March 6 - 8th
Here's the daily blog!
Left the UK what seems ages ago, very early Thursday morning, drove down to Paris where I was dropping Siggy off to stay with my niece. The ferry docked at Boulogne so we drove down a different autoroute (A16) to the usual "Autoroute Des Anglais" from Calais and the A1, good thing was that there were hardly any trucks!
Finding my way into Paris was amusing, been a long time since I've done that, but managed it fairly well, nothing like getting thrown straight into it, tackling the Arc de Triumphe and Champs D'Elyses and then on into St Germain. My niece has a lovely "little" studio apartment on Luxembourg Gardens, top floor, classic Parisian situ.
Spent an an hour or so with her, though most of that was sorting a French sim card out for a phone. If you think English phone shops can try your patience.................
So then had to get out of Paris, which was fun at around 15:00 on a Friday!
We were aiming to be with my brother for around 20:00. He lives on the edge of the Chartreuse, about 30km SW of Chambery, so drive down to Lyon and then go out on on the Chambery autoroute. Traffic down to Lyon was not too bad, but quite bad on the Chambery road, that was probably due to the snow further up the road, as at my brothers in Voissant he had around 45cm's and had been digging out the driveway all day. So was just as well we had the snow tyres as there was no way we could have driven up to him without them. His house is at 600mts and a very steep, ascent with a few hairpins on route., we eventually arrived at 21:00.
Left there Saturday morning to drive down to Serre Chevalier, normal Saturday traffic issue south of Grenoble, but once through Vizelle, was not too bad. Stopped off in La Grave for a quick drink and to get some kit. Then on to Serre to get the keys to the apartment and locate where are lift passes were. Both passed off without any hassle. The season passes we bought back in November for 520 Euro at 25% discount (and when the Euro was better for us) give us 3 days in Alpe D'Huez, Deux Alpes, Montgenevre, Puy St Vincent and Sestrierere and all the Milky war resorts so that's great!
We then had to find the apartment which was not too bad. It's just outside the centre of Villeneuve on the south faciing slopes set back quite a way from the main road. It's a fair "hike" to get up to it, and then we're on the top (3rd floor) but it's a great situation and surprisingly large apartment with loads of room!
Took quite a while humping all the provisions and kit up, last count was 10 pairs of boots! Four of which are mine, comprising Downhill ski boots, touring ski boots, AT hard boots which I use on the board and lastly an old pair of soft snowboard boots, Elaine is just as bad with three pairs as she skis and boards. Then I think we had six boards and four pairs of skis!
Met up with my brothers "lady", Lily, later on, all a bit of a coincidence in that one of her daughters runs a restaurant here in Villeneuve and her other daughter is a ski instructor in Puy St Vincent, so she's been skiing with her grand children for the past few days.
So weather is looking fantastic with clear sunny skies. We're in no mad rush, will be skis today. Left a couple of boards in for service, think I've found a really good shop, guy used to work for Rossignol and in fact turned out he shaped/designed my 197 Powder Gun board. He makes his own range of skis which are very tasty www.ride-doctor.com
Will upload pictures when I get to a WiFi bar as I'm currently doing this over GPRS.
View from the "office"......:)
PS FROM ELAINE
So nous sommes herez at last. Long trip in the surf wagon - leaving at 3,30am, just an hour after Siggy came home from clubbing! Going via Paris, it was sooo hard not to go shopping, but Gavin would not have been amuser! Now we have left Siggy in Paris, and Lou is still at uni, seems we have an actual empty nest. Ohhhh, forgot about le chien....
PPS FROM LE WOOF
Was woken up in the middle of the night - and then spent a day in the van. Though for me it was actually a week in dog time. Had a walk in Paris where all the dogs went hee haw, hee haw instead of barking. Finally woke up in the van - and the world had turned white. Very strange white stuff that rolls for a long time when thrown by He Who Torments Me.
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