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23rd March 2015 Skiing: Sommand-Praz de Lys - France Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: 52.01 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 29.59 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Monday 23rd March – ski ****+ sunny – Sommand/Praz de Lys 52.01 knots – 29.59 n. miles – 5 hours out – 42.82 knot average beating my previous best of 37 knots - thats 59.85 mph - the fastest I have been on skies and I have to scars to prove it !! WOW how lucky were we today! We woke up at 7 to an already perfect blue sunny sky. We were the first on the big Haut Fleury lift at bang on 9.00 a.m. The view from the top was stunning with thick cotton wool cloud In the valley over Lac Leman. We made the most of perfect early deserted pistes down the blue Lake run. It was a bit hard but as these slopes go soft really quickly we had to do these first! Went down to the Veran lift which takes you over to our favourite Sommand Pierre Rouge slopes. They really are amazing. I did speed runs down the Pierre Rouge piste while Mag made the most of her favourite pistes - Buchilles Red and Blue and the red Fleury/Blue Les Fattes slopes. They all come off drag lifts so are quick to do. We eventually met up with me showing Mag my scraped butt where I hit a dip at the bottom of one of my runs and went flat on my back. I did ten runs over 40 knots including my best run which peaked at 53 knots, my fastest ever on skis probably!! Went back to the Praz side to do the run into the bottom of the pistes which takes you past beautiful scenery with the wonderful Roc d’Enfer in the background:) Back over to Sommand where we went up to the slopes above the Roche Pallud where we stayed last week. Then with an hour of our 4 hour lift pass left we headed back to the Pierre Rouge slopes and although we intended to only do them once and head back to Praz we were having too much fun so stayed here going up and down until the last minute. The pistes on the Sommand side definitely keep better over the course of the day than the Praz de Lys side. We left on the lift out at 12.50 with our pass running out at 1 o’clock. On the way down we both fell in the mushy snow at the bottom. We made it to the Haut Fleury lift with 1 minute to spare so were able to head up to the highest point to eat our lunch at the picnic table perched right at the top. It is an amazing view but the cloud was beginning to form and by the time we reached the bottom of the Lake run, skiing straight to the van:) it was getting quite cloudy. We had a cuppa and a good chat about our brilliant day. We absolutely love this place and we certainly made sure we said goodbye properly:) Packed up and left around 2.30. We daren’t stay here tonight in case it is perfect tomorrow and then we wont be able to drag ourselves away!! Headed down to Taninges and on through a conjested Annemass. Did a quick Lidl stop, mainly to get some bike gloves and bits and pieces because we knew it was bike week! I wanted to stop at McDonalds for internet which wasn’t working but we had a coffee and a parfait ice cream! Made it to Nantua about 6 and walked around the lake path to the waterfall before it got dark. Beautiful pink sky at sunset:) It is very sad to say goodbye to the mountains and we are really lucky to have been able to enjoy 7 weeks here this season. Will really miss it:( Having said that we are pretty knackered so need to go home for the rest! photo gallery here Tuesday 24 March – Travel – little walk – cloud and heavy rain We left Nantua with slightly cloudy sky but could see the whole lake and started our two day journey back to Calais. For a change we drove out via the very narrow road on the other side of the lake which leads to Port and we went to their intermarche to fill up with diesel and get bread and milk. Drove through the beautiful Jura hills to Bourg en Bresse. No storks this time – the fields were full of them at Christmas! Then we drove into bad weather just as we got to the vineyards at Sancerre. It rained on and off and when we stopped for lunch near Nevers it was torrential and there was thunder too! We had a really good journey despite the weather and got to our usual half way stop at Briare le Canal at about 5.30. We parked in the aire overlooking both canal and river Loire. We went for a walk across the aquaduct and back before it started raining again. We just caught a little drizzle at the end. We must have looked a right couple of wallies because we had our ski coats on – Mag’s lime green – sunglasses, and me in shorts, hat and balaclava – in the rain!! Lovely to hear the rain on the roof in the van – it went on all evening! Made out a few words of some bad news on the French radio news of a plane crash and got it up on Mag’s phone – it crashed in the alps near the Col de Allos where we were a few years ago and all 150 people on board were killed including 3 britains and a whole class of german exchange students:( Wednesday 25 March – Travel with wonderful sunset We saw a tree creeper and black cap among several birds in the bushes next to the van while we ate our breakfast:) Our birds list totalled 49 for this holiday:) Then back on the road about 10 and had a really really good journey. I did most of the driving which is very unusual on the boring motorways – Mag usually does most of this leg of our travels. This was mainly due to us finally getting fed up with French radio and having Tenacious D pick of destiny and the flight of the conchords on the cd – brilliant. Mag took over after our lunch at usual stopping point of Pont d L’Arche and had only driven about 15 minutes through Rouen and out the other side, through the tunnel when a traffic management van and two gendarmes on motor bikes passed us with their sirens going. Round the next corner we could see black smoke and knew we would be grinding to a halt soon. We did and this is the first time we have ever been in a traffic jam for an accident in France. After an hour of various emergency service vehicles battling their way through the middle of the dual carriageway 3 black private ambulances/hearses came through – how terrible, at least 3 deaths and only a few minutes before we got to that section:( Just after those vans went through all the cars were turned round and allowed to drive the wrong way down the carriageway to an access track and back onto the road through the villages until it met the motorway again. The lorries were left blocked on that section but as we re-joined we did think that maybe they were moving through but we couldn’t be sure. We stopped at E Leclerc in Boulogne for our cheapest diesel this holiday at 1.13 and also heard on Radio 2, which we can pick up from here, that a euro is worth 73p where we have been thinking 80p so our holiday could have cost even less than we thought – will have to wait and see when we get back. We got to Ambleteuse just as the most beautiful sun set over the sea was happening so I leapt out and took some photos. We parked up at our usual Escalles and had the rest of the chicken roti we had bought for lunch when we stopped for the loo just before Pont d L’Arche. So that’s it we go back tomorrow morning on the 8.50 shuttle so will be away from here pretty early. |
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