So....I’m a bit behind maybe. We pick up the first day of mid semester break...
March 20 - The trip kicked off in Liverpool, but this was just because that's where our flight to Grenoble was from. It was, in my opinion, not real interesting. This may have been because I was with 3 other massive Beatles fans and all we did was see the Beatles stuff around town: Penney Lane, John Lennon's house, Strawberry Field. Joining me on this leg was my ever trusty sidekick and partner in crime Chris, Katie and Yazmin.
March 21 - We woke up in Grenoble, it's this small town about an hour and a half from the ski slopes. We looked around the town in the morning but by this stage I was just so keen to hit the slopes. We settled in to the hotel at Les Deux Alpes and at about 6 we decided we had stuffed around long enough today and was time to go collect our skis...hopefully they don't close. The place we were looking for was called sports 2000, and it was near our hotel, or so we thought. We went in and he said it was the other end of town near stop no 1 or something, we weren't sure. So we walked up the street and found another Sports 2000, not it either. Turned out we needed the one up the hill a loooong way from where we were staying and needed to catch the free shuttle up. We eventually found it at 6:30 and had all our stuff by 7 ready to catch the shuttle back to our door, or so we thought. We waited 25 minutes for a bus that comes every 20 minutes when we met a bunch of German guys who said we can ski back from just over there. At this, Chris' and my eyes just lit up.
We had our boots on in 2 minutes and convinced the girls that we would give them pointers on technique on the way down. Having had a little experience on a snowboard and waterskis, Katie nailed it, Yazmin on the other hand, seeing as though this was her first time on skis, I think she died a little inside. Meanwhile, Chris and I having the time of our lives. I was so pumped to actually be skiing, I didn't care that it was pretty dark, it had been 2 years since the last time and I knew this was going to be a good week.
March 22 - Chris and I got up early as we intended to be on the first gondola ride. We failed, but I think no 3 wasn't too bad. Our hotel is on the far south of the village which meant we needed to go up and cut across the "front valley" to get over to the good skiing. However this proved more difficult that it first seemed. On my first run in over 2 years I managed to find some very deep, icy powder, impossible to turn in. I think I stacked it 
about 4 times, none of which were good. We eventually found our way down and went up to ‘Toura’, the hub or ‘mid station’ over the back of the mountain. From there we found some pretty damn awesome runs, by the end of the day though visibility became very poor. Near the top I could barely see 5 metres in front of me.
At the end of the day we went to make our way down but were stopped and were made to catch the gondola down as a small avalanche had blocked the path. When we got back at about 6 we caught up with Katie and Yazmin about their day. We had convinced Yazmin – who had never skied before – to have a lesson, but since she slept in til 10:30 she had missed all the group ones and had to fork out €70 for a private. At night Chris and I added to the pasta of last night and improved it significantly. A few games of Dutch Blitz later and it was bed time.
March 23 – Tuesday started at a similar hour except this time Katie bought a Ski-Sympra pass and joined Chris and I on Pied Moutet, the hill on the other side of the village. Katie is a deadset trooper. By her second day skiing she was parallel turning, the snow plough had long been left in the dust and was keeping up really well.
We went
back to the hotel for lunch then Chris and I headed back up to Glacier 3200m. (Sidebar: the Les Deux Alpes village is at 1650m, Pic de la Grave is at 3669m. The temp at the bottom was at least 2 degrees and top was -4...on a sunny day in March.
That afternoon Chris’ binding decided not to tighten properly and he caught the gondola down (again) while I had an hour of skiing to myself which I loved. I discovered the boarder cross and terrain parks which was so much bigger than the ones at Perisher. Then I followed ‘Le Diable’ gondola down to the hotel and rediscovered the icy slush from Monday. At night we went for a walk to find one of the many, many creperies. They were amazing.
March 24 – Wednesday really was where I hit my...slide. My confidence on skis was through the roof. On Monday I followed Chris down every run but today he could barely keep up. But I didn’t mind, it gave me a chance to rest while I waited. We found some truly brilliant runs, my favourite was from the top of Puy-Sailie T-bar, down Dome to the bottom of Le Signal 2. It was so wide, had great snow coverage and was the perfect incline to keep a decent speed while still incorporating good turns. Absolutely amazing.
So I skied down to the ski hire place and the girls met us there with our shoes. On the way back we stopped and bought for dinner tartiflette (just like very creamy, very cheesy potato bake), Raclette (French deli meats with boiled potatoes with melted cheese) and something suacisson (sausages with onion and potatoes in a red wine sauce). All were delicious. Afterward we played more blitz which I won, packed and went to bed.
From the time I landed in France I started to realise every French stereotype is true. From the men wearing turtle necks to their love of food, particularly bread. And for good reason. There was this boulangerie (bakery) just near the hotel and I think I went there every day. I felt very awesome using my limited French to buy something, then walked around eating a baguette.
I think my favourite part of the French experience though was my feeble attempt to speak the language. The course I took last year when I thought I might move to Paris before Leeds was even on the cards helped quite a bit. I had mum post over the notes I got from it and studied up on the way over. Even though most people over there speak (at least) some English it was still a huge novelty to speak differently and have them understand me and reply in French.
The French Alpes was an amazing experience. I would love to come back but I know the rules. Anyway, next stop London. Can’t wait to meet up with Emma today and Amber and Mitch on Saturday. Chris is meeting up with his parents there but I’m sure all five of our paths will cross, but until the next entry...au revoir!
