Haute Savoie here we come ! - back to skiing

Mon 23^rd

Cold and sunny to start but the sun soon disappeared as we drove NW.  We passed over several Cols that were snow covered but the roads were perfect. As we entered the Ardeche the mountains became larger and more impressive. The road down to Privas was brilliant, full of twists with fantastic views down to the valley. The final descent was 10km and 10% - slowly does it. We found a lovely free aire at Chomerac, unfortunately the water was turned off but we had enough onboard for showers.

Chomerac aire

Tues 24^th

Another sunny start to the day but this didn’t last as we encountered rain as we negotiated our way around Grenoble. We were avoiding tolls so used the RN parallel to the Isere river. What a find, very rural with lots and lots of walnut orchards. I mean lots!  We had the Vercor on our RH side and that also looked very impressive. There were loads of cycle routes marked so it must come alive in the summer months, right now it was empty.  

After a quick shop in Decathlon we parked up at the aire in Conflans above Alberville. This is a very interesting small medieval town perched on the opposite side of the river from Albertville. We had a birds eye view down onto the river and the town. They still had their Xmas lights switched on as the French leave them until after easter. We walked down into town as we both had a hankering for steak frites. Nothing appeared to be open the town was empty. Eventually we found a really nice place the lady said “Albertville – ville mort!”  the steak was lovely, we went to bed very full and looking forward to getting up tomorrow to head to the start of our skiing “holiday”.

lost in translation.........!

moody mountains & Albertville behind us

happy to be back in the mountains

Weds 25^th

Lovely sunny drive up to Bourg St. Maurice a place we know very well from many ski holidays. Nice to be back 11 months after we started our trip here. We drove up the mountain to Ste Foy to collect our skis and kit from longtime friends Sue & Andy. It was really good to see them again and catch up with all the swanky new changes in their Auberge. The newly refurbished rooms looked very nice indeed.

Next we drove back down to the campsite, once installed it was laundry and more laundry for Tina whilst I sorted out the van garage and organized our skis and boots. By dinner time we were both very tired and ready for an early night as we had to get up early to go skiing. Yipeeeee!

Thurs 26th

Blue sky day and very cold overnight - 10 deg C.  First time we have had frost on the inside of a window, but we were very snug and comfy the Alde heating system working very well.

After a bit of first day faffing with boots and kit we were soon swooshing down the pistes on fresh snow with the beautiful mountains all around us. We just love being being up in the mountains playing on the snow. There were a lot of folk on the slopes but we know the area well so avoided any big lift queues by skiing over the lunch period before stopping ourselves. This week is the last of the big school holidays so from Saturday it will be much quieter on the slopes. The sun shone all day and we returned to the vans very happy after our first day back on skis. Tina was in her words, "pooped".

blue sky first day back on skis