Courmayeur with Dana

1/ Dana at Courmayeur

We have a pile of free tickets for Courmayeur that have come with our season's passes and so we thought Dana might enjoy taking a look around the Italian side of the Alps.

On the way through the tunnel this morning, Dana revealed that she had been to Mont Blanc only once before. Naturally one would assume she meant the tunnel or perhaps the Chamonix-Mont Blanc valley. But no, Dana literally meant Mont Blanc - all 4810m of it! She and Tibor climbed the mountain 14 years ago and then skied down it! Now even aside from the altitude issues, this is a serious mountaineering feat. The mistress of understatement is our Dana!!

We had left Araches in cloudy overcast conditions and were delighted to find bright sunny conditions in Courmayeur on the other side of the Alps. Making the most of the good weather we immediately took the cable car to the highest point to enjoy the spectacular views.

Today will be our last skiing day with Dana. We have conceded defeat! After more than 4 weeks of skiing nearly every day, we have worn ourselves out! We also have a special dinner party at Rick & Liz's tonight which we have been commanded to attend. Unfortunately Dana is not able to join us, as the dinner had been arranged well before we knew Dana would be visiting. Going on past experiences it will be a late night!! Given that we are having trouble making it through a whole day with at least 10 hours sleep under our belts, we can't even contemplate an early start on 5 or 6 hours sleep!!

2/ & 3/ A clear view from the top of Courmayeur

4/ Our last ski day together!

We love Courmayeur!!

1/ One, two three all in a line!

This is our second visit to Courmayeur on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. We just love this place! The scenery is truly spectacular . The weather even co-operated and treated Mike and Leanne to a lovely sunny calm day for their last day of skiing in Europe!

We were fortunate to have remembered our passports this morning. For the first time in our European travels we were stopped by the Polizi on the Italian side for a passport check. We have sailed through all the border checks to date, so this was a surprise! But you just gotta to love that Italain police uniform. Dark blue pantaloons, tucked into shiny jack boots, lots of gold tassles and a white gun belt. Classic! Obviously there was absolutely no interest in a French car full of middle-aged Aussies and Kiwis! Little did they know that in our hallucinogenic dreams we were young rad cliff hucking skiers. (Well maybe not Leanne!).

On our first visit to Courmayeur only about a third of the runs were open. Today everything was open except the highest lift (due to high avalanche risk). Even though all our leggies were protesting we managed to ski just about every run at least once. We even tried a hand at some synchronised skiing...? The film may show that we still need a bit of practice!!

2/ Not a bad view hey?

But the highlight of the day, without doubt, was a classic Italian lunch in the oldest little hut on the mountain. This place was not set up as a restaurant, but rather as a snack bar. But somehow, Mike and I managed to persuade the friendly proprietor to whip us up some pasta that would have made his Mama proud!

3/ Well call him "Luigi" and that pasta!!

We actually had no idea what we were in for, but when we arrived, the table was all set up for us. Bread, cold meats and cheeses, pitcher of wine arrived. And...then a huge bowl of penne pasta with a tomato and sausage sauce. Yum, yum. Espressos so strong they blew your head off!! And to top it off, a little shot of a lemon flavoured Genepe (wicked, evil spirit!!). "For the digestion", explained Luigi with a cheeky grin!

Our bodies weakend with exhaustion, our stomachs distended with pasta (despite the digestive), we sadly turned home from France. We have no idea how we are going to get through the Barton send off party tonight.

4/ Oh by the way, they've put some signage up in the carpark!!