The Lurgy

We are now on round two of the dreaded seasonnaire lurgy.  We had a fresh supply of drugs sent from home and are already half way through the stash.  We are both coughing as if we smoke more than Dot Cotton.  Some colleagues have given up and headed down to see Dr Al and got on the antibiotics, keen to save €100 and let nature take its course we are sticking it out.  Our morning routine consists of plonking a effervescent Vit C tablet in water, a few drops if echinacea, 2 teaspoons of cough medicine and 2 max strength paracetamols - and that's before our morning drink of ginger, honey & lemon.

Flying solo

Half term = kids, lots of them! The resort is now jam packed with the little blighters. We have 3 families so 6 adults and 6 kids, all lovely so not so bad, but why so many questions?

The Siberian cold snap has subsided, thank goodness. And the snow is back! It's been around two weeks since we had a major dump of snow. And since then it has simply been too cold to snow properly.  The low temperatures kept the pistes in good condition although they were becoming a little icy in places and the easy access off-piste was tracked out. So this recent new fall - up to 10cm higher up - was very welcome.

Alas Fe had to make a quick dash home to see her mum which left me flying solo.  With 3 families in the chalet it wasn't going to be easy.  Normally our day off is spent lazing in bed but with Fe placed on the early morning bus to Gevena I was off for first tracks.  A beautiful morning with not a soul around, bliss.

20th Anniversary

No not us (that's next month), the Winter Olympics were held in Albertville & Val d'Isere in 1992 and today marked the 20th anniversary of the occasion. Planned festivities included an open ski race down the Bellevarde Face piste, retracing the Olympic run not to mention the parties, DJ's, fireworks and a light show in the evening.

The Games took place between the 8th and 23rd February and during the Games the German team won most medals, with a total of 10 gold medals, 10 silver and 6 bronze.  Curling, although part of the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix, made a come-back as part of the 1992 games and have become a regular appearance ever since.

Maison Moris

Opened back in December this very old stone house became a very little museum to tell the story of a mountain village before and after it became a world class ski resort. After passing it many times we finally, on this bitterly cold day, decided to poke our heads into the 'Val D'isere museum'.  The building, one of the oldest in Val d’Isere, is aptly named  “Maison Moris”. It's partly inhabited by a family and partly museum.  It was pretty small but perfectly formed, real interesting with some great photos and artifacts going back years telling the story of all things mountain sport geared. This old house has a very interesting frontage with 2 front doors, one above the other, so when the snow stacks up, as it tends to, people can enter the house using the top door or bottom door. .. less tiring than clearing a path to the lower door.  Nice!

Cry wolf

Breaking Val news....A local ski instructor has just spotted a wolf whilst out in the mountains near Val d'Isere.  The wolf was seen near the Pont Sant Charles, just 2km from the resort. The instructor did not manage to take any photos but watched the animal for some time through a pair of binoculars. He reported his sighting to the Vanoise National Park, who are now following up the details to confirm the presence of wolves in the area.

Wolves are becoming more prevalent in the French Alps, with many farmers lobbying for the right to be able to shoot them to protect their flocks.  However, organisations such as the Vanoise National Park are looking into ways in which wolves can be reintroduced into areas that were previously their natural habitat, without being a danger to people or life stock.  Wonder if we will come across any whilst out sliding?

Chevril Dam

Every week, whilst on the way to Bourg to do our weekly shop, we've been passing the Chevril Dam.  Today as we were many bookings down we had the time and chance to stop and take a closure look. The whole reservoir was totally frozen back right up to the monster dam.  The original village of Tignes was in this very spot within Isère the valley directly below Val d'Isere. After the second world war, France needed utilities, electricity mainly, and it was decided to build a hydro-electric dam within the Isère valley. Whilst this was a great achievement for French engineering and was for the greater good of France, it resulted that the old village of Tignes was sadly drowned! The dam was completed and the village was totally submerged in 1952. A replica of the original church was created in Tignes les Boisses. Once every 10 years the lake behind the dam (Lac du Chevril) is drained for maintenance work and the remains of the old village becomes visible.

The dam was painted with a fresco of Hercules in 1989 with the help of eight mountain climbers. The fresco is considered one of the largest in the world. The portrait of Hercules was added and funded by private corporations interested in boosting the Olympic appeal during the winter games of 1992 which took place in nearby Albertville, Fran.

When you ski the Sache piste run above Tignes you and rewarded with a fantastic view right across this area which really highlights the impact of how the dam has changed the look of the valley head.

Belfast Beauties

This was our first week with a group of couples.  A real mixed group of 12 characters turned in, truely lovely lads and lasses from Belfast who were absoulutely brilliant fun.  They gave us a great week of cruisey hosting, so cruisey in fact that at times we too felt like we were actually on holiday!  The laughter was so much we didn't only just host this lot we also skied and spent many apre sessions with them too. The line from us most nights ''we off now to get the ovens on'' and the standard reply being ''ahhh forget all that we will be more than happy with crisps and beers''..

They had bought a stack of bumboards from home and most days a some point they would use them to get in and out of town. One apre night it was decided that they, the bumboards would be the best mode of transport to the pub.  14 of us all lined up at the top of the nursery slope, linked arms and then bummed all the way down to the main high street, dodging the piste bashers as we bummed.  We haven't laughed that much for quite a while!

Top Gear are in town

Well James May to be precise.  Filming for the new series he was rallying the Monster sponsored Rally Mini  up the Olympic downhill run, Le Face (only the steepest world cup downhill course in the world!!!).  Having skied down Le Face at speed on the old planks I didn't envy him driving up it in a mini cooper.  Hope he had his snow chains on as it was about -29 and that run gets a tad bit icy!!  There was also a police car 'driving with purpose' in the direction of Le Face too....wonder if they had permission??   Can't wait for the next series.

Freezing February

February has bought a cold snap to Europe and its freezing!  -30 at night and -15 during the day.  We have been checking the news and see that Britain is also shivering.  The Italian capital Rome saw its heaviest snowfall in more than 25 years. Some canals in Venice had frozen over. The Netherlands marked temperatures of -21.8C in the town of Lelystad, the lowest recorded in the country for 27 years. And London's Heathrow cancelled 30% of flights before a snowflake had even fallen from the sky!

We rugged up with extra thermals before venturing out sliding.  Holey moley - nose, toes and fingers seemed to suffer the worst.  It wasn't long till we had to pull in for a hot choccy stop to regain the feeling in our sticky out bits.  Even the hairs in our nostrils has frozen.  My beard was doing a good job of keeping me warm, even if I did look like Scot of the antarctic.

The sun was making conditions slightly more tolerable, but as soon as you were in the shade the temperatures dropped. Later in the day and the cold crept back into everyone and everything. If you touch anything metal with bare skin you will probably stick to it!