It was a bit dull with snow higher up the mountain today, but we had a really good day in ski school. We did a similar route to yesterday, down the long blue, but instead of skiing past Arc 1950, we took a little chair-lift up above it and then skied down into the resort.
Arc 1600, 1800 and 2000 are all in a similar style - tower-block hotels (completely out of keeping with the traditional architecture) plonked on the side of the mountain and they stand out like a sore thumb.
Arc 1950 was built much later (in the past decade) and was funded by the same group that developed Whistler in north America. It was quite controversial, I don’t think Arc 2000 was best pleased and there were allegations of over-development. Actually, the resort is really nice. It’s built in what appears to be a more traditional Alpine style and it has a village feel to it with a central square, clock tower and narrow, winding streets.
We stopped for vin chaud in a cafe in 1950 and then skied through the streets and down to the chair-lift that we would have taken the day before had it not been shut. I told Loic I thought 1950 was much nicer than the other resorts. He agreed, but said it was very expensive to stay there.
The chair-lift took us back up to the ridge but instead of coming off on the left and down into the bowl, we headed right down a steep blue. I managed to fall over when I hit a ridge of deep snow kicked up on the edge of the piste and by the time I’d got going again, the group had disappeared. Ahead there was a fork in the route - should I go right or left? I decided to go left, but when I skidded to a halt after the turn, I spotted Loic above helpfully pointing out that I’d gone the wrong way. It would have been more helpful if he’d waited by the junction, but never mind. He told me to stick to the blue, keep right and wait for them at the ski-lift. The next ski-lift was actually a drag lift so I don’t think he meant that and I couldn’t see a join in the pistes, so I carried on down, joined the main piste and waited at the next lift for about 10 minutes, but there was no sign of our group.
There was nothing for it but to set off on my own, so I skied down towards Arc 1800 and then joined the long blue back towards 1600. This is a narrow but very gentle run with just a couple of steep bits where it stops contouring and takes a step down. I got back about lunchtime and found Sam and Lucy in a bar, so we had some food, a drink and headed down to Bourg.
When Sam and I had taken the rubbish down to the bins in Villaret the day before, we’d spotted a sign showing a footpath down to Bourg. We’d previously assumed the path was further along as we’d seen a chap hop off the road on one of the hairpin bends and then (by the time we’d driven down) he’d popped out onto the road below.
This path went from the centre of the village towards the centre of Bourg and it seemed much better defined. So today, which had turned into a lovely sunny afternoon, we decided to explore. The first section was steep zig-zags with deep snow. I don’t think anyone had used it for some time and the biggest problem was not the snow, but the dog poo. The owner of the cottage at the top of the path has a couple of border collies and she appears to let them out to do their business on the path. The first 50 metres was like picking your way through a minefield.
The French have a really bipolar attitude to dog poo. In Bourg and other places, including Arc 1600, it’s not unusual to see dog poo on the verge. Where the snow has melted in verges in Bourg, there are often piles of decomposing dog poo that’s been deposited on snow and is now lying, months later, of brown grass. In contrast, there are free poo bag dispensers all around the town centre and signs urging you to clean up after your dog. There’s no dog poo in the centre at all.
Once we’d got through the dog-poo section, the going was fairly easy, you just had to keep to the crusty snow. If you stepped off, you could sink up to your knee, which I did a couple of times. If you were doing the route in winter, you’d want either snow-shoes or crampons, depending upon the snow conditions. After a couple of hundred metres, the path evened out, the snow had melted and we came to a small stream and a road with houses. This was La Rosiere, a district of Bourg. Our village is called La Villaret sur la Rosiere, which is exactly what it is. The road is fairly steep and zig-zags down into Bourg. On foot, you can cut off the zig-zags in exchange for a steeper path and we cut down past the cemetery and hospital (situated conveniently side by side) to come out above the main square and by the central church.
We had a look inside the church, which was built about 130 years ago; it’s quite grand, has a separate bell/clock tower alongside and inside there’s a series of paintings hanging on the walls showing Christ on his way to be crucified. They are particularly interested when he stumbles and have a special painting for each of those incidents.
We than sat outside a bar in the square having a drink in the warm sun. In fact the sun was so strong, we retreated around the corner to sit in the shade. The walk back up was not too bad (quite a good work-out) and then it was tuna salad for dinner. Lucy had spent a long time in the supermarket finding line-and-pole caught tuna.
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