I returned from a week in London visiting family to entertain my girlfriends from college days. Sally, Helen, Rigby, Sarah and I all met in Autumn 1983 and have had so many good times together over the almost 40 years we have been friends. Now we have more space in the chalet it was a great opportunity to entertain, and show them some of the lovely resorts on our doorstep. Having returned from his trip to Andermatt, Jonathan gamely stepped into the role of driver, chef and ski guide!
We headed up to Ste Foy for our first day on the snow as the girls needed to hire skis and wanted a gentle start having not skied for several years. We soon found the ideal starter run “Nuts and Foxy” and henceforth became the “Foxy Chicks” on tour. Sally decided that skiing was not for her so chose to do some lovely walks in the mountains instead.
Next we headed to La Rosière on a glorious spring sunshine day. Helen’s last ski trip was here-25 years ago! She assured us that she had skied to La Thuile on that occasion so we headed over the Petit St Bernard pass to Italy. It became a long trip for everyone just getting their ski legs back, particularly as it was really warm with slushy snow on the descent, and we were thankful to collapse into a lovely Italian restaurant for lunch and gallons of water. We had a great ski back to France where Helen and Sarah recovered with large beers whilst we collected the car.
Rain the next day stopped any skiing and there might have been a sigh of relief. The foxy chicks valiantly ventured out for a walk in the rain and then demonstrated various levels of cheating at scrabble. Happily the next day the skies cleared, there was great snowfall at altitude and we headed up to Val d’Isère where Rigby met an old friend Laura who was happy to carry the baton as guide for the next few days. Laura lives in Val and she and her partner Mike were really excellent in finding lovely gentle routes in fabulous conditions taking us all over the resorts from Le Fornet all the way to Tignes and the Grand Motte. Meanwhile Sally and Helen had a lovely walk in Le Fornet spotting a herd of Ibex before taking advantage of the fantastic pool and spa at the centre aquasportif.
Our last day together was St Patrick’s Day. We had a lovely ski with Helen and Sarah, whilst Sally and Rigby took the beautiful walk up to Le Monal village. We ended the week with a great lunch at 1580, warm enough to sit on the terrace with the stunning backdrop of Mont Pourri. Bad traffic from Lyon last weekend meant Sarah, Rigby and Helen headed off early to be sure of catching their flight home. Meanwhile we took Sally to the Le Monal for an incredibly entertaining St Patrick’s Day celebration at Le Monal.
It’s all quiet here for a while with no more visitors for a few weeks. Jonathan and I need to get into training ready for our ski tour next month so we’ll be doing lots of day tours. Happily Jonathan, “cameraman extraordinaire”, put together a little video as a memento of the trip.