Market and rants

I went to the market this morning and bought some lovely cheeses.  It's not cheap.  I seemed to pay €20 at least for everything.  To cap it all, I bought half a cabbage and left it on the stall!  
Why don't the French clear up after their dogs?  I think they are supposed to but even in the main square there are piles of dog s***.    We walk up a snowy slope to our apartment (in summer it's a grassy area) and I counted at least 20 piles.  They allow their dogs to defecate on the paths and I know that it's snow but even so.......The caleche horses wear bags under their tails to catch the droppings so why can't dog owners tidy up after their pets. 

Crout de Gouet

We had a rather lazy ski today with Gordon and Rob.  We stopped for hot chocolate at Le P'tit Ricquet which is off the Marmottes run down from Epaule.   It is an old farmhouse that has been refurbished and has some interesting photos and items such as children's hob-nailed boots. We then had lunch at the Gouet and had to have the crout.   You will see how Rob has decorated his.  Gordon was good and had an omelette.  It was cloudy this morning but the sun came out this afternoon.  There was noone around which is surprising as it is the Paris holiday.

"Blackbird has spoken"

Since the beginning of the month the blackbird has been greeting the dawn;  or perhaps he is telling his lady friends that he's around and his rivals to clear off.  It seems bizarre as the ground is still snow covered and although it's warmer than it was it's definitely not spring weather.  Today was cloudy again, though the visibility was better than yesterday.  We even had a few flurries of snow.  There were fewer people on the slopes which was great as the snow was good and we didn't have to share it with so many.

At last a picture

This is me skiing on Jaillet on Sunday with Mont Joli in the background.  Sadly today was cloudy and not good for pics.

Caleche v traineau

John and I went over to Jaillet this morning and skied down the front face to the road.   It was not as nice as 2 days ago and I suspect it may be the last time this season we can ski it as it is south facing.  It was lovely and sunny but turned warmer than the last few days.  John went home but I stayed and skied all the black runs before returning for lunch.
I got the caleche back.   This is the 12 seater, 2 horse carriage that runs from by the outdoor ice rink in the centre of town to Jaillet.  I was the only passenger so I sat there like the Queen, practising my royal wave and regal smile.  Sadly, noone waved back.  If I'd had Prince Philip (aka John) it might have been different.
The driver told me that his carriage is a caleche, the one horse carriages are traineaux.  The French word for sledge is traineau and before roads these were used for transport.  They are now known as traineaux aux roulles when the wheels were added.  But the ride is a must and great fun.

Ladies' downhill

John and I skied with most of the staff this afternoon.  It was cloudy first thing but it was a beautiful sunny, warm afternoon.  We went over to Cote 2000 and did the Ladies' Downhill course a couple of times.   Some of the staff exceeded 100kms an hour (or so they said).  It was great fun and no collisions.  It's the Paris holiday for the next 2 weeks so I expect the resort will be busy.

Giettaz

We skied over to Giettaz today from Jaillet.  Whoever redesigned the lifts can't be a skier.  In place of the one, very slow old chair there are now two slow chairs!   The second one is supposed to be faster but today was going at half speed.  There are 2 nice runs down to what used to be the second button lift which is no longer working. You now have to go back to the second chair and join the queue of people coming up from the bottom.  The third button lift is working but the run down to that is usually icy and unpleasant.  So, all in all a bit of a shambles.  We all got very cold because the lift was so slow.
We then skied back off piste to the road.  The snow was in surprisingly good condition considering there has been no new falls and we even found some spring snow at the bottom.  After that we called it a day (or a morning) and went for lunch at Le Loup Blanc in town.