Whilst we had lots of sunshine during our week skiing in Courchevel, we also had a day where visibility was less than perfect (to say the least).  Whilst it is not very easy to ski in a grey (cloud) or white (snow) out, it’s certainly an interesting experience!  At one point we were skiing along a thin path, next to a steep drop off piste and we were unable to tell the difference between the sky and the snow! Very weird experience – it felt a bit like we were floating in a dream surrounded by clouds!  Very cool   Here is a bit of video Mark took when we stopped to try to figure out where we were (at which point the visibility was actually a little bit better!)

We’ve all been drinking way to much for me to do a proper blog post, but here are a couple of video clips from the lift experience tonight, one from the outside (on Chris’s iPhone) and one from the cramped inside (on Mark’s iphone)…

From outside the lift…

From inside the lift…

Today we found our favourite mountain bar/restaurant of the trip so far! La Folie Douce appears to be quite a new place, with very trendy decor, an amazing outdoor terrace with chill out chairs and a delicious buffet style restaurant with a great selection of food.

We were actually trying to find another bar which has an outdoor champagne serving area made of ice, however our navigation of the slopes was a little off and we had to ‘settle’ for the nearest hut we could find….we were very pleased to find this place

Whilst dinners in the chalet have been amazing all week (thanks to Matt and Christie), our lunchtime meals have been a little more basic, usually consisting of burgers, crepes or sandwiches.  A few of us have been craving a spaghetti bolognaise all week, so were very pleased to see it on the menu at this restaurant.  We were even more surprised when our lunch turned up in a glass jar!  The (fresh) pasta was on the bottom, the sauce next and then some parmesan cheese.  Take a look for yourself in this video…

Very tasty! Although next time I will make sure I mix the sauce and pasta up right at the start, as the pasta in the bottom of the jar was a little dry.

Here are a few shots of the interior and exterior of the bar (click for larger images)…

Last night we decided to wonder down to the sledge run which is walking distance from our hotel.

Before we could start we had to find a place to hire sledges, which we did relatively quickly for a mere 3.50 Euros.  Due to the fact that kids were allowed to the use the sledge circuit, I had assumed that it was going to be easy and perhaps a little boring…I was VERY wrong…

The first couple of turns do start off very slowly, giving you chance to get used to the steering mechanism on the sledges.  However, as you pass the 2nd or 3rd corner, the drop becomes a lot steeper and the whole experience changes from a leisurely slide down the snow, in to a scary out of control rollercoaster ride down the winding bends of the track.

Whilst we were not going as fast as we were when skiing, it feels a LOT faster when you are sitting on a plastic tray only a few centimetres above the snow.  The handles on the side of the sledges provided a means of steering, however they were SO sensitive that they could only be used in short correcting bursts.  Every time we encountered a sharp corner, or an unexpected obstacle (i.e. some kid who had fallen of their sledge), we had to improvise a method of steering using feet, hands or anything else which was available to change direction quickly.

Of course Mark decided to strap his Flipcam HD to his goggles and film the whole thing, so here is the footage complete with Ed flipping his sledge upside down, Mark crashing in to the back of random French people and me falling off the edge of the circuit in to fresh powder snow…

Yesterday (Sunday) was our first day of skiing in the Three Valleys.  The conditions were amazing!  There was heavy snow on Saturday (before we started skiing), and it’s been sunny ever since, so we could see where we were going easily, get a bit of a tan and enjoy lovely smooth powder.

We were skiing mainly around the Courchevel area (which is where our chalet is), on a variety of blue, red and black runs.  I haven’t skied off piste yet, but I am getting more confident each day, so hope to do so before we leave. 

We did not have pack lunches prepared on our first day, so we went to Courchevel for lunch….VERY expensive  I ended up spending nearly 40 Euros on a crepe, so chips and 2 Diet Cokes.  It was a very nice spot though, we even managed to get a bit of a tan…

After getting our ‘ski legs’ back, Mark and even decided to do a bit of filming as we went down the slopes…

We finished the night off with a lovely meal in the chalet, lots and lots of wine and a very messy game of 21s (which I SO lost and ended up passed out in bed by about 11pm). 

Mark and I spent this afternoon on our own whilst the others went for a ski lessons. 

Whilst we did actually spend most of the afternoon skiing (honestly), at about 4pm we were pleasantly surprised to get to the top of the chair lift to hear TUNES!

A local bar called ‘Le Roc’, which was a traditional wooden French mountain style building, with an outdoor deck area for eating and drinking, along with a less than usual set of deck chairs along with a DJ playing some funky/electro house tunes to entertain the passing skiers…

We initially stopped to take few pics and videos, but were too energised by the music to ski away, so instead we ended up sitting on a lounger, ordering some mojitos and chilling to the cool (see what I did there!?) tunes…

Whilst we planned to just stop for one drink, the mojitos were (relatively) cheap, the tunes were good, the views absolutely breathtaking, so we ended up having 3 or 4 mojitos each…

The (slightly drunken) ski down back to the hotel was interesting to say the least!  We actually ended up staying a little too late which meant that some of the ski lifts were closed.  A nice French lady who was in charge of one of the closed lifts instructed us to ski down the bottom of the resort, get a cable car back up to the top of the mountain and then ski back down to the hotel.  That worked a treat and we got back to the 17:45, plus we met a nice Chinese lady during the trip up the mountain – good times!

We set off at 4:30am this morning, heading to Gatwick, flew to Chambery airport in France, and then sat on a bus for 2 hours for a transfer to our chalet in Courchevel.  The Peti Chapi Teah chalet sleeps 10 pepole (5 rooms), and comes complete with two chalet people who are cooking dinner for us right now…

Ed and I are sharing our room.  We have the smallest, darkest room, but it doesn’t really matter too much.  I think we’ll spend most of the chalet time in the communal area which has a huge dining table, a fireplace and a TV area…

We have just been down to get our hire skis.  There were three standards of skis available – Bronze, Silver and gold.  We opted for gold, although to be honest there was not a noticeable difference in the quality – will probably go for silver in future and save 25 Euros. 

It’s been a long day, so we’re chilling tonight, having dinner, maybe watching the rugby down in the bar, and then get a good nights sleep in preparation for a full days skiing!

Will try to stay active on the blogging front, but to finish it off today here are a few photos of the view from our chalet…

I haven’t got around to producing the rest of this yet, but here is the first part of our Le’Mans 2009 video..

Hopefully I will get the rest finished before Le’Mans 2010

News year resolution is definitely to VIDEO more!

In June 2009 Dave, Dan,  Keith and I went on a roadtrip to Le Man in France to see the annual Le Mans 24 hour race.  Here is the first video of 3 or 4 documenting the trip.  Part 1 covers just the Euro Tunnel trip over to France (which was entertaining in itself )…