A gourd for the Virgin Mary

Margaret, Sam and Lucy at Chapel St Michel

No skiing today, but it didn't seem like a good idea to sit around doing nothing. Sam and Lucy said they were going to walk up to the Chapel St Michel, the weather was OK, but snow was forecast and there was plenty of snow lying on the path.

Margaret wasn't keen on the walk up to the Chapel, but I suggested we walk as far as the shrine to the Virgin Mary, which is a good walk, but about two-thirds of the way to the chapel. I suggested we leave one of the gourds as an offering. We walked on the farm tracks, rather than the pilgrims' path and met the horses a bit higher up. They moved onto the track as we approached in the hope of a tasty treat, but we had nothing for them. Sam had an apple, but there was one apple and two horses, so he (perhaps wisely) kept it in his pocket. A little further on we saw a large dog fox scampering up the hillside. He was making much better progress than we were.

We reached the level just below the shrine fairly easily, but then had to traverse across from the farm track onto the pilgrims' path. We'd visited the shrine in early December and saw that someone had left a quince in there. I was pleased to see it was still there, looking remarkably fresh and we added our gourd to the little collection. There are some flowers, some lace, some tea, the quince and now a gourd. I'm not religious, but it was nice leaving something in the shrine.

Offerings to the Virgin Mary

Margaret wasn't keen to carry on, but we persuaded her to go higher and she managed to get to the Chapel quite easily. The last bit, as it had been in December, was quite icy and slippery but we managed to get up and down OK. See the video here. The path up from Villaret was not too icy, but would be more tricky coming down, so we decided to come back via la Rosiere on the other side of the crag, as this was a more gentle descent (without an exposed traverse) and a better path. It meant we got to la Rosiere below Villaret and had a bit of a climb back into the village. The path between Villaret and la Rosiere is quite steep and both boggy and snowy, but we took it steadily and got back up comfortably.

We were sitting on the patio cooling down when Roxy (aka Maurice) made an appearance. She’s a border collie (a proper farm dog) and very friendly. She stinks of cows, is thin as a rake, but has lovely white teeth and loves a belly rub. We’d take Roxy home, no trouble, but I don’t know what she’d make of the flat fens after a lifetime running up and down the Alps guarding and herding the cattle.

In the afternoon, we took the BMW down to Bourg-Saint-Maurice to have a nosy at the shops and also have a meal out. We thought we'd try Le Refuge Altitude 810 as we'd eaten there in March last year and it had been quite nice.

The snow had been falling gently all day and in Bourg is was sleet. It's amazing how much of a difference 200 metres makes. At Villaret snow, in Bourg wet sleet, but it was falling more heavily. We stopped in a bar for pre-dinner drink as it was a little early. It was still fairly early at 6.30pm and we surprised the waitresses in Refuge. It was empty when we arrived, but then some skiers came in followed by a huge party of three families, which added 19 people and suddenly the place was packed.

Refuge 810 is an interesting place with unusual decor. There's a clothes line with a string of frilly bloomers strung along one wall, lots of old skis and sledges hung up and we were sat below a stuffed fox (who didn't look happy with his lot) and a stuffed marmot.

There was a comedy moment when I thought I'd ordered a steak, but was actually asking for fish. Fortunately, I asked for it medium rare and the waitress realised something was not quite right.

I ended up with lamb shank, which was full of meat and very nicely cooked, but somewhat spoiled by being served in a cream and mushroom sauce. It really needed something sharp (like mint sauce perhaps) to contrast the greasy meat. By the time the cheese course came, we were pretty stuffed, so Lucy stashed the leftover cheese into her pocket to use up the next day. We'd bought some cheeses from England - Stichelton, Wode Hill Blue and Cote Hill Blue. The Stichelton (a Stilton style blue made from unpasteurised milk) was favourite and the Cote Hill Blue was very well liked (that's a soft blue from Lincolnshire). We'd left the Wode Hill Blue uncut as it was in a small, whole cheese. It's a soft blue made in Bedfordshire (also from unpasteurised milk) and it was gorgeous - so tasty and complex; definitely one to get again.

The sleet was still falling in Bourg, but was we drove up the hill, it became heavy snow and quite icy on the bottom part of the road. The traction control cut in a couple of times, so I slowed down and took the hairpins gently, rolling round in first gear and the winter tyres did their job. The snow socks (our last resort) are still in their bags.