Day 16: Bourg to Meribel

Another no-skiing day. I left Bourg just before 10am with the temperature at -11C, and drove down to Moutiers, intending to waste the morning there before coming up to Meribel to be in the chalet Les Grands Sorbiers for 4pm. However I can vouch for the fact that there's not much to do in Moutiers at 10:30am on a Sunday! I'm sure the centre-commerciale was open, but I don't need to visit another bit supermarket! So after a cafe I set off for Meribel, arriving at the chalet (after some driving around to find it) at about noon. Mary kindly let me in so that I could dump all my stuff, then I left her to get on with the cleaning. The chalet is really an apartment, but on multiple floors, with lots of wooden beams and funny steps. I think I'll need to wear my helmet in the chalet, I banged my head on beams three times in the half hour I was there. However I have a room with a weird high level double bed that takes up ~85% of the floor space, but huge glass windows in the wall and ceiling that give amazing views up the valley onto the ski area. The views have to be some of the best outside views you can get from a bed in Meribel!

View from Bedroom

View from Bedroom (in other direction!)

There are only two other people staying in the chalet (until Wednesday when some more arrive), so it should be friendly. Mary seems happy to put up with a late arriving vegetarian, and unperturbed when I showed up four hours early.
I'm typing this from Bar Le Poste de Secours in the centre of Meribel, which has free WiFi and hardly anyone in it at 3pm (it's probably heaving at 3am), so they don't seem to mind people coming in, drinking one coffee and hanging around on the net for two hours.
While Meribel is not "Moscow in the Alps" (which is Courchevel) there is a noticeable number of signs in Russian, and the tourist office has all their literature in Russian too. Maybe Russia is taking over everywhere in the Alps, there were some Russian kids in La Thuile with whom I went up a lift. (The instructor asked me to help them up the chair; they wanted no help at all, and ignored me).
Back to skiing tomorrow.