We headed out to eat after I had finished Thursdays post. We noticed that the restaurant we had eaten in the first night had some sort of music on, so we thought we would go there and have a fondue. The music turned out to be a guy who handed round a “menu” of songs you could request. He mentioned that he had a spare microphone so that if you wanted to you could join in with your request…. luckily there were all very French songs so there was no risk of us joining in (Puff Le Dragon Magique was not on the list). lots of people got into the spirit of the thing and a few parents got up to embarrass their children. Even the chef came out an joined in at one point.

His singing was not bad, but his cooking was better.

On our last days we decided to do a bit of a tour of our favorite places on the last day. The Weather was starting to cloud over so plan a was to go over to go over to Orelle and stay above the clouds.

 

Up high the conditions remain brilliant but the lower than average now depth was really beginning to show once again lower down. We saw a few lift queues, but with the prevalence of 6 man and 8 man express chairs whey never take more than 5 minutes, and typically at least half the people are not actually trying to get on the lift, they are standing around debating whether Pierre or Martine is going to sit next to Aunt Odette this time, or have there mobile phones shoved in their helmets trying to locate the half of their family that clearly got confused by the concept of “take the left fork”…

While I am on a rant, it is worth noting that the art of putting your skis neatly seems to be dying out…

Anyway, another great “self” in the Orelle Valley. A bit odd to sit there eating lunch knowing that if the chairlift back over stops working then it is 127km by road back to Mottaret…

A visit to the BK park on the way back but the cloud was coming in and the light went flat making the last hour skiing back much less fun. Hard to be disappointed when we have had near perfect weather all week.

Up early the next morning for an uneventful train journey home.

The train was of course full…. I did however get my answer as to why Eurostar don’t run more trains to the Alps at busy times. The Southern French railways use a different power standard and they only have 5 trains equipped to operate on all 3 voltages needed along the route. 2 are on the Marseille route and 3 are on the alps. And there was me thinking it was only the UK railways that had incompatible systems…

Another great week, made even more jaw droppingly expensive than usual by the exchange rate. I’m lucky enough to be able to have the choice, and I think it is worth it.

We first went skiing with these two 11 years ago when they were so small they could not carry there own skis from the apartment to ski school.

Now I find it really hard to keep up with them on the black runs…