And then there were two…

The apartment seems so quiet. The siblings and their friends have gone, while our friends, who are "potential old gits", left after a long weekend’s of great skiing. Bright blue skies and near perfect snow was only marred, well on Saturday anyway, by hordes of French day trippers…anybody would think they own the place. The newly arrived “potential old gits” did enjoy the empty pistes on Thursday and Friday and we found a quiet restaurant hidden away on a piste that had been recommended. Outside, ‘poulets’ were being spit-roasted and the good intentions of a hard day’s skiing evaporated as our mouths watered at the sizzling sight roast chicken; the aroma was heavenly. A glass of wine and the sun beating down on us meant all urgency had left us, only to be told when we asked for ‘l'addition’ we had to ski ‘off-piste’ to the nearest chair lift. No wonder the place was quiet! Actually the wine had once again bolstered our resolve and the short run through the trees had us wondering what all the fuss was about in “off-piste” skiing…, piece of cake. ( I have a feeling I am going to regret this remark).
It is important to listen to locals and glean their knowledge. “Saturday and Sunday are the best days to ski,” we were told; well I have never skied with so many people last Saturday. We made the mistake of visiting Avoriaz and it was shoulder to shoulder skiing in quite narrow and lumpy pistes. In the areas where pistes merged it was a life threatening task to cross them to your chair lift, actually it’s wasn't too bad, a bit like crossing the road here… The après-ski was a real necessity that evening.
On Sunday we visited the small self contained ski area near Les Gets called Mont Chery. It turned out to be a good move as it was relatively quiet while we could see Morzine and Les Gets were absolutely packed. Later we drove our friends back to the airport via Lac Leman and a small French equivalent of Portmeirion called Yvoire. If we thought drinks on the mountains were expensive then this place made them look positively economic. However it was the most charming walled ‘fort’ style village with a view straight to Geneva itself. I don’t think property prices are dropping here. Driving back to our empty apartment, we encountered 20-30 kilometres (notice I am going native) of traffic; fortunately coming the other way. How the two small towns of Morzine & Les Gets could take all these visitors is a mystery.
I was going to write a little blurb on my experience with the French, and before you think it would be typical English tirade at, you would be wrong. I have found one positive aspect to living in France, the bread: do they know how to cook bread… However I won’t follow in Price Harry’s footsteps and allow a bit of friendly banter be used against me. (Oops a little political…sorry).
After four weeks of tireless but very enjoyable “holiday”, the task in hand to seek out and find places“interesting and good value” begins in earnest. Several trips are being planned and in order not to clutter up this BLOG I will set up a sister site, linked of course, with more details and information on the places we have visited; watch this space…