. With our new found skiing confidence we decided to do it, as it was a blue run. In order to get to the top we had to do three new runs across to Flaine, some of which was in cloud. Once we made it to the top of a long cable car from Flaine we were above the clouds with views of Mont Blanc. Amazing! The run began as a wide open piste with lots of snow cover, then there were some flat and undulating sections, were quite tiring as, when you lose speed on these sections, you have to use your poles to propel yourself forward. Rog had his first proper “spill”, which could not be classified as an “graceful sit down” thankfully we ski in helmets, and Rog definitely fully tested his. No major injury but a bit of a stiff neck.

Even further down the run, on the way into the Sixt Valley, it turned icy and narrow, with hardly enough space to turn properly, it was also busy, so not very pleasant. Nic, not wanting to be left out, also had her first “spill” resulting in removal of skis and walking down the slope a bit before ‘re-mounting”. No sure this run classifies as a blue run! At the end of the run, after a quick restorative beer, the only way back to the flat was two ski buses, the first of which was not a nice experience, a big queue, then everyone was pushing to get on the bus! We made a quick connection for the second bus, then back the flat for a quick shower to make our table reservation for dinner.

We were back to “La Carline”, this time Rog had a burger and Nic had Tartiflette.

Sunday, our guests left us in the morning, and after a couple of heavy days skiing (by our standards!) we decided to have the day off, and went for a walk instead. A lovely blue sky day!

We can’t quite believe that Rog finished work 2yrs ago today! (Sunday 29^th)

On Monday and Tuesday, it snowed heavily at village level (700m / 2,300ft) most of the day, we decided not to ski as it must have been a ‘white out’ further up the mountain, and not that many ski runs were open. Sorry it’s another slow start to the weekly blog.

Wednesday we headed up the Morillon cable car (1,100 m), then up the Sairon chairlift (1,700m ‘ish) then down a selection of ski runs (the top half of Marvel, Vielle & bottom half of Sairon) back to Morillon 1,100. With that Nic had had enough, and headed to a café for a hot chocolate, Rog went back up the chairlift and did the whole of Sairon ski run.

On the way back to the flat, Nic was collateral damage in a school snowball fight, that sounds more dramatic than it actually was, one kid tried to hit his mate with a snowball, missed and hit Nic. The teacher was not please, but no harm done.

Late afternoon and early evening we had a couple of power cuts, the longest one lasted only about half an hour. As everything in the flat is electric, including the heating, any prolonged power cut would not have been pleasant. Ever since the power cut the street lights are on in the day and go off just as it gets dark!

Thursday, saw us going up the Morillon cable car again, carrying our skis, on getting out we headed to a chairlift, on which you do wear skis, Nic couldn’t get her skis on, the binding had locked up! So Nic went to get them sorted, and Rog went and did a ski run. Thankfully we were fairly near the ski hire shop, unfortunately Nic is ‘directionally challenged’ and despite the fact we have been to the ski shop twice before, she managed not to go the shortest route to the ski shop, and not even the second shortest route, but the longest route possible in a very small village, whilst wearing ski boots, which are not easy to walk in and carrying skis, and including 2 sets of stairs! Nic’s defence is that it all looks different in the snow?! Once at the ski shop she ended up with a different pair of skis. These new skis are not purple, but are a little narrower and lighter with bindings that work, so an improvement.

We skied in the same area we had skied on Wednesday, just to continue finding our ski legs and hopefully improve a bit.

Friday, another beautiful day, we woke to clear blue skies, and we are getting braver now, we skied over the top into the next valley, ‘Les Carroz’ doing a few more ski runs and chairlifts. As high as 2,118m through the clouds, at 1,740m it was ‘-13c’! so not sure what it was at 2,118m, but can best be described as “bloody cold”.

Just getting ready to go skiing and getting to the top of the first ski run is a lot of effort and takes ages: 

Preparing – make sure you have enough tissues, we usually take a thermal mug of coffee/tea and some snacks with us, and don’t forget your ski pass, then;

Dressing – Fighting your way into thermal layers, two pair of socks, outer ski gear, gloves, snood, hat, helmet and ski boots, then;

Walk – Carrying your skis and poles the 500m to the cable car, whilst wearing ski boots! What makes ski boots difficult to walk is that fact that you can’t flex your ankles.

Ride – the cable car, then put your skis on and ski 50m to the chairlift, up the chairlift, then;

Arrive – Finally you are that the top of the first ski run and ready to go. 

Skiing is a mad sport, or pastime, as we are not sure you call it a sport the way we ski. It also sounds like an line from Only Fools & Horses “I’ve got a great idea, get people to strap two planks of wood to their feet and then send them down a mountain, and charge them for the privilege, we’ll be millionaires, Rodney!!.” – don’t get us wrong we are having a great time and enjoying ourselves.

After 3 consecutive ‘days’ of skiing, we have a day off on Saturday, heading into Samoens for a little explore and some shopping. Back home via ski bus, followed by a walk down by the river, it is now very different with all the snow.

We tried the last of the three restaurants in the village, Yeti, another pizza and local specialities. Nic had Tartiflette again and Rog had a burger, both very good and we have finally learned from previous weeks, neither of us had a pudding. 

Sunday, Nic went for another walk along the river, whilst Rog when back on the slopes, but this time using Snowblades (mini skis – a £21 ebay special, brought in the UK and small enough to pack in a suit case) rather than normal skis. They were fun to use, currently Rog is undecided whether they will replace the normal skis for good.

A very domestic start to the week, as we’ve now got this Ski bus timetable sorted, we went shopping in Samoens, whilst waiting for the return bus we went to a small café /deli for hot chocolate and coffee, they had blueberry muffins and raspberry & almond tart on the menu so it would be rude not to try them! 

On the back of the toilet door was a sign, only in English, which read “If you get locked in, take the key out, slide it under the door, then knock”, the mind boggled – we can only presume that lots of English have been locked in the toilet. So maybe the French do not lock the door?

By the time we got back to the flat the weather had turned, so there was no putting off the housework which needed doing! ….Our interesting life, please keep reading hopefully it will liven up!

On Monday night it snowed!

We had a vague plan on Tuesday to attempt a ski bus ride to Sixt, a village further up the valley, despite it being only one change at the Grand Massif Express Lift, on the current bus timetables there was no easy connection! So we went up the Sameons Cable Car again to see the newly arrived snow, the place is starting to look like a ski resort.

We started walking towards Sixt, but after 1km or so the path turned into a bit of a bog, so we turned around, and walked all the way back to Morillon.

The local Ski Area Authorities announced that some more runs and lifts should be opened on Thursday, so that gave us hope that we could be skiing by the end of the week.

On Wednesday morning we took the Morillon cable car up to “Morillon 1100” to collect our skis, thankfully the  same very nice chap, who gave us the seasonal deal was there, so that made it easier.  He didn’t want any money today, just a swipe of a credit card, and we pay when we return the skis. Result!

Thursday, we took to the slopes! We had to get the ski bus to the Vercland cable car, as there were no ski runs open up Morillon. It has been 7 years since we last skied, so after a very tentative start, we did a nice long blue run called “Dahu”, we then called it a day – for any non-skiing readers, runs increase in difficulty from Green (easy/novice), Blue (nice, our usual choice of runs), Red (only occasionally have we done these), Black (only ever done one small section and never again!). 

So back down the cable car to wait for a ski bus, more drama, the ski bus didn’t arrive, then someone arrived at the bus stop letting people know that the bus had been in an accident! Our French is not good enough to understand any more detail, however the only option was to wait for another ski bus. Eventually a ski bus did arrive with a driver that was clearly trying to make up lost time! En route back to Morillon we did pass the unfortunate bus at a 45 degree angle in a small ditch, it looked as if it had gracefully slipped of the road. We were thankful not to have been on it at the time.

Friday, a few runs had been opened in Morillon, it is only 500m from the flat to the cable car, which is a long way to walk in ski boots carrying skis – so we got the ski bus from nearly outside our door. 

At the Telecabine/Cable car stations, the staff were keen to let us know about the limited runs available, as everyone else was heading for the Samoens area to ski more widely. Only the runs at the very top of Morillon 1100 were open, so after getting the chairlift up, and doing the top half of a really quiet ski run a couple of times, we called it a day and had to get the chairlift back down, which was a new experience for us! 

Our skiing is currently very tentative, occasionally terrifying and exhausting, hopefully only until we find our ski legs again.  After the first scary run, Nic christened herself Captain Snowplough, as this is the default position to adopt on skis in order to limit speed and stop. The second run was better with more parallel turns and less snow ploughing. Note for non skiers, snowplough is very tiring on the legs!!

We decided not to ski on Saturday, we went to find the International Ice Swimming Association World Championship happening in a lake in Sameons, (we hadn’t seen it advertised locally, Nic’s mum saw it on UK TV and told us about it). A 25m pool had been created in the lake, We only managed to see one relay race, before the break for lunch. So we had some “Vin Chaud” mulled wine, a couple of potato donuts (we decided they were more like potato pakoras) very tasty, then walked home again.

That evening we had drinks in the bar closest to the flat, two doors down from the Bakery, it was a very local bar, there was nobody in the place apart from a table of 4 playing cards, it turned out that one of the 4 was in fact the barman. So he broke off his game to serve us. Then all the locals arrived, there was some form of bingo/lottery happening on the TV, and everybody appeared to buy at least one scratch card, and someone even won something??. We were then slightly confused when a woman entered the bar to a round of applause, it was actually the bar maid, who appeared to be late for her shift. So we were never quite sure who the first guy was who served us, he went back to playing cards. This bar was 2/3 of the price of the one last week, and twice as entertaining!

After a couple of drinks, we moved next door to the closest restaurant to the flat, serving local fare, we had a traditional Raclette, which is basically cheese, melted at the table by a heated contraption served with cold meats, potatoes and salad. It was fabulous!, followed by a chocolate and blueberry fondant for Rog and Mango sorbet for Nic, again both fabulous.

Only a short stagger home!

Sunday, the weather is not good down in the village, lots of rain/sleet so had a lazy day at the flat, Hopefully it will be falling as snow on higher ground.

There is no snow here, which is a little bit of a problem if you intend to ski, the only topic of conversation on everybody’s lips, especially anyone here on holiday hoping to ski this week. According to the locals, this is the first time in 36 years that there has been no snow at this time of year, we pick our times!

Thankfully & hopefully, we will be here long enough to see some snow and do some skiing, but only time will tell. We are trying not to annoy everyone with that fact, but everyone asks us when we arrived, and how long we are here for, so we tell them, so far everyone has been nice about it, at least to our faces. It is a beautiful part of the world to be in, snow or no snow.

We could try and fight our way over to Flaine, the highest resort our ski pass covers as there are a few ski runs open, but they are mobbed, so much so, that they have stopped selling passes for that area. So we decided to stay local’ish and enjoy everything on our doorstep: walks, the cable cars and the ski buses, which are still running of sorts!

Our first attempt at using the Ski Bus ended in two “no shows” so we went home, via the Tourist information office, they had no idea why the ski buses hadn’t shown up.

Second attempt – called at the Tourism office before going to the bus stop, and they gave us a new updated timetable, on which they have smashed two ski bus routes into one, but not updated the timetables at the bus stops or online! We ended up sharing the new timetable with everyone at the bus stop, including a very disgruntled German with an American English accent. Before the bus did turn up, on time as per the new timetable, a guy arrived to replace the timetable at the bus stop, thankfully he replaced it with the one we already had. However he was challenged by the German with “Well I told them yesterday they needed to update the timetables at the bus stops, so why has it taken you so long? ….” Thankfully for all concerned the only response was a Gaelic shrug. Anyway, we got on said bus, heading to Samoens, talking to a women from Wales, who was meeting her family at the top of the Samoens Cable Car, saying it was nice weather at the top, so we joined her to travel up in the cable car, it was sunny with some snow, but as Paul Daniels used to say “…not a lot…” but some.

Third time using the Ski Bus from Samoens Tourist information office back to Morillon, firstly another “no show’, so we decided to get on the next ski bus that turned up to go back to the Samoens Cable Car, heading in the right direction. We spoke to the driver, got on the bus, then she saw the ski bus we wanted in her rear view mirror and told us to get off her bus and get the next one, result! we got home!

Fourth time using the Ski bus, it turned up on time ‘ish on the new timetable, so all good, we then walked back from Samoens, along the Nordic skiing tracks by the river. (with no snow but a little muddy and rocky in places).

We had pre booked skis to collect a couple of days after our arrival. As there is very little skiing to be had in the area we went to chat to them about what to do. After a few minutes of a mixture of French and English, and even some google translate action, we managed to a do a new deal on our ski hire. They have refunded us the two weeks we had originally booked, cut a deal on “seasonal workers” rates, on a pro rata basis, but only from when we collect the skis! Obviously we have not picked up the skis yet.

Our flat is 50 yards from a very good boulangerie (bakers), we are already working our way through all the different type of bread and pastries they sell. We have also managed 4 different super/mini markets, and there is a market outside the door on Sunday morning, so Nic is happy! 

Saturday, went out for a couple drinks at the local bar, then on to a restaurant, specialising in local dishes and pizzas. They were fully booked that evening, but found us a table on the agreement that we would give it back after an hour and a half. Nic had the Tartiflette, Rog had Pepperoni pizza, followed by Assiette of three desserts and chocolate mousse respectively, we both agreed we had eaten too much as it was all so good, thankfully it was only a short stroll back to the flat.

Sunday it is raining in the valley today, hopefully some will be falling as snow up on higher ground, but it is unlikely to be enough to open the ski runs any time soon.

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a great December, back in Pocklington catching up with family and friends.

Spent Christmas down in Kent with family, which was lovely. Despite all the doom and gloom about traveling, the drive to Kent and back was not too bad!

We have now moved on to France, via Geneva. We got the train from Geneva to Cluses, then the public

bus up the mountain, we were the only two on the bus, so a private transfer.

We are staying at an AirBnB in Morillon for a couple of months, hoping to ski. However there is currently no snow, it is nice just being in the Mountains, but can’t wait for the snow to arrive!

Think we have finally got over the jetlag enough to publish this blog!

Monday 5^th, our wedding anniversary was another rainy day, but spent in the nice hotel with breakfast delivered to our room. Our room rate included spa treatments, so we had another massage. Very nice.

The hotel restaurant was closed on Monday lunch time and is not open in the evening. Monday was Father’s day in Thailand, which meant some of the local restaurants were also closed, so we actually ended up with a take away from “Duck Noodle” a café/take away in the grounds of the Chinese temple.

Tuesday, breakfast on the patio, another spa treatment, a couple of hours in the sun near the pool before the rain started again! We had a late lunch in the hotel restaurant, chicken noodle soup and ribs. Both were fairly spicy, which was nice as some places strip all the spicy out of their dishes as soon as you order as a “westerner”.

We finished the day with a couple of drinks at our beach bar. As the weather was better than on Sunday, a few more people were in the bar. 

Wednesday, was a transfer back to the airport for a flight to Bangkok, the flight was delayed for a couple of hours, so we got free access to the business lounge, via our Revolut card. (their Smart Delay offering). Finally got to our Bangkok hotel, the “Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Hotel”, which they shortened to “BS Hotel” which we found mildly amusing. The hotel was great for a short stopover £25 per night, including 15 min airport transfers (both ways).

Thursday, 6am we were on the free airport transfer, for a 8:05am 12 ½ hour flight to Helsinki. A good flight as flights go, we had a spare seat next to us. Rog managed to watch 4 moves, Nic watch 3 moves and 4 episodes of Friends. We landed in Helsinki in a blizzard, thankfully the Finns know how to deal with snow. After a 3 hour layover we were on a flight to Heathrow, and a bus to the Premier Inn. There was a clock on the bus and Nic wouldn’t believe it was showing the correct time, unfortunately it was and we had been traveling for 24 hours!

Friday morning, due to the time difference, we were having breakfast by 6:30am, treating it like lunch, Rog had cereal, full cooked breakfast followed by a couple of pastries. We certainly got our monies worth!

Got the bus back to Heathrow, then the Piccadilly line to King’s Cross (£5.50 rather than the £20 for the Heathrow Express, which only goes to Paddington). As we were early into central London, we went to the British Library to their exhibitions on “Hampi: Photography and Archaeology of southern India’, “Treasures of the British Library” and “The Philatelic Exhibition” an interesting couple of hours.

Then a train from King’s Cross to York, an uneventful trip, picked up by family, back to Pocklington and to the same AirBnB we had last December. 

Spent the weekend catching up with family, watching the football and starting the process of sorting our stuff out again to get ready for our next trip. On 31 December we go to France for a couple of months in a ski resort.