Grand Massif breaks out in Acne!

Another sunny day! It appears that the good weather is endless! We made an early start and took at mid-morning break for a coffee at the very top of our our resort (2120m).

Without any significant new snowfall and the heavy traffic over the Christmas/New Year holidays, our poor old resort has broken out in a nasty case of acne! The bumps on some of the runs are HUGE! Memories of the mean icy faced monsters on Federation & Bull Run (runs at Mt Buller, Australia) came flooding back as we negotiated our way through the mine fields.

Fortunately, the bumps are rarely icy. They are firm packed powder and you can still get an edge in their faces. But really, there is still plenty of good off-piste. Very few of the skiers at Grand Massif venture off the groomed runs and so we are starting to find loads of little "Secret Chutes" down through the rocks and trees that avoid the worst of the bumps. Hopefully this tactic will save our knees for the rest of the season.

2/The "acne break-out"

3/ and.. a close up of these monsters!!

This week, we had been wondering why our rent cheque had not been cashed by Marie and Hubert. And so we learned... that cheque writing in France is a great deal more complicated than at home. Graeme had not signed in the correct place, he failed to put in the date, wrote the amount in English and didn't specify the place at which the cheque was written. He did get the numerals and the payee correct...but that left a score of only 2 out of 6! A failure in French eyes!!

So this weekend we had a lesson with Marie about the intricacies of cheque writing in France! Actually, it is very surprising to us how much cheques are still used in France. On every trip to the local Carrefours we have seen people at the cash register using them to pay for their purchases. Don't they have cheque fraud in this country? Maybe the fees are low ? I guess we'll know the answer to this question shortly. But it remains a mystery in a country that is very modern in so many ways that the French still cling to this outdated method of payment?

4/ A French Cheque - tres difficile!!