Margaret takes a look at Arcs 1600

We have told Margaret a great deal about Arcs 1600 and about the funicular railway, so today we decided that she should take a look for herself.

Sam and Lucy went off skiing on their own, while we took the BMW down to Bourg for a run and parked up at the funicular. It costs 12 Euros for a return ticket on the funicular (it's included in my ski pass), so it's quite expensive.

The plan was for Margaret to spend an hour or so looking around Arc 1600 (not much to see), while I spent some time skiing to "put some miles" into my achy legs.

I left her at the bottom of Cachette and I'd decided to just get the lift up and ski down Belvedere and Arpette a couple of times, which is exactly what I did. It's odd skiing on your own, you do feel a little exposed, but it meant I could take my time and stop if needed. I was soon feeling it on my legs, so I did stop a couple of times. I practised some side sliding on the steep bit down to the bottom of the lift; also got my turns in so I kept control and didn't fall.

Second time came down, I saw Margaret standing at the bottom. She'd seen me ski down and so I decided to ski down the steep bank to join her on the path. Now such instances of bravado have been known to go wrong in the past, most recently on Thursday when, during my first day in Sammy Ski School, we were allowed a break. Lucy skied down a steep chute and skidded to a stop at the bottom near the cafe and I thought "that doesn't look too hard." So, instead of taking off my skies and walking down, I followed Lucy, failed to skid to a complete halt and ended up embracing a sturdy litter bin that might well have been placed there to save novice skiers from their own folly.

Today, I could easily have done a flip over the fence at the bottom and ended in a heap next to Margaret, but the gods of the ski were with me and I was able to ski forward down the narrow chute, turn, engage both edges and come to an impressive halt only a few feet from where I'd planned to end up. Margaret thought I'd looked the part coming down, she'd clearly missed the bit where I'd nearly taken out the small child and mistaken the panic braking for an impressive skid stop.

Well, good to quit while I was ahead and despite only a couple of runs, my legs were near gone. Margaret was cold sitting outside, so I gave her my ski jacket, but then I was cold, so we sat inside and ordered drinks and food. I'd texted Sam and Lucy to say where we were and they joined us midway through our pizza.

Sam has been cooking every night, so today I said I'd make dinner. Margaret and I took the funicular down and headed to the supermarket (Super U) where we stocked up with a box of Merlot (5 litres for less than the price of a return ticket on the funicular) and the ingredients for broccoli pasta, while turned out quite well.