Our last day of skiing dawned grey and dreary, sadly this had been forecast all week and the forecast was accurate for once. We went up to see if we could get above the cloud, but although we saw one inviting hole in the murk to ski in, we ended up skiing from the very top in clouds so thick you could not see from one piste marker to the next. On several occasions we had to stop to discuss which way was down. Much coffee was drunk….

In the afternoon we skied below the trees to be able to have some chance of seeing, which limits us mainly to the easy slopes. We stopped by the Inuit trail area set up for kids. If we gloss over the minor issue of foam penguins on a piste marked “inuit” I am really impressed by these areas. When DD1 and DD2 were small we took them to Norway where they do a lot for families and children. At the time none of the French resorts we were familiar with had anything at all but they seem to have spotted the opportunity and now Meribel at least has two areas set up as fun ski trails for kids and one has an area with swings and snow slides where they can take a break from skiing and just play. As we went past there were some Huskys that had been brought over for children to see and pet. One or two of the dogs seemed to be enjoying the experience but others seemed to be wondering when they could leave and do some running around…

Not the best day’s skiing to end on, but all in all a good week, we skied 244.5km according to my Navionics app, over 88 runs and we got on a lift 82 times…

And so the next morning down to Moutier for the Eurostar home..

It is a bit of a pain lugging all the luggage ans stashing it on the train but you don’t have to touch it again until ashford… Usually. About 30  minutes before we got to Lille they announced that there had been a security problem and all the checks must be re-done at Lille meaning we would have to take all our bags off, have them x-rayed again and then load them back on. As we pulled into Lille we got all the bags out of the racks ready to get off. Then a new announcement, change of plan, they are just going to bring sniffer dogs on, so we put all the bags back, then silence for a bit. Then a new announcement [have you guessed] another new plan, we do need to get the bags off…. So eventually we get everything off the train and lug it upstairs (no escalators switched on) and wait in a queue while 700 people have their passports checked and bags scanned…

We roll into Ashford 2 hours late, with a good chunk of this time being spent listening to announcements apologising for the problem at Lille. Now when BA messed us about last year they left us to argue for weeks before giving us compensation. In the case of Eurostar, at 10AM the next morning I get this email:

Hello,

First of all, we’d like to apologise for the delay to your recent Eurostar journey. We’re always working to make sure our trains are punctual and we’re very sorry that yours arrived late.

To apologise for the inconvenience, we’d like to offer you some compensation, which you can claim quickly and easily at compensation.eurostar.com. All you’ll need is the booking reference and individual ticket number (which are both on your ticket) to make a claim. If you’d like to read up about our Compensation Policy, take a look at our Help Centre at eurostar.com.

If you’d like to claim for any expenses, please get in touch with your travel insurance provider, who’ll be able to help you with your claim.

Once again, we’re very sorry for the delay and hope we can welcome you on board again soon.

Kind regards,

The Eurostar team
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Bit of a difference?

The compensation will partially fund us traveling with Eurostar again next year I expect. No travel service can be perfect, how you deal with the problems defines how your customers feel about travelling with you again.