Saturday - home again!

Departure day
Early breakfast, we were first to leave so sad good byes and big hugs.
Flight on time and we were back home with time to buy some milk, bread - soup for dinner a bit of a come down after a week of four course meals.

Sarah and SJ looked after us very well. Not easy for them having the managing director and family plus two other couples who had worked for Finlays as chalet hosts as their first guests! So a big thank you to them and all the other resort staff involved.

We only had one injury during the week a sore shoulder. After a day off skis they managed to ski every day after that but it was still painful by the end of the week so hopefully no serious damage done. As a group we did a fair bit of moaning & groaning - bruised shins, sore calves, aching thighs. The older members of the party were relieved to hear the teenagers complaining too!

It was a great way to spend Christmas and the bonus being we still had all the Christmas presents waiting to be opened when we got home!
All in all we had a wonderful ski holiday and can’t wait to be on skis again!

View from front door of Chalet Reposoir.

Last Day

The last day!
A lovely day but quite cold. We had a great ski in the morning and had planned that we might swap the skis for blades at lunch time but by the afternoon it seemed too much hassle!


All met up for lunch at the restaurant at the top of the Top of Chenus bubble lift. It is a self-service restaurant and was VERY busy, we stood in the long queue for nearly 10 mins and it did not seem to move! So we gave up and left!
The group then fragmented some headed back to Bouc Blanc for a long wait but great food, some got a very good panini in La Tania and the remainder got delicious crêpes in Courchevel 1550!!

After lunch I ended up in a group of four and we skied the Jockeys black run down into Le Praz - twice! It was great, in fantastic condition, really good skiing to finish the holiday.

It's going too fast!

The penultimate day, how has it gone so quickly? Good news was the at SJ was feeling better and cooked us a great breakfast whilst Sarah was down the valley getting supplies for the following week.

Whizzed over to Meribel and Les Menuiers today and skied the long run off the Mont du Vallon – really great skiing, the piste was in great condition. Also, a handy coffee stop at the bottom for those with aching legs wanting a break!

It seemed quite a bit busier on the slopes today and one of our party was wiped out by a good skier going past much too fast. Fortunately she was OK but very shaken up - it really knocks your confidence when you are happily skiing along and somebody crashes into you from behind. Of course it shouldn’t happen - the uphill skier should always be skiing at such a speed that they can give way to the skier below. Amazingly in this situation the guy who took her out was skiing in a ski school group. The instructor did apologise and gave his client a row but he should never have been skiing with them at that speed on a crowded piste. We made our feelings plain!!

Later that day we witnessed another near accident. Another group of good skiers came whizzing down a crowded paste, one of the group looked like he was going to ski straight into a young boy (approx. 7 years), he managed to change direction but in doing so flew off the edge of the piste, through a rope marking a drop off and down 20ft into some trees! His skis were everywhere buried in the deep snow, luckily he missed the trees and was not seriously injured - just shaken and sore. If he’d hit the boy skiing at the speed he was he could have killed him.

Boxing day

Sarah having a well deserved day off and SJ another day in bed. We were very impressed with ourselves as we managed to make our own porridge for breakfast (not as good as Sarah’s) and boil some eggs!
Lovely sunshine again – we spent the morning cruising around Courchevel 1650. This area seems to stay quieter than some of the areas of the Three Valleys.



Took this photo of this balloon, which we saw rising up from the altiport every day. It looked stunning floating gently up into the blue skies. Shows we had a still week as it only flies when the winds are light enough, must be a great thing to do, wonderful views - see www.skivol.com.




As it was the staff’s day off we’d booked to go to a restaurant in the evening. We went out to Le Caveau which is in the centre of Courchevel 1550. They specialize in Savoyard food; Tartiflette, Raclette, Pierrade (cooking on a hot stone) and Fondues they also have a selection of other things on the menu, including very good steaks. We all had a great meal, the service was excellent and the restaurant had a friendly atmosphere, we had a toddler with us and she was looked after very well.


It was a wonderful moonlit night so we walked across the piste to and from the restaurant - the new torches were taken but not used! The piste route is much quicker than by the road, it was also fun getting sprayed by the snow making machines!

CHRISTMAS DAY!!

Christmas Day
Bucks fizz, scrambled egg and smoked salmon for breakfast – yum thank you Sarah. Unfortunately poor SJ was back in bed, floored but her chest infection.
It is strange in a ski resort, Christmas day is just another day all lifts and ski school lessons run and the shops are open as usual! Generally in France Christmas Eve is the big night of celebration with the festivities going on right through to Christmas day.
We made it more "Christmassy" by skiing decked out in tinsel!

After a great day on the slopes we headed back to the chalet for wonderful mince pies and Christmas cake - delicious.
As SJ was still in bed it was all hands on deck to help Sarah prepare dinner. We all really enjoyed being involved.


Pre dinner we managed several bottles of champagne and opened our Secret Santas and then had a happy time guessing who had bought what! Wind up torches seemed to predominate!


The new head torch came in handy for carving the turkey!

We had a great evening and a fantastic Christmas dinner, the turkey was really tasty.

Christmas Eve

Hard to believe it is Christmas Eve!
Felt a bit tired after the long day yesterday should have done those keep fit exercises! But we hit the slopes early and after a successful rendezvous we were skiing as a team of 11!
As there was a bit of cloud around so we decided to head over to the runs above La Tania as the trees help with the visibility. In my opinion, these runs through the trees are some of the best in the whole of the Courchevel ski area. We did some fun, fast cruising and then two of the party peeled off into the Bouc Blanc restaurant (top of the bubble lift out of La Tania) for a coffee! The rest skied another run down into La Tania hard to resist when it is in such perfect condition!
The coffee had been so good we headed back there for lunch, it was very busy but they fitted us into the bar area. The food and service were great – I had a wonderful Beaufort Tart but the plat du jour of veal looked really good.
We skied over to Meribel in the afternoon and enjoyed the great cruising runs there.
A lovely evening in the chalet again. SJ was back and said she was recovered but still looked peaky.
They produced another great meal then it was more Pass the bomb & bed!

A great first day

All up bright and early woken by the smell of breakfast. I didn’t have anything cooked but the porridge was delicious!
On with boots, what a struggle as they haven’t been on since April when we stayed in chalet Branges, Val d’Isere. Everybody was keen so we were ready promptly. Chalet Reposoir is great - just a short walk from the door and it is possible to put skis on, ski along a path through some trees and you're are on the edge of the Dou du Midi piste. From there it is a short gentle ski down to the fast Tovets chairlift out of 1550.

A lovely sunny morning a real treat for the first day. We set off as a team of 9, a bit apprehensive, as one member of the group had only skied for a week before. However he amazed us all and set off at a cracking pace and kept it up all day!
The boots felt really tight but the skis felt great – Rossinol Attractions which I’d never used before but felt right at home on them immediately, helped by the great snow. The snow cover was fantastic and all pistes in great condition.
As it was such a lovely day we decided to cover some ground and had reached both St Martin de Bellville and Les Menieres by lunchtime!

We stopped at restaurant above Les Menuires unfortunately didn’t note the name of it but it was close to the top of the Roc Des 3 Marches bubble lift. We had lunch outside on the sunny terrace, the service was very quick and efficient and the pizzas fantastic.

At the end of the day it felt great to ski back the chalet for delicious afternoon tea. Nobody had the energy to venture out of the chalet we all stayed in and really enjoyed Sarah’s dinner and a game of Pass the Bomb! Poor SJ was floored by a nasty chest infection so Abby stepped in to help.

Arrival day

The journey out was fine and arrived at the chalet in the early evening. The rest of our party were already there. One group had driven as they live in the Dordogne – they had managed a half days skiing and were on a real high as conditions had been terrific. The others had flown Gatwick to Chambery and had arrived well before us as we’d flown in to Geneva.

Lots of hugs and chat – met the two chalet hosts Sarah and Sarah Jane (SJ) plus Abby, resort assistant.
After a cup of tea Abby drove us down to Courchevel 1550 to get skis & boots organized ready for an early start in the morning. Later that evening Abby also delivered all our the lift passes, most of us taking the full Three Valleys pass but two opted for the Courchevel valley only as they had to be around to pick-up their toddler at lunchtime from the Village des Enfants in 1850.

After a very welcoming meal and a few glasses of wine, we crashed out early. All set for skiing the next day.

Skiing at Christmas

Very excited, we are off to one of our Chalets in Courchevel for Christmas!

We’re staying in chalet Reposoir; we’ve stayed there for our annual ski holiday on a number of occasions and love it. It is in a great location in Courchevel 1550.

We’ll be a gang of 11 plus a toddler so should be fun.