Skiing (Day Two)

Or Jules' new boots....

Well it was time for Jules to try out her new boots. We started a little earlier today and thought it would be a good idea to try the horrible Tourmaline run again (hoping it was going to be quieter) plus we wanted to take some pictures from the top.

Well none of our hopes were realised. Jules' confidence was torn to pieces by the previous day's skiing so we decided to head back over to the Crystal run that we liked the day before. It was the same old drill, the horrible drag lift up then ski over to the chair which would take us to the top. Incidentally I forgot to mention yesterday that once you get off the chair you have to ski over to the beginning of the Crystal run uphill! While you got a bit of a run up it was still hard work to make it to the top. But the run made it all worthwhile.

We were worried that Jules would not like it, but that was unfounded. We skied there for the rest of the morning. Jules' confidence grew and Peter and I started having races down the hill. We planned on having a late lunch to take advantage of the quiet time between 12 and 2 when everyone else was at lunch. So about 1:30 we skied right down to the bottom and then caught the gondola to the top. The gondola took us to 2480m and from there we had a fantastic view of Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain at 4810m. We had lunch here and then walked over to a viewing area to get a better look at the mountain. After an obligatory snow fight (which I won of course) we skied back over to Crystal and spent the rest of the afternoon there.

Again, we were stuffed by the time we stopped skiing. We grabbed some pre-cooked Tartiflette (potato bake) from the Supermarket and headed back to the apartment for dinner, drinks and cards (which Jules won of course)!

Oh and in case you were wondering, Jules' new boots worked great!



See, I already beat Peter to the right side of the photo!



The French Alps



The start of the Crystal run



Hot Chocy Time... (you can see Crystal and the Col de Plate chairlift in the background)



Mont Blanc

Skiing (Day One)

So it begins...

First up for a ski map of Flaine see here.

After a pretty big sleep in (hey we had the next six days to ski so what was the rush) we finally trundled over to the lift pass buying place around 10:30. By the look of the queues it seemed we were not the only ones that decided to start late.

Complain mode on
Who taught the French to queue? I mean honestly how hard is it to stand in a line and wait your turn? We all wanted to get started so just be patient!
Complain mode off

Well after a wait that seemed to be about three hours (but was actually only twenty minutes) we finally got our lift passes. They had this funky system where you just had to keep the pass in your top left pocket and there were sensors at each lift to detect if you had a valid pass or not.

First off we got on the brand spanking new Grand Vans 8 person chair lift. We were gonna come down a blue run called Tourmaline which looked pretty good. In Europe they have a slightly different grading process for ski runs. With green being the easiest, then blue, then red and finally black. Being my first time skiing for a while we thought blue would be a good intro.

The lift was pretty quick and in no time we were at the top. The first half of the run was fantastic. It was nice and wide and steep in places which allowed me to practice my turns. However after this the fun started. Here is a question for you. How many people can you cram on a narrow part of a blue ski run? It seems the answer is about 300 billion! Now it would seem common sense to me that if you needed to stop on a narrow part of a ski run you would naturally try to stop on the edge. That did not seem the case here. It appeared that the best position was gonna be right in my way. So after dodging about a thousand people I finally made it to the bottom vowing not to do that run again. Peter soon followed and then came poor Jules. She was in pain. Her boots were not quite right which meant she had to put a lot more effort into skiing then she needed to.

While she went off to the ski hire shop to swap them over, Peter and I decided to try another blue run. This one was called Olivine. To get to the top you had to take a drag lift which I thought would be okay until I realised it would take twenty minutes and turn corners! Halfway up Peter fell off (our first fall of the week) so he skied down while I continued to the top. The run was fantastic. It had all the qualities I like in a ski run. Wide, steep in places and not too many people. So after meeting Peter at the bottom we decided to go back up and try again. This time we both made it to the top and he agreed that the run was pretty good.

At the end of the drag lift you could catch a chair that would take you even higher. Thinking this might be a goer we caught the drag up and were gonna ski down to the lift and continue on. However this time it was my turn to fall off! I was close to the chair lift we wanted to get on so I yelled to Peter that I would meet him there. I took off my skis and walked over, but the snow was knee deep in places so it was hard going. I was absolutely stuffed by the time I made it over and it was time to head off and meet Jules for lunch anyway. So we just skied down to Flaine Forum.

Jules had not had a chance to change her boots, she was trying to get a printout of our booking for the ski hire mob first. So after lunch she went to get her new boots while Peter and I caught the Grand Platieres gondola right to the top. We skied down this awful icy and rocky (?!? ) run called Bezlebuth which then turned into the Olivine run halfway down. Jules met us at the bottom with new boots but she was still in a bit of pain so we did a green run which was close by. By the time Jules made it to the bottom she was in tears. These boots were not right either. The only possible solution? To buy her own boots of course! Peter was not happy at this idea, but there was no convincing Jules. So she skied off and we decided to go up again.

After the drag lift we got onto the Col de Plate chair and went back up to the top. This time we decided to ski down a blue run called Crystal. I was in heaven. It was great. And the best this was we could just ski down and get back onto the Col de Plate chair. We did not have to go all the way to the bottom and get the drag lift back up.

Peter and I skied here until it was too dark and then went back to meet Jules with her swanky new boots. After a soup dinner we were all stuffed and headed to bed!


The Grand Vans Lift (and Peter)



Me!



Nice skiing.....



Jules and Myself looking lovely.....

Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski Ski

Well I am sure that you get the idea....

We had always planned to do some kind of ski trip pretty soon after I arrived, but we hadn't planned anything. So with Jules off work for a month we decided that early Feb would be the best bet. Now unlike Australia where weekend or three/four day skiing trips are common here in Europe you can go for 7 days or 14 days (that is a long time skiing) and it is all organised through tour operators. Not wanting to go for that long we tried to build our own shorter ski trip but we soon worked out it would be too expensive.

Scrapping that idea and deciding to use a tour operator we came across a pretty good deal for 7 nights with flights from London Gatwick to Geneva and bus transfers for Flaine Ski resort in the French Alps. The cost each? Just £184.

An early wakening for our 8:20 flight saw the three of us pretty bleary eyed. Jules did some pretty fancy (read fast) driving to get us to Gatwick in time for our departure. At one point she was doing 95 mph and a police car overtook (the speed limit is 70mph on the motorways here). Anyway we parked the car and ran in for our charter flight to Geneva. Britannia Airways was the operator and our flight today was on a 767 (I think it might have been the first one ever built) where instead of 2-3-2 seating they had crammed in 2-4-2 seating. Oh well it was only gonna be a 1 hour 10 minute flight.

Once we landed an Inghams representative (the tour company we booked through) directed us to the appropriate Flaine bus and then we sat around for the next 1.5 hours waiting for other people (oh the joy). Oh I should also mention the charming Swiss passport control person. Even though I don't expect these people to have much of a personality, this guy set new limits for his total lack of anything resembling a personality.

Anyway the bus finally left only for us to be told instead of taking the normal 1.5 hours we have some people going to Chamonix on board and would need to drop them off somewhere. So some three hours later we were finally dumped in Flaine village only to be told that our apartment would not be available until 5pm (bear in mind we had been awake since 4am). So after dumping our bags somewhere we decided to do a little exploring of the village that would be our home for the next seven days.

The village is divided into two areas. Flaine Foret was where we were staying and this area had most of the apartments a couple of restaurants (including one for the Dutch!) and a supermarket. Flaine Forum was accessible via two funiculaire lifts (which were pretty funky). The forum area had most of the restaurants and shops and an ice skating rink!

After doing a little exploring and shopping (mmm salami and cheese) we picked up the keys and dumped our bags in the apartment. Now rather then have linen there waiting for you we had to take a ticket up to another building which would then be exchanged for sheets, oh what a lovely system.

We then went to pick up our pre-booked skis. Now in this internet day of age you think that a printout of your booking would not be necessary (we had noted down the reference number and Jules had a copy of the booking on her PDA). Well that was not the case. They seemed most annoyed that we did not have the printout and claimed that without it they could not get paid... While they gave us the skis they insisted we return in a couple of days with the printout (although they could not help with locating a printer).

Anyway, we were pretty much stuffed by the time we got back to the room, so Peter and I went out and picked up a couple of take away pizzas and we enjoyed a couple of beers before hitting the sack. Tomorrow was skiing day one!



Lake Geneva


Snow!


Le Hameau, Flaine - what we thought our apartment buildings would be like.


Flaine Forum - What our apartment building was actually like


A funky lift

London

Bored. Nothing else to do but head up to London. It is about a 2 hour train trip from Southampton to London although a breakdown caused all the trains to be delayed (my experiences with UK public transport have so far not been the best)! Anyway first stop was Selfridges. You see, Peter has this special glass which only he is allowed to drink out of (Jules has one too) after unsuccessfully trying to use Peter's glass in the previous week he decided it was hightime for me to get my own glass. So we stopped at Selfridges for lunch and then glass shopping. Once that was out of the way Peter made us wall all the way to Harrods (via the Apple store....) where I had to buy something for my aunt.

On our way to Harrod's we walked via the new Australian War Memorial which is in the park chock full of Duke of Wellington memorials (not quite sure of the proper park name) - but it is near the Hyde Park corner roundabout. The memorial has the names of all the Australian towns that soldiers were recruited from for WWI. I tried unsuccessfully to find Uralla (although I did find Urala, but that was not a spelling mistake as I first thought). Took some photos and then continued onto Harrods.

With the afternoon behind us we headed over to Canary Wharf. Previously an industrial area over the past decade it has been transformed into swanky offices and apartments and it is the place Jules and Peter want to live if they ever move to London. It was pretty funky - nice and close to the city, a number of nice bars and restaurants and pretty good public transport connections I can see why they were taken with the idea of living there. We had a fairly average dinner at a French themed restaurant (people can still smoke in restaurants here which is awful!) and then went to the cinema to see Meet the Fockers (it was pretty good). Caught the tube back to London Waterloo for our train to Southampton. Again rail problems had delayed the trains and we did not get back here until 2:30 in the morning!



Jules & Peter


A nice white building in the same park as the war memorial (it is some hospital I think.


Tower of London at night.

Lyme Regis

Well today Julie picked up her new car and we decided to go for a nice long drive to a little town called Lyme Regis.

First stop though was the local DVLA office to change my licence over. Thinking it would be nice and easy I had my 40 quid ready and expected to walk out of there with a nice shiny UK photocard licence. Well it was not to be. First off all licence applications have to be sent of to Swansea (a la Yes Minister) for processing. Secondly they would have to take my passport for the next three weeks. Not wanting that to happen I decided to hold off for a week or so.

With that behind us, we headed off to Lyme Regis. It is in Dorset and about two hours from us here is Southampton.

Well we had a great time there. Despite being fantastically cold it was a beautiful seaside village known for its little harbour (called the Cobb) and its clotted cream teas (which are yummy).

After walking around we decided to treat ourselves to one of these teas before coming home!

It was a grand old day.

The Cobb


The Atlantic!


The High Street


Dont light it Julie!


Lovely Lyme Regis


Reflections?


The High Street (again)!