It just gets better! - Day 2 at Les Grand Montets

Apologies, not much in the way of photos today. We were too busy skiing!! Both of us benefited from an early night and a good sleep, and although we didn't quite make a "crack o' dawn" start we did manage a respectably prompt start. The Autoroute was dead quiet and it took us just 40 minutes to get to Argentiere for our second day skiing at Les Grand Montets.

To get an idea of the lifts take a look at http://www.chamonix.com/page.php?page=63&r=domaines_skiables_grands_montets&ling=en. But the map really doesn't do justice to the immense size of the mountain. There were only 3 lifts open but the length and variation of the terrain is incredible! We were also blessed with fine and clear weather all day. Cold temperatures and a light dusting of snow overnight meant the snow was still in terrific condition. We did some ripper runs down through the trees and found pockets of untouched powder. It was a little tight between the rocks, trees and shrubs and we were getting some funny calls from the chairlift which was above us. Maybe this meant that we shouldn't have been skiing this run? Certainly the coverage was not great - but hey! We've skiied much worse -ie., Matukituki Bowl at the end of the season. I guess the Europeans are a little more discerning about what they consider to be a skiable run?

In the afternoon we met up with a delightful couple from Belfast - Ken & Pat. They own 4 apartments in Argentiere and are regular Grand Montets skiers. We truly lucked it! They showed us all their secret runs. Like us, they shun "the piste" and prefer to head off to find new lines. Fortunately for us, they too were on their second day out and liked to stop 3 or 4 times down a run. Thank goodness - otherwise we wouldn't have been able to keep up! At the end of the day, Ken & Pat invited us for a drink at their apartment about 200m from the cable car. Their other apartments are literally on the piste in front of the cable car!! Their own apartment is in a gorgeous 200 year old farm house that has been converted into apartments. These chalets all have a unique style with timber features everywhere. We enjoyed skiing with them and we have swapped emails in the hope that we might be able to catch up with them another time. There is nothing like having a local show you their field.

Tonight we are officially tired little bunnies!! Tommorrow we start our French lessons!! Wish us luck.

For our NZ friends - see photo above. The European Kea equivalent - Ravens..lurking, lurking, lurking......

First day's skiing at Les Grand Montets - Chamonix

"The Cable Car Crush"

Remind me again, why do we ski in New Zealand or Australia? Oh that's right! It must only be because you can't go skiing in Europe in July, August or September.

Today was Day 1 : Opening day at Les Grand Montets, one of the 4 or 5 Chamonix ski resorts. Even though the resort was barely open with only the cable car, gondola and 2 chairlifts open, the terrain was unbelievable! The snow was light and there was plenty of off-piste. I had a misfounded belief that the European resorts would all be groomed to death!! Not the case. Lots of rocks, trees and hidden holes - just like skiing at home!! Despite both of us suffering from a very heavy dinner and late night, we both acquitted ourselves OK for the first day, although we were later starting than we had anticipated. Graeme had to first call into the Chamonix village to pick up his new skis!! Both of us love our new gear, although it will take some breaking in!!

The cable car was an experience. A good head for heights is a must!! Not being too claustrophobic is helpful too! They pack 60 people into the carriage. It's push, shove, jostle and hustle. Moira has mentioned the infamous French queuing technique from time to time...but we have now experienced it first hand. Apparantly it was positively civilised today because it was not that crowded!! Oh dear! Are we in for a culture shock?

Here's some photos from today. Still a few rocks here and there, but the snow was light and fluffy. We only skied about half the available area - so of course we are heading back there again tomorrow ....at the "crack 'o dawn"!

Sixt-fer a Cheval & The Dinner Party

Did you know that our car was 4WD? Well it's not, but with the help of those new pneu hivre (winter tyres), the trusty Peugeot 207 is taking us every where we want to go. Including deep snow driving!! See the above photo. Today we took a drive, essentially to the other side of our mountain range - ie. a parallel valley to the north of us. The ski resorts of Samoens and Morillion which are linked to our ski area, Les Carroz are here. And at the head of the valley is a charming little town called Sixt-fer a Cheval. It is surrounded on all sides by the steep granite faces of the French Alps main spine. Everything in the village is shut down for winter, but it in summer it is the portal for a beautiful national park, and we imagine it must just hum with people! We drove through the village and right to the wall of the mountain cirque to the Cascade de Rouget - a spectacular little waterfall which is, in winter, all but frozen. If you want to see what it looks like in summer - take a look at http://www.sixtferacheval.com/anglais/spot/cascade.php. As we first mentioned, the road up to the Cascade was thick with snow, but despite Graeme's misgivings, the 207 clawed its way up the road without any problems!! What a little beauty!!

Next we headed into the Cirque du Fer à Cheval National Park. As the name says this is an incredible steep sided valley end. There were very few people about and so we headed off for about an hour's walk through the forest. The snow was deep and the going was hard, although we are getting very used to "post-holing" through the snow. After our recent cold spell, the temperature has been steadily rising and all around us small ice and snow avalanches were being triggered. We would hear a sharp "Crack" and then a deep rumble as the ice and snow tumbled off the cliff sides.

Home for domestic duties! Tragically, even thought the apartment is tiny it does not clean itself! But we had a good night out to look forward to. Liz & Rick had invited us to dinner with 10 other English speakers. We are really not ready to inflict ourselves on the French just yet!!

What a night! Liz cooked up a storm (Wild Boar no less !) and Rick is quite the "sommelier" His knowledge of French wines is excellent. Attending were 2 other English couples who also were running chalets nearby. We spent quite a bit of our time talking to Ray & Carolyn. They own two chalets, one of which they run as self catered and the other as a full hosted experience. Carolyn is Scottish with a delightfully cheery personality. We were of course, instantly reminded of Moira and her family. Her husband Ray, was a surprise. Quite and almost librarian in demeanour, he had a quick and dry wit. And most surprisingly of all he was into heavy metal rock music!! Sue & Gavin, closer in age to us, also run chalets, but they have just leased them rather than actually buying the freehold. Sue is learning French with Liz. A great fun couple. Next were a lesbian couple, Helen and Sarah. Helen is a builder and does a lot of renovation in the local area. They had brought along Cameron - a young fellow from Brisbane who is a professional rugby player. But he is currently working for Helen while he renegotiates his contract with a French team. He was quite a charater!! Being quite a bit younger than all of us, I'm not sure what he made of it all!!

But the night was a great success. Rick showed us his party trick - being able to climb around his chair without touching the ground. No mean feat!! So we thought we might share a "southern hemisphere trick" of our own. See the second photo with Liz, Sue and Sara trying to wrap their twisted arms over their heads!! Before we knew it was 1am and we didn't leave until 1:30am!! Fortunately, home is three doors up the hill!!

So much for our planned "crack o' dawn" start tomorrow for the first day of skiing for the season at Grand Montets - Chamonix!!

Our dear friend John

Graeme and I lost our very dear friend John Pawson to the mountains today. He died doing what he loved passionately – climbing. Doing our usual check of the emails we learned of his death from Whitney Thurlow. He was obviously involved in the rescue effort and he let us know only a few hours after it happened.

I spoke with Meg very late that night. She has lost her soul mate and is devastated. Graeme and I feel that we are a very long way from home at the moment.

We took a long walk up into the mountains to reflect on things. As Graeme still has no skis, we had to “post hole” our way on foot through very deep powder snow. The sun was shining and after bitterly cold night, the snow glistened with hoar frost. As the afternoon wore on and the temperature rose, the trees began to lose their heavy loads of snow. All around us cascades of powder snow plummeted down from the treetops. We narrowly missed being thoroughly doused as we walked through the forested areas.

As we huffed and puffed our way up to the ski area through the forest, we were constantly reminded of all the adventurous times we had with John and Meg. If he had been with us this afternoon, he would have set a cracking pace, blazing a trail through the deep snow and making it easier for us following. He would know exactly where to go, never getting lost or backtracking – like we often do, when left to our own devices! Our knickname for John was “Altimeter Man” for wherever we were on the mountain-side, he could guess the altitude within 10 metres or so! Amazing!!

Some of the dearest memories of John will be our fantastic Mt Cook ski touring trip this October. For John, even though it was not the action packed climbing adventure of his youth, our climb to Starvation Saddle and our ski down the Mannering Glacier obviously brought back wonderful memories for him. We are honoured to have heard the old stories and to have shared in the new adventure.

John was a leader never a follower. He had strong convictions and was not afraid to speak his mind. He was a true friend and an inspiration to us not only for his physical achievements but his intellect and thought provoking discussion.

We are numb with sadness and can’t even begin to imagine what Meg is dealing with. It’s too awful to contemplate. We wish we could “teleport” ourselves back to Wanaka right at this moment to be with Meg. All our love is being sent by prayer and telepathy.

We will miss you everyday - rest in peace, John.

"OMG" - Chamonix!!

View of the Vallee Blanche from the Cog Rail Trip to Montenvers 1813m

View from Chamonix village centre to the Aiguille du Midi

Chamonix here we come!! Today we drove to Chamonix. Only about 40 minutes via the autoroute.

We got there early and there was no sun in the valley. -8C Brrrrrr!! Chamonix is Mt Cook on steroids, the views are incredible. Chamonix is at 1035 m and Mont Blanc towers above the valley to 4810m!! Strangely enough Mont Blanc is the least spectacular of all the peaks you can see. Les Drus 3754m and Grandes Jorasses 4208m are more dramatic with their granite spires piercing the sky. We can't wait to the ride the Aiguille du Midi Cable Car and see the view from the top.

Our first mission was to find skis for Graeme and to pick up our season pass for Chamonix. Following the tip off from our local ski hire shop in Araches, we found a store that specialises in telemark skis. And...the good news was that they had the skis that Graeme wanted..but the bad news was that the shipment was running late. I managed to convince Graeme to try another outdoor shop called Snell Sports to see whether they had anything suitable. Snell Sports was unbelievable. Every possible piece of gear for climbing, skiing, hiking...anything outdoors. While they didn't have anything suitable for Graeme, they had the lot for me. In under an hour I had new skis, bindings, boots, skins and poles. Now considerably poorer...I was ready to go. While we were in the shop, the telemark specialist shop rang and told Graeme the good news...they had just unpacked their latest shipment and his skis had arrived!! They just had to wait to get the correct bindings!! They would be in by Friday at the latest! More handwringing from Graeme ensued. There is so much snow here at the moment, we are just itching to get out amongst it.

While we waited for my bindings and skins to be fitted to my skis, we picked up our Chamonix season pass, booked a trip on the Cog Railway to Montenvers 1913m. How on earth this little train winds its way up the impossibly steep mountainside, I will never know. And how on earth they built this engineering feat back in 1908 is even more mind blowing. Unfortunately the seriously cold temperatures kept our vist to the area too short. But since our Chamonix Pass allows us unlimited rides on this train, we will come back in spring when the weather is warmer.

We also did a recognisance drive further up the Chamonix Valley to the villages and ski areas Les Praz, Argentiere and Le Tour. If we continued on up the valley we would have crossed a high mountain pass into Switzerland! With so much snow, Les Grande Montets at Argentiere will open this weekend. So of course, the plan is to don the new skis and have our first day there. After sussing out the lay of the land, we continued right up the head of the valley to Les Tours. With the sun beating down, this was obviously the place for locals to go for a ski tour. The car park was full and all around us, the locals were putting skins on their touring skis and heading up the hill. We were much inspired!

Pneu Hivre & French Bureaucracy!

Did we mention the snow? It has just been snowing pretty much steadily since last Friday night and the village has been transformed! Feeling a little nervous about driving down to the valley to pick up our snow tyres, the expert chain fitter in our family - aka Graeme whipped on those chains and we managed to get out of the drive way! Step One completed successfully!! Step Two - make it to the end of our little road and onto the main road - Check! Then all the way down the valley!!

You may like to note the picture from the car. It's a very narrow section and there's a shear drop to the valley floor about 500m behind the concrete barrier. The road is only about 1.5 cars wide, covered in snow and ice with a great rock overhang and...Graeme is on the wrong side of the road again!! To add further excitement, the local french drivers also seem to think this is an ideal place to pass us!!

Liz had organised with a local garage to have winter tyres fitted to our car. While the expense is significant, we think for safety it's something that must be done. With a new french phrase under our belt - "Pneu pour hivre, sil vou plait" we were on our way back to town for our next big challenge of the day - The interview with the Bank Manager!!"

We could go on and on about this most hilarious interview, which took nearly 2.5 hours! The long and short of it was, without help from a very patient Liz, we would never have been able to open a French banck account. It would be impossible! Even so, the PIN number for our French EFTPOS card is being posted to our address in Wanaka, NZ and our beloved and trusty Moira will need to open the mail and email us the number. Don't ask? We don't understand, Liz doesn't and we're quite sure the Bank Manager doesn't either!!

We invited Liz in for a red wine to a recover from the ordeal!!

Snow, Snow and more Snow!!

Ok, so now it really is snowing!! The previous storms have obviously just been teasers to the main event! That's the neighbour digging out his driveway with a tractor. Our equipment was a little less serious! Graeme leapt at the opportunity to start up H & M's snow blower! See the photo. He loves doing this kind of thing - a bit like using the ride on lawn mower or whipper snipper. Shame we don't have a call for this kind of thing at home...he'd be a natural!!

But not wanting to denegrate his efforts with the blower, I managed to clear just as big an area with the trust ol' snow shovel!!

The need to get winter tyres for the car has become a priority. Liz to the rescue again. She also needed to have some for their second car so she made an appointment for us as well with a tyre outlet down in the valley.


Today was a "stay put" kind of day. We only ventured out late in the afternoon when it had stopped snowing and then only on foot to Les Carroz, discovering a new walking track along the way.

Domestic Duties & the H&M "Porsche Cayenne"

It snowed again overnight but only a dusting after the dump yesterday. Today we walked to the local Boulangerie to buy our bread. Our bakery makes, not only delicious bread, but incredible pastries and cakes. Our willpower is going to be sorely tested. We have decided to make croissants a Sunday morning treat and stick to the traditional bagette for the rest of the week.

After breakfast, I baked my first cake, made a casserole (or ragout in French) in our extremely complex combined oven and microwave. Thank goodness the instructions are in English, I am sure that assembling a satellite navigation system would be easier!! We met up with Hubert and Marie to buy our local ski passes for Grand Massif. The roads have not been cleared and the driving conditions are extremely hazardous. Apparantly later in the season they are cleared up to three times a day! But H& M have a trusty Fiat Panda fitted with narrow winter tyres. It is jokingly referred to as the Family Porsche Cayenne!! This car has some serious rust problems and has seen better days but it is absolutely sure footed on the icy roads. They have said to us to take the car any time the conditions get really icy. However we have decided to "bite the bullet" and buy some snow tyres for our rental car. We will go with Richard and Liz this week when they get winter tyres for their car. Hopefully we might be able to resell them at the end of the season and recoup some of the cost.

Despite Les Carroz not being open there were a few keen skiers who donned their skins and walked up the piste to have some first runs for the season. While there is no base the snow was about 50 cm deep and incredibly light and fluffy. Graeme was positively frothing at the mouth by this stage!! To appease him we donned the boots and gaters and headed up on the piste by foot later in the afternoon. The ski purchase cannot come soon enough.

H&M and family have returned to Lyon this afternoon and will return in about 2 weeks. We have really enjoyed their company and look forward to their return.

Meeting the Landlord - & the Search for Skis

Well our wish came true! About 30 – 40 cm of snow on the ground this morning. The village looks like a postcard with all the chalets covered in a mantle of snow. But we are toasty warm in our little apartment. The heating system is excellent.

Our landlord is in residence and Hubert dropped by early in the morning on his way to get the bread – a daily French occupation! And later in the morning we met the rest of the family, Marie, Louis, Diane & Camille. Gorgeous. But they need to practice their English as much as I need to practice my French!!

The day has been spent at the ski shops in Sallanches & Cluses, the two towns on the valley floor below Araches. Both of which were extremely busy probably due to the first snow arriving. I have been fortunate to easily find the skis I want. Dynastar is a well known French brand and until recently manufactured in Sallanches. Gra is, of course, causing trouble with his specific K2 telemark skis. But Hubert has introduced us to an expert at a ski shop in Cluses and he will be contacting us on Monday to advise whether he can find the specific type he wants and how long it will take to get them. It has been snowing non-stop all day and Gra is just chomping at the bit to go skiing. (The fact that none of the resorts are open yet hasn't quite registered!!).

In the evening, Hubert and Marie invited us to aperitif's in the main house with Richard and Liz as well. It appears that this "aperitif thing" is a common custom. A range of small snacks, cheeses, traditional sausages and bread is provided. The wine for this ocassion was of course Beaujolais, which had just been released on the first Thursday of November! Hubert had procured a very special "unfiltered" batch, which was surprisingly delicious.

Before the other guests arrived we handed over the presents we had bought for their children. Louis was well pleased with his Official All Blacks Rugby Jersey and the girls Diane and Camille loved their stuffed toys ( a Kangaroo & Koala). We thought that in this way we covered both our nationalities - ie., Australians living in NZ.

About 8:30 we retired to Le Refuge to watch Australia beat France in rugby. Although I confess I fell asleep through about half way through the second half!! Last I knew, France was leading but I was disappointed to learn that Australia ended up winning the match. Why disappointed? Well the local bank manager joked with us on Friday that the possibility of opening a french bank account hinged on the correct result - a French win!! We hope he was joking.

Meeting the Bank Manager & the first Weekly Shop!!

First day without driving on the wrong side of the road – a milestone!

It’s been a wet cold day. Snowing heavily in the mountains above us, it has been trying to snow at Le Refuge, but only succeeding in a wet sleet at this stage.

Another disturbed night’s sleep. Maybe there is something in this Jetlag business? I certainly did not feel myself at all today. Headaches, stomach cramps and generally not 100%. So we were late starters this morning, but we had to get going as Liz was taking us to the Bank to help us open an account.

Liz picked us up in her right hand drive Land Rover Discovery. Given that we are still trying to get the hang of driving on the other side of the road, this new variation made our heads spin with confusion as we headed to Credit Agricole in Les Carroz. Liz and Richard know the bank manager who lives only 2 houses up the hill from us. This of course makes all the difference!! We know that it would have been almost impossible for us to battle bank bureaucracy without her help and we can’t believe our luck that she & Richard have taken us under their wings. We still have to produce an electricity account from our residential address in NZ. Have no idea why? But if the forms say that we must, we must! And we then need to meet again with him in an official capacity on Tuesday at 3pm. So we will await our fate until then.

We shared a quick coffee with her then got ourselves organized to head to Cluses and another visit to Carrefours to pick up some sturdy hiking boots, which, given the wet snowy weather, were going to be essential. We also had to face the daunting prospect of having to buy a pre-paid SIM card for our phone. Quite a challenge but with a feeling of great triumph we managed the feat despite the kind lady not speaking very much English at all.

Last on the list was the weekly shop for groceries. I could from see from Graeme’s face that boredom was going to rapidly settle in – so I sent him off to buy the wine. Given that three whole aisles, about 20 metres long and 4 shelves high were dedicated to wine and other alcoholic beverages, I knew he would be entertained and I could get on with the mundane purchases.

Wine is cheaper than bottled water in France! We have absolutely no idea what to buy, and we are impatiently awaiting a guidebook on French Wine that Cam (Gra's brother) has mailed to us from Australia. In the interim, Graeme’s choices have certainly been drinkable although the very light Gamay style on the first night was a little shock to the palate.

Second only to the choice of wine is the cheese selection! Oh my goodness, we are in seventh heaven. Severe restraint will need to be exercised. Our fridge has already been stocked with a small selection of smelly camembert, light blue and chevre. To prevent ourselves from totally gorging ourselves, we carefully meter out the cheese at lunch time with our salad and bagette. The skiing will need to come soon to survive the diet!

The remaining things on our to do list are : the purchase of skis, boots & skins, get the bank account open, and enrol in an intensive language course for a week or so. We thought we might do this for a week and then follow up with twice weekly lessons with Liz. But most importantly we really need to get the internet up and running in our apartment so we can correspond more often with friends and family.

Fingers crossed that we wake up to snow on the ground tomorrow morning. That would be very exciting!!

Meeting Liz & Rick & Orientating ourselves!

Not quite on top of our game health wise. Graeme had a bad night’s kip waking every night and tossing and turning. Despite having nearly 12 hours sleep both of us have felt better. Nevertheless we managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 7:30am. A quick and typically scary road trip to the supermarket at Les Carroz meant that we had milk for our cereal and toast. Following breakfast we took off down the road to meet Rick and Liz who were chiefly responsible for us moving here. Liz was at the gym but Rick must have immediately recognized us as he greeted us with “good morning” rather than “bon jour” as we strolled past. Putting two and two together we asked if he was Rick and with his affirmation we were able to bombard him with our initial questions. Rick has just turned 50 and has been working locally doing renovations. He is passionate about the village and loves living in France. He gave us a tip on a good walk into Les Carroz and arranged to meet up with us for apertif (before dinner drinks).

Taking off on Rick’s suggested walk, we headed up into the old village of Araches and on to the escarpment that overlooks the main valley below. The alps seem to be full of terraced villages the next higher than the first. Taking the route “sentient dangereux” we were treated to a magnificent view right down into the Cluses valley. It was a muddy and slippery track and we both mindful of having very limited footwear – Gra currently has one pair of shoes – I have 2. Back into Les Carroz we investigated a safer walking route between Araches and Les Carroz. The scary walk along the road yesterday convinced us that a sure way to end our trip prematurely will be to do this walk too regularly!


Back to Le Refuge for a lunch of baguette, soft super smelly French cheese and a locally made sausage, with fruit and a cuppa set us up for the afternoon. We decided to take the drive up to Flaine, the highest ski resort in the Grand Massif area. There was snow everywhere. Fingers crossed this early snow bodes well for a strong season. The Flaine resort has been spoiled somewhat by the 70’s concrete bunker architecture that has been allowed there. So far everyone we have spoken to us has apologized for the “Flaine Architectural Disaster”, which apparently been protected by the French government because the architect has since become very famous.

Since everything was closed by the time we got back to Les Carroz, I decided to have a drive! Interesting! Getting into the swing of things, I decided to head down the mountain road all the way to the valley floor. Somehow we ended up in Cluses, where we really intended to head tomorrow and then wound up outside the incredible super market Carrefours. Since we had made it there by accident it would be positively rude not to go in…we obliged.



What a place – the Warehouse on steroids!! Both supermarket and variety store, we had great success picking up an eclectic collection of items including an electrical adaptor, a really good speaker system which we can use to play the music on our computer, slippers, underwear, tea strainer, conditioner and sunscreen.

Only managing one wrong way and “lost incident” this trip, we made it home in time to meet Liz and Rick for drinks. What a delightful couple. Their chalet is just stunning. Liz has a quiet and gentle manner about her but obviously an excellent eye for decoration. They have been running the chalet for 5 years but they are thinking about changing it to a resident language school. She is going to be a really helpful person to know I think and she has already offered to take us to the bank tomorrow to set up our bank account.

Returning home to the chalet we now have some real creature comforts – music and comfy slippers – what more could you ask for?

We have Arrived!!

We have arrived at "Le Refuge" - the name of our new little home in Araches, French Alps. After a long but survivable flight from HK we managed to get to Araches mid-morning without a hiccup. Although for me it was a serious white knuckle journey. Driving on the wrong side of the road is going to be a continuing challenge. On the navigation front, thank god for GPS! We had to negotiate our way out of Geneva airport, right through the city and on to the autoroute. I really don’t know how we could have done it without GPS. Other than the speed of the traffic ( 130km/ hr!), driving on the autoroute was a breeze. Graeme’s only lapse was when we arrived in Araches and had to do a U-Turn. We traveled about 200m before Gra suddenly remembered he was on the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness the traffic was very light.

Arriving at the Teste Chalet, there was no-one around but the house was open and we assumed that Marie was not far away. We were touched to see our name Mr & Mrs Oxley on the downstairs entrance to our apartment. In less than 5 minutes, a bright and relaxed lady arrived to greet us. Marie speaks perfect English, but smiles politely at our torturous attempts at her language! Showing us through we were delighted to find that our little apartment is gorgeous and just what we imagined it would be. Set on a hill above the village centre, it is a classic Chalet. All around us are traditional buildings and there is plenty of open space between the buildings. The view from the front lawn to the mountains is superb. Unfortunately we have missed the autumn colours which must have been spectacular.

Getting settled we encountered the usual problems with technology…wrong power adapter and no connectivity to their wifi. Hopefully we’ll be able to resolve these problems quickly and get back on line. It’s amazing how reliant we are on technology.

We enjoyed a quick cuppa with Marie and a light lunch of bread and local sausage that Marie had kindly provided for us. Exhaustion crept up on us and we retired for an afternoon sleep while we waited for the super marche in Les Carroz to open at 3:30. The stores close at 12:30 and re-open at 3:30pm. How civilized. After a good shower, we both collapsed on to the bed and fell into a seriously deep sleep. Thank goodness Gra set his alarm for 3:30 or we would have slept right through the afternoon and really messed up our internal clocks. We felt absolutely hideous when we got up, but with sheer will-power we threw on our clothes and headed out to the Les Carroz which is 2 villages up the road from Araches. We didn’t quite find the safe pathway and had to negotiate the side of the road. Les Carroz is a picturesque ski village. There appears to be very few large apartment style complexes, and the accommodation appears to be mainly in the quaint traditional chalets. Like Wanaka in June, the ski shops were just starting to get in stock and set up their stores.

The journey home was a little fraught as dark comes early here at this time of the year. We retired to our cosy little apartment for a meal of steak, onions, mushrooms, spuds and courgettes. Graeme bought a little bottle of Savoie Gamay. We are going to take some time to adjust our wine pallets to French wine, but after the second glass, it was totally drinkable.

We had checked the weather at the tourist information bureau and it appears that while tomorrow will be OK, there is some nasty weather coming on Friday and over the weekend. So the plan tomorrow will be to get ourselves orientated with our village by foot and save our car driving until Friday.