Weekend

Yesterday we skied with Alison, the daughter of John's best man at our wedding many years ago, and her three friends, Eleanor, Fiona and Nancy, who were all staying at the Sylvana.   They had abandoned their husbands and children but the men are coming to Chamonix next weekend.  I doubt if they will get better conditions than we had.  We showed them some of our off piste favourite areas, finishing off with the trip through the trees to Planellet.  We had lunch at the Gouet, so altogether had a lovely day.  This is the first time I have skied with a telemarker.  Nancy said it was very tiring on the thigh muscles.  Also it is much more difficult going through trees as they find it hard to do tight turns.  It does look elegant but I think I will stick with my standard skis.

Today the conditions were not so good, as it was foggy and cold so the visibility was poor.  Yesterday started off like that but cleared but today we had the odd lifting of the cloud but mostly it was cold, windy and snow showers.  So we came home early.  However, we had a hot chocolate at Le P'tit Ricquet which is the best hot chocolate anywhere.   They give you a huge jug and bowls and it costs €3.  To reach it you go up the Epaule chair, ski down past the Porcherry restaurant and it is off the piste on the left, on a knoll.  Usually they have a sign on the piste but there wasn't one today.  They do simple meals also.  They have a very interesting book showing before and after photographs.  It looked originally like a cow shed but was taken down and rebuilt.  However, they have used a lot of the old timber so it looks authentic.  They had a lovely wood stove.  David, who joined us, but his hat on it to dry and it melted!  The fumes set off the fire alarm.  That was the high spot of the day.