Day 19: Meribel, Les Menuires, Val Thorens

First the news from last night. Meribel beat Courchevel 9-4 in the ice-hockey. An enthusiastic crowd of somewhat less than 100 people watched the match. A lot of the support was in English. The choice of music (which appeared at every break in play) was slightly weird. I wasn't expecting "Mrs Robinson". For some reason I hadn't worked out that an ice rink might be a cold place, so despite all my outside clothing I was cold by the end of the event. The driver of the ice resurfacing machine got a big cheer when he ran out of water half way through the job. One of the Meribel players was sin-binned for obstruction. It looked exactly the same as the rest of the play to me.

Bottom of Europa Cup course

I was woken by a big crash at 8am, which turned out to be the weird triangular window in my room falling open. That may explain why I was so cold!

The Europa Cup  is in town, with three races. There was an Austrian standing on a balcony above where I took this radio-ing comments on the course back up the mountain for his team, apparently with good effect, since an Austrian won.

Mary suggested that the Messes slopes above Les Menuires might be good, and, indeed they were. The snow was much nicer there again. This did cause me to find the other half of Les Menuires, which means I should maybe revisit my assertion that it doesn't look like some piece of the banlieus dumped in the Alps.

Les Menuires

Mont Blanc in the distance from Bouchet

Looking South(ish) from Bouchet

Since the snow was good and I had time I decided to  see if I could get to the top of the whole 3Vallees, so up to Val Thorens then up the bubble and cable car (Cime Caron) which they claim is at 3200m. From there down a black run round the back (really in the fourth valley of the Trois Vallees) and then up two slow chair lifts to they to the top of Bouchet at 3230m. Back down to Val Thorens and then up on the wrong lift so had a quick run down a nice red (the snow in Val Thorens was nice today!). Up and down via Mottaret to Meribel. A long day, which My Tracks reckons at close to 95km (which may be a slight under-estimate, since the maps shows some use of the transporter beam).


For the benefit of The Editor I have included some photos that don't include Mont Blanc today, though I believe that there's an obscure French law (<insert link to made up Wikipedia article here>) that says you have to have at least one picture of Mont Blanc every day if you can see it.

Day 18: Meribel, Les Menuires, Val Thorens

Over dinner last night I discovered that Peter runs a choir, and is also one of the people responsible for Ted Fest. Here (video) he is as one of the "Christian Brothers" singing his own composition. So, we spent most of the evening going through choir songs, arrangements etc. I expect he'll contact Ali and Dee to talk about using some of their arrangements with his choir.
Up late since it's Mary's rest day so no breakfast to get up for. The sun comes in through the big windows in my room on the dot at ten a.m.. I decided to go in the other direction today, over to Les Menuires and Val Thorens. I had a large omelette fromage frites and demi-pression in Les Menuires. It was so big I was able to resist the "dessert du jour: Tarte Tatin fabrication maison". Espresso Euro 1.90. Les Menuires has improved somewhat since I was last there (maybe 25+ years ago). They've expanded by adding some buildings with pitched roofs, stone and wood, which make it seem less like a couple of blocks of flats from the banlieus dropped into an alpine valley.

Mont Blanc from Col de la Chambre

Up to Val Thorens and around a bit. The snow here seems less icy than on Courchevel, but you still find good "slip 50m" pieces to keep you awake. Probably why my speeds are down! Up on the wacky Bouquetin lift, which is a funny cable car/bubble lift cross. It's like a cable car in that there are only two "cars", so when one is up the other is down, but like a bubble in that there is no stationary cable. The "cars" are like three big bubble lift cars right net to each other.

Up to the Mont du Vallon which the lift top station claimed was at 3000m, but the piste map and GPS reckon less than that 2952m on the piste map. Down the Combe de Vallon red run, which wasn't too icy, but is an interesting run. There's nowhere where it's so steep you think it should be a black run, but it keeps up a decent red-run gradient for its whole length which seemed like > 1km. Just relentless.

No sign of more snow. Meteo France "meteo des Montagnes" had it forecast for Thursday in yesterday's forecast, but it's disappeared from today's forecast.

Time to head out for a snack and then the ice-hockey ("hockey on ice" as the English translation on the posters has it).

Day 17: Meribel & Trois Vallees

A beautifully sunny, but cold day.

Mont Blanc in the distance shrouded in cloud (from the top of Saulire)

Over to Courchevel, but the snow there is very icy, a lot seems to be the man made stuff, which is compressed and icy underneath with a thin layer of powdery snow on top. Much less pleasant than in La Thuile (and La Rosiere) last week.
Espresso Euro 2.30 in Courchevel, and 2.20 at Les Cretes. The snow seemed slightly less icy in Meribel and over towards Saint Martin, but there's an awful lot of exposed ground and rocks with no snow.
Maybe I'll try Val Thorens and Les Menuires tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Mary's day off (because new guests are coming on Wednesday she's taking it a day early). I may go to the "friendly" ice-hockey match in the Olympic ice-rink since it's only Euro5, and I've never seen live ice-hockey.

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.

Day 15: Bourg Saint Maurice

A rest day today. Left La Rosiere about 9:30 and down to Seez where I stopped for a coffee on the grounds that we always drive through. I resisted the attractions of "La Musee de la Nature (et taxidermie)" which is a wonderful concept, but hard to really summon enthusiasm for. I did read some of the displays in the Office du Tourisme on how to recognise different animal tracks, and on the Roman road through the pass, some of which is apparently still visible. So I'm not sure why Hannibal had such a hard time getting his elephants over if there was already a road!
Leaving Seez I immediately hit the traffic jam for the couple of km down into Bourg, and to Sport 2000 and Intersport to get goggles that will work with both glasses and a helmet, some warm mitts and a new pair of swimming trunks to replace the ones I bought here a couple years ago (mostly because I haven't found any in the UK at a reasonable price, and these were under Euro 5, whereas Speedos seem to cost GBP 25).
Finally to the Hostellerie, and then out for lunch (crepes and cidre), then back to the Hostellerie where the attraction of three hours sleep were irresistible.

Up at 5pm and down to the Super U to look for the missing USB cable, which I found (in the U Culture shop), so now I can get pictures from the camera into the computer. Back to the Hostellerie for a beer, catch up on e-mail and then dinner, which was very good, as ever here. The colin came with a sauce very similar to Roger's "Sauce Pirate", the selection of Savoyarde cheeses was wonderful (though it's hard to beat the Beaufort ete) , and it was hard to decide between the mousse au chocolat and creme caramel.

Panache de fromages de Savoie. 

Opinel Knives in Bourg

Much fun with a family of English speaking children from Seez, who wanted me to be a ghost in the bar to frighten their mother, and then ate most of  the sugar that came with my cafe. I managed (with some difficulty) to stop them sucking on sugar lumps and then putting them back in the bowl! They'd already been on coca, so the sugar probably didn't make them much more hyper.

Tomorrow up to Meribel, probably after a late breakfast and slowly, without skiing.

Pedestrian street in Bourg Saint Maurice

Day 14: January 21 La Rosiere & La Thuile

Last day in La Rosiere until the familay are out on Feb 6. Over into Italy with Jenny (the guest, not the chalet host, who was down in Bourg buying food for next week). Down for coffee as usual, then up to make sure Jenny knew how to find Le Rascard which does an excellent pizza funghi for 8Euro. Up the chairs and then back down including some black runs, which Jenny was slightly nevous about, but handled perfectly. Lunch at Le Rascard sharing a pizza, up and down to Arnouvaz and Argilien for a few runs, then down for coffee. Up the chairs, down to Chaz Dura express, and so, ultimately back to France for a chocolat chaud in Le Relais.

I was even persuaded into the hot tub, a  once a week occasion at best.

Looking forward to another great meal to finish an excellent week (as ever with the excellent SnowCrazy team). Those of you who weren't occupying all the spare space here in Chocard missed out on Jamie's excellent cooking and Jenny's friendly management. You should clearly be trying harder next year.

Jim 

Jamie & Jenny

One note from yesterday that I forgot was finding people saying "I must go to Marcruss when I get back to get some new gloves" while I was on a chair lift. So, the fame of Marcruss extends to La Rosiere.

Ian & Jenny

Day 13: January 20 La Rosiere and La Thuile

Thursday is chalet hosts' day off, so I intended to sleep in (since there's no cooked breakfast to get up for), but didn't really succeed, waking at 8:30 anyway. Checked my mail and had some from the Ski Bonjour people who have a chalet in Tignes Les Brevieres. I'll be staying there Sunday week, so needed to call them to pay. As a result of a checking webcams to see the weather and visibility: cold (-10C in resort, -15C at the top) sunny in La Thuile, cloudy in France, I put on another layer and caught the 10:30 bus. I could already hear the omelette frites at the Relais du Petit St Bernard calling but decided that the caffe latte in La Thuile was louder at the moment, so set off for Italy.

After coffee I did the small black run a couple of times, then the women's downhill (though not from the top since that lift seems to be closed during the week). By now the omelette fromage frites was getting too loud to ignore, so I set off back to France, despite it being sunny (if cold) in Italy and cloudy in France. Starting from the bottom of the bubble in La Thuile at 12:45 I was at the Relais at 1:30, where the omelette was as good as ever.
After lunch up and down a few runs before deciding that it was too cold and crunchy, and that I'd like to sort out accommodation for next week (having sorted out Tignes for the week after). So back down, past the market, which seems the same as ever (two different cheese stalls, the sweet stall, the clothing stall).
Looked at accommodation in Meribel for next week. I mailed the people at www.skichaletsmeribel.co.uk  and got the kind of reply that suggests that you should phone because they're never going to look at your mail. <rant> Why do none of these companies have Skype contacts? </rant> In this case, though, they did call back, so I have a double room in a Les Grands Sorbiers from Sunday at a bargain price. I'll try to stay in the Hostellerie du Petit St Bernard in Bourg on Saturday night, since I stayed a week there a few years ago and enjoyed it.
So, with the Chalet Bonjour Bonjour in Tignes Les Brevieres for the week after next and Meribel next week, I'm all set up until the family are out and I'm back here in La Rosiere.
No canapes tonight, so time to sign off and go up to the Danois for a small meal (which was the point of the omelette at lunch).