Let summer commence!

Another four months on, and we've moved from our lovely mountain home back down to our lovely seaside home - in between we've seen cold and wintery weather in the UK in late April/May, although we did manage to visit the beautiful Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park on probably the only sunny day while we were back.  And London Zoo, courtesy of the lovely Julieta (thank-you J!) which we both thoroughly enjoyed!  I also (despite the rain and cold) had a great day with friends at the Foodies Festival, Hampton Court, to which Jane and I travelled by boat along the River Thames from Richmond, and again the sun even came out for my solo return boat journey. 

But before we knew it, we were back on that orange plane to Nice, and up to Sigale for even more R&R before the official start to our summer.  We timed it nicely for the 'fete de partage', which we went to last year - basically a 'bring a dish' and eat and drink together afternoon, with a great band playing in the base of the old oak tree.  I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.  The guys from the local snail farm even treated us to their snail vol-au-vents, with roquefort, goats cheese and garlic, which were delicious. I look forward to enjoying some more of the summer's festivities up in Sigale.  But work did beckon eventually, and we descended to the villa to do some cleaning and gardening in preparation for the first villa guests of the summer.

It's good to be back, and into some sort of routine (well, at least as much as our lives ever fall into a routine......), and we're looking forward to the summer ahead, with lots of sunshine, hopefully lots of visitors (the first of which are my parents next week), swimming in the Med and ice cold rose.  Perhaps I might even manage to persuade Giles to go camping? Watch this space......

A New Year in the Alps!

and how much snow? What a fab season it has been so far, with so much snow, even down here in Bozel where it normally rains! New Year went with a bang as always with a great New Years Day ski show (albeit with a large hangover....).

Since then it has been a blur of constant admin and email with some skiing thrown in, and most recently a cross country skating lesson, which was great - best intentions now are to practise on my own - not today though :-)

Just a short post really just to check back in, but hope to check in again soon!

Not quite autumn.........

We now have just over two weeks left before we board that familiar orange plane - seems like yesterday we were at Luton airport working out how to repack our baggage without being charged! It's been a really busy summer, with the villa full in the end from late May to the 24th September, a new winter website, and lots of visitors and trips to Sigale.

August was a great month, firstly with a visit from my big sis, Donna, who I hadn't seen for about 9 months, then a trip back to the UK for our friends' Jonny and Amelia's beautiful wedding in Kent, followed closely by a visit from Kate and Simon, then the Sigale fete and last but by no means least our Danish friends holidaying nearby (who we had not seen for three years!).

Now we are making the most of the still beautiful September weather, blue skies and around 28 degrees daily before we have to start the big house clean, studio clean and packup (next week......). Back to the UK on the 14th October, where the Warren Miller film tour beckons for G and lots of Exceptional Ski work for me, combined with a trip to Scotland in November......watch this space......

Vin, visitors and visiting......

Once again, it's been a while. This entry is dedicated to visitors and visiting - kind of essential when you live far away from friends and family - thanks to Stelios for making it a bit easier (despite the hassle we had flying back to France last time - all is forgiven!). Early in June my parents came to visit as they do regularly, and we had a lovely time both in Sigale in the Alpes Maritimes and down here on the coast - thanks for coming as always mum and dad! Recently we met up with Michelle, Steph and their daughter Olivia who had been staying nearby for the weekend, and had a great lunch on the beach before they headed back to their home in the Alps. We also had a very relaxing weekend in Sigale last week with G's mum(after a catalogue of car problems which I'm not going to bore anyone with!!) - bad heads after late night tucking into bizarre drinks from the licquor cupboard (normally we stick to wine and beer only, albeit too much!). And this week we were able to celebrate Bastille Day with Simon and Belinda who were down from the Alpes Maritimes for a couple of days. Friends have rented our villa for this week, G's sis, niece and nephew arrive in the Alpes Maritimes this week (where we're headed soon for another visit!) so we're really enjoying all this friend/family activity.

Other than that, we're busy getting our new website up and running, with huge thanks to our webmaster Alex, who is ever patient as we're not really 9 to 5 people.....and I'm still enjoying my Body Jam, Combat and Pump classes at the gym - great fun, and maybe someday I'll have that flat tum.....

May the visitors and visiting continue throughout the summer (and with it the vin which is usually the case.......)

Back in France and signing in again.....

Well it's been almost two months since my last post, and we've covered quite a few miles in that time! We left a very sunny and snow-less Courchevel in the middle of April, with still a week to go before the lifts closed (but not a lot of snow to ski on!). From there we drove our very packed (and unsold!) Espace down to Sigale where we spent a lovely week before flying back to London for Easter weekend, which we spent in Kew. The highlight of the last two months was our 10-night holiday in Sharm-El-Sheikh, which we spent scuba diving, lounging by the pool, snorkelling, with the odd Sakara beer and game of cards thrown into the mix - fantastic!


I barely had time to unpack my bag before I was flying up to Scotland for a quick trip, where I enjoyed spending a few days with mum, dad and Bailey, with an even quicker trip to Aberdeen thrown in (sorry Jen/Di there just wasn't time.....). Back to London for an evening with Paul and Julia, a day shopping for a wedding outfit (my worst nightmare), then on our last day Edie's 2nd birthday BBQ, which was a lovely day. We had so much luggage to bring back to France, with a full set of duvet covers for the villa, lamps from Egypt and all sorts - Easyjet wanted to charge us £70 for excess luggage, so we ended up wearing three jumpers each and our hand luggage was bursting at the seams with frozen sausage and bacon - lets just say the airport experience was not a relaxing one!!

We then arrived at the villa to a very dry overgrown garden, and a green, algae and leaf-filled pool, so have had a busy week sorting it out for our first guests. But happy to be here, the sun is shining, villa guests happy, and we've found a great new local beach bar - summer has arrived!

Spring has sprung!

It's official - the clocks have just gone forward, the daffodils are out - Spring is here! There's a great optimism in Spring, with the promise of warm sunny days and light evenings ahead. In fact we've had a month of warm sunny days here in Bozel, prompting ski picnics and picnics down by the lake - lovely.

We now only have a few weeks to go before we head to the South of France, and as usual we are tying up loose ends, getting my dent on the car fixed before trying to sell it (any takers?), thinking ahead to rental accommodation for next winter, and closing down phone lines/internet etc - always a favourite task of mine, perhaps I will delegate it to Giles this year! I am looking forward to a few days in Sigale before heading back to the UK for a couple of weeks. But for now, we'll just enjoy the sunshine and our Perudo session this evening!

Birthdays and happy days!

We're on a bit of a social frenzy at the moment here in Bozel - there's something about warm, sunny weather that seems to just make people want to socialise! Last week we managed to rope a bunch of friends into the first ever Pub Quiz being held at a new(ish) hostelry in town. Our team of 4 came second, and if only I hadn't listened to G and stuck by my guns and insisted that yes, Oliver Stone did indeed direct the film 'Natural Born Killers', not Tarantino, then we would have been joint winners! Amazing, I do have a competitive streak in me that normally lies dormant......

It was G's birthday two days ago, and we enjoyed a relaxed champagne picnic by the lake in Bozel followed by pancakes (Shrove Tuesday....) and rose (glug!) at home, followed by torchlit descent and fireworks in Le Praz (vin chaud, hic!), washed down with a few more drinks here in Bozel (end of!). But I think he enjoyed it :-)

I've only just finished washing up after having six for dinner here last night - a lovely relaxed evening with a few rounds of Perudo (sorry Patsy!), great game (also brings out that normally dormant competitive streak.....). And tonight we are dining at Jane's which is a relief as it means I don't have to eat leftovers from last night, or do any more washing up........just hope there's no gaming involved as I'm not sure if my brain can take all this activity!

Fresh snow and foie gras.....

What a week it has been.....after all those weeks of no snow, we've had a couple of good dumps just in time for the half-term madness here. With friends holidaying here, it's been the usual fine balancing act between joining in on their holiday, and not forgetting we have work to do too! But we've done pretty well, with three days on the slopes, and still managing to get a couple of new bookings and keep our other clients happy :-) We've done pretty well on the foodie front as well, with second meal of the season at my favourite 'L'oeil du boeuf', then on Thursday the most superb fireworks up in 1850, followed by a foie gras fest at the 'Bistrot Du Praz'. We were blessed with the most beautiful day yesterday, and had great fun skiing over in 1650, rounded off by a late lunch in the sunshine at the Bel Air - top day! So we'll be on pasta for a week after all that lot.........well, at least until G's birthday next week. But perhaps we'll have one of our nice picnics on the slopes, which are just as good!

Cooped up!

I'm feeling a bit 'cooped up' here at the moment - I always feel like this when I'm indoors all day for more than two days. Yesterday was kind of enforced, however. I was all set to finish off my morning's work, get emails sent before heading off for a swim in the local pool, when our internet just stopped working. I did all the usual unplugging of modem etc., phoned Orange (forget that!) and finally phoned our trusty friend Alex who always seems to be able to get to the root of the problem. And he did, thank-you Alex! But having not finished my work, then spent three hours resolving the internet problem, I then had to finish my work, and by then it was the end of the day and all thoughts of going swimming were long gone so I thought I might as well do some of my (increasingly large pile) of accounts. So can you blame me then for curling up on the sofa and watching 'Come Dine With Me'!?

So today, backlog cleared and internet working, I shall be heading off shortly for a swim, once again in the absence of any fresh snow to ski on. A bientot!

Friends, laughter and dancing.....

We rolled in at 2.30 am this morning - I never do that anymore. Having had dinner round at a friend's house, we decided to have a bit of a boogie in the kitchen cum living cum dining room that all of us here in the Alps live in. Even if we'd left two hours earlier, I'd have had a great evening with lots of easygoing banter and laughter - so good for the soul! But dancing - air guitars (Guns n Roses), twisting (Beatles), and generally shaking our thang - I just love it! I may look daft, I probably pull the most bizarre facial expressions - but there's just nothing like a good boogie.......top night!

Still no snow - it's becoming a rather boring topic of conversation here (aren't conversations about the weather always!) but quite pertinent to our work and way of life here in the Alps. So I'm heading up to the slopes tomorrow to see how they're fareing (sp?) and get some fresh air - early night required after last night's excesses. Nite nite x

Sunburned chins, and non-existent punctures.....

So having looked back at my (not too) recent blogs, I can say now that it has not snowed here for four full weeks. Here. In the French Alps. It has snowed in Scotland, in the Pyrenees, in Austria, and probably lots of other places, but no, here in Bozel (900m), Savoie, Rhone Alpes, the thermometer has hit 19 degrees C in the last couple of days. Can't complain though - at least the sun is shining, and I know it certainly is, because today I burned my chin. It's not that it juts out in particular, but I guess when one wears helmet and goggles skiing, there aren't many other exposed bits to burn......

Last time I wrote, I was looking forward to my spa afternoon, and very relaxing it was too. Jacuzzi, hammam, sauna, then lolling around in a bathrobe drinking herbal tea reading mags with a view of sunny Mont Vallon - bliss. Until we got back in the car, switched on the engine, and a new message popped up on the dash 'Crevaison - changer roue'. Our car is rather fond of messages, but this was a new one, and it didn't take long to translate 'crevaison' to 'puncture'. The helpful diagram on the dash even showed me which tyre was punctured. Except it wasn't. Now there's a dilemna. Not really - the tyre was clearly fine - quite unnerving though with the STOP warning light on the entire time you are driving, but with our car I'm quite used to that. Apparently a friend had a similar occurrence and chose to put a smiley face sticker over the STOP warning light as she found it so offputting while driving (I like that!). The lovely Giley had the tyre checked out down in Moutiers and was told there was absolutely no puncture - I was (and rightly so!) a little concerned about doing a return trip to Geneva (4 hr round trip) with a bad tyre. So the tyre pressure sensor was faulty. Why do I need a tyre pressure sensor, can't I just check them out every so often as I did with all my old banger cars? Back to our helpful Renault garage here in Bozel, who had agreed to take a quick look just before I set off for the airport. I left the car for one hour, came back and drank coffee and watched Bob Geldof jump up and down on a trampoline (daytime TV - say no more.....), thinking I was going to return to be told I would need a new sensor and that'll be approximately 200 Euros including VAT and labour. Imagine how happy I was to return to be told 'C'est tout bon!' - Hurrah! but why? Apparently when he plugged the car into computer (really?) or vice versa it all reset itself ET VOILA! and furthermore 'c'est un cadeau'....ie. you don't have to pay me anything for doing that. Well there you have it, my faith in mechanics restored forever - good on you M. Renault, my shoulder knot has once again disappeared.....

I will spare a thought however for my friend who parked her car on an icy drive here in Bozel earlier today, got out of the car only to watch it slide down the road, through a garden and some trees and into the side of someones house.......oh la la!

Birthdays, bubbles and bad blogging.....

OK, I'm a bad blogger as I've just realised I have not written for 22 days - although mid-January was supposed to be a quiet period, I seem to have been dashing around like a maniac! Not always work, sometimes I'm dashing to go skiing with the girls, then home to do some work, then to the pub.....and so on it goes! The main conversation point of everyone here at the moment is 'When is it going to snow?', as it hasn't for around 3-4 weeks. The slopes are bearing up well, although the bottom of my skis are beginning to resemble what I imagine the surface of the moon looks like (sorry Skiset.....). Memorable recent events include a girls skiing day to Val Thorens, on a gorgeous bluebird sunny day, with a tipsy lunch and apres-ski to the point that I missed Pilates (sorry Ginny.....), then Burns Night, hosted by Jane, which was a fun evening, and last week a ski with the Churchill boys followed by a great lunch at La Soucoupe. It was my 37th birthday (gosh am I really that age.....) on Saturday - normally such a great day to have a birthday, but it was spent hosting a corporate weekend, and was probably the busiest day/evening of our entire season. It was lovely to return to Bozel on Sunday evening and have a few quiet drinks with good friends, however.

Bubbles are a big part of my blog today - not just the champagne I drank at the weekend, but the Chenus bubble that broke down yesterday for around 2 hours, stranding lots of poor skiers, while I happily skied below in the sunshine - adding weight to my general policy only to take gondolas when it is freezing cold or snowing, as I like being in the fresh air on the chairlift. Thankfully my brother-in-law wasn't on it (Willie, you know who you are!). And lastly the bubbles that I'm going to enjoy in the jacuzzi on my spa afternoon tomorrow - can't wait!

Will try not to leave it so long before writing again, in the meantime please please please can we have some snow!!

The snow is back!

I haven't written for a while, simply because I haven't been doing anything of great excitement over the last few days! But the snow has finally come back today, and I'm pleased to report that as I sit in my cosy apartment, it is just tumbling down - great big fat fluffy flakes......

We have quite a few friends visiting Courchevel this week, so lots of people to see, some of whom I won't have seen for two years - exciting! Tonight we are dining with some good friends at our favourite restaurant in Courchevel, 'l'Oeil Du Boeuf' (Bulls Eye!). Strictly not for vegetarians, it's a cosy ambient place where all the food (great big steaks/duck legs etc.) is cooked on the fire. Not forgetting the most amazing potatoes cooked in the embers....my mouth is watering just thinking about it! I did have a very short ski this morning before it 'closed in', so I have done some exercise to justify my meat-fest this evening......Bon appetit!

Happy New Year - bling is back!

First of all, a belated Happy New Year - it's been a busy week, but on the 1st January we were blessed with the most beautiful deep blue skies and sunshine, and for the first time in six years not too hungover after Hogmanay revelling. I'd love to say we headed up Grand Couloir or something equally worthy (OK, I just don't do grand couloir.....ever) but we'd booked a table at our favourite spot 'Le Bel Air' and were treating ourselves to New Years lunch. And what a lovely time we had....

Later on, in the evening, we watched the New Years ski display, complete with hanglider and parapenters flying in, a skier adorned with (too many!) fireworks skiing in, and around 200 ESF instructors carrying torches, in their jazzy new uniforms (shame they still lose small children on a regular basis, but hey don't they just look great!) . Then a pretty good fireworks display - I never tire of this sort of thing, despite having seen it many times.....

And so to today, where I spent a lovely day skiing with our friends and clients, the Falkinghams. The slopes are getting rocky/icy and we desperately need some snow, but I still had a great day and some runs were better than others. I saw many tiny tots skiing today, and had the pleasure of taking a chairlift with a wee one who was three years old that day, with his grandma and grandpa who were both ski instructors - how lovely is that? Then, at the end of the day, I was just about to hop off the very lively Loze draglift halfway (strictly forbidden!) when the tiny tot in front of me fell off. Only 4/5 years old, he was struggling to get up the tiny incline onto a flat bit where I was stood waiting on the others. So I held out my pole 'Tenez!' and hauled him up to where he could stand on his skis. We established that his 'monetrice' was still on the lift up ahead, probably completely oblivious to the fact that he'd fallen off, and despite me shouting to all passing instructors to tell the monetrice at the top that her missing child had fallen off and we'd wait there for her, no one appeared. Did she even know she'd lost him? Fortunately an older instructor who I recognised from the Bozel bus (!) hopped off with her private client, and took the poor wee mite back to the ski school.

And so tomorrow in Courchevel we celebrate the Orthodox Christmas Day, which means lots of bling, and more of the same torchlit descent stuff (600 instructors they have promised!), more fireworks, and with a bit of luck, more free vin chaud. Happy Christmas - again!

Bashed bonces.......

The post-Christmas hordes have arrived here in Courchevel in time for the New Year celebrations. As yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, we decided to blow away a few cobwebs and have a blast around the slopes. Although there are many many people in the resort (all Hotels and chalets are full), fortunately the slopes weren't too crowded. This may seem strange on the second busiest week of the season, but the reason is quite simply that many people come to Courchevel to be seen rather than to ski! We are certainly not complaining. But it's very fortunate that I wear a helmet, not because I'm tackling anything even remotely extreme, but simply to protect my head on this one week when lift etiquette is not observed in the slightest (and particularly not by skiers of a certain nationality - say no more :-)) - normally one sits on the chairlift, and looks to left and right to see if everyone is ready before gently lowering the safety bar, yet on virtually every lift, random fellow passengers just hauled the metal bar down, on some occasions narrowly avoiding our heads due to us ducking in time, and on others simply whanging us on the head with it (thanks so much trusty helmet!) - what is wrong with these people? But despite this, and other annoyances on this crazy week, we had a wonderful ski in fresh snow and sunshine - what more could one ask for?

Old friends and modern cars

I had a lovely surprise the other day when I found out an old friend's boyfriend had booked a short break in Courchevel as a surprise, and that they were a mere 5 minutes away on skis! We had a great afternoon skiing, topped off by watching the sun go down on the Bel Air terrace with a wee glass of wine - then faced the usual chilly ski back, straight into the Jump Bar where we spent way too much time! But it's just great to be among friends, with lots of animated conversation and that bit of 'what the hell, let's have another' recklessness which tends to happen in ski resorts and make us all feel younger than we are! Needless to say 'it'll nae be this in the morning' always rings true and yesterday I found myself grumpy and tired, when trying to negotiate ourselves into the best position to watch the Ladies World Cup Slalom (sorry for being a grump, Jane!) Next time, we will be at the bottom where we will see the timings/leaderboard, hear the commentary and not be taken out by lone snowboards flying down the piste. Bit of a learning curve that one, and reminded me a little of watching the Tour de France in Cap d'Agde many years ago!

Every Christmas our car reminds us that it's not invincible (last year on Christmas Eve the back windscreen exploded - yes, honestly!). Today when we descended to Moutiers, the car decided that the driver door wasn't closed (it was) and started making all sorts of alarming beeping noises, then wouldn't lock. A trip to Renault informed us that in order to lock our car and stop it from making said noises, we would be 200 Euros lighter. Merry Christmas! I do so long for older cars with no sensors, computerised messages and such like. Last week I was told the brakes were failing while driving down a mountain on hairpin bends, when it only needed the brake fluid topping up a little (hello Renault - again!).

Last thought for the day - fingers crossed that everyone who is stuck somewhere they are not supposed to be, and also my family trying to reach other family, manage to get to the right place in time for Christmas. Nite nite.

Back in the mountains.....

After a couple of months in the UK, we're back in Bozel, in the mountains - it's great to be back!There's probably more snow in Scotland (where my parents recently moved house in about 3ft of snow), but the sun is shining and the mountains look beautiful as ever. It's freezing though! I always forget what a wuss I am, and how cold it can be here (about minus 15 at the moment......). But we have a new apartment for the season - it's warm and cosy and the sun streams in from the balcony in the morning - bliss!

The highlight of my week so far was a lovely dinner in the Portetta Mountain Lodges 'Chamois' on Saturday - we were treated to champagne and the most delicious canapes, then a beautiful 4-course dinner by the Chabichou team. Shame I was driving!

No skiing as yet, but the skis are ready and waiting for me to 'man up' and brave the cold.....watch this space........