The French are not early risers!!

1/ Sunrise in the car park....... 2/ The Crowded Chairlift? Where is everyone??

Welcome to our first day at our "home resort" - Les Carroz. We thought we'd make an good start of it and be there for first chair. Anticipating, the crowds of last Sunday at Les Grand Bornard we were surprised to find ourselves the only ones on the chair and the runs!! The French apparantly are not early starters despite the fantastic snow and sunshine...and (wait for it)... the lifts are free all this weekend. Where was everyone???? We had the place to ourselves until at least 11am when at last the resort became busy.

Again a limited opening. Seemingly due to lack of staff rather than snow. Which is ... (I know I keep repeating myself!!) ...AMAZING!! Only about a third of the Les Carroz lifts were open. Flaine which is part of the whole Grand Massif area was also open today. The Grand Massif Ski Area, encompasses Les Carroz, Samoens, Morillion, Flaine and Sixt fer de Cheval. For more info http://www.grand-massif.com/ and for those of you not yet fluent in French - click on the English flag to get a translation.

French Observation for the Day
Actually there are two.

First, the French are not early risers. Great for us - we'll make sure that we are up early and on the slopes at crack o'dawn and having lunch when they are all arriving. Ski through lunch in the time honored TC tradition.

Second they do not like to ski racks. They seemingly prefer to pile their skis into the back of their cars. Not sure what the theory is - maybe they think the extra air resistance slows them down on the autoroute? But today we saw the ultimate. 3 people + skis, boots and poles trying to squeeze into their MGF! We watched for some time and they managed the feat. The skis were resting on the dash board. It will be an interesting physics experiment if they have to stop in a hurry?

The crowded slopes? Andy heading cross-country.