Ski holiday day 9: homeward bound

Normally we've set off at 5am or 6am to try to get a tea-time ferry from Calais. This year, we had to drop Sam and Lucy at Chambery Airport where they were catching a flight back to Southampton and, from there, to Jersey. They were expecting to be back in about 7pm.

It meant our journey home would start until around 8am, so a little later than normal. After last night's snowfall, there was a good four or five inches on the road and it was very cold. The snow plough had been up the main road to the resort already.

It was very cold, but not icy. I went down and cleared the snow off the car and then drove up the hill to the road that leads to the back of the chalet. I got up the hill easily, the winter tyres offer really good grip in snow like this and the traction control didn't cut in at all). Once up the hill, I backed up to the steps above the chalet so we could load up. It was quite a squeeze.

Sam drove to Chambery and we were there for 10am (their flight left at noon).

For Margaret and I, it was the long 500-mile drive to Calais. It's best not to look at the miles coming down for at least a couple of hours, but it was actually a really good journey and we did it in seven-and-a-half hours with one stop to refuel.

We had a flexible ticket for the P&O ferry and we managed to get on a 6.15pm crossing instead of 8pm. We were home at just after 10pm (with an hour gained for CET switch to GMT).

It's always nice to be home after such a long journey, although the house does seem empty without Holly. We had to wait until 10am before we could pick her up from kennels. As always, she was overjoyed to see me and didn't stop wagging her tail all day. I don't think she's unhappy in kennels; often she'll be outside playing with other dogs and this time she was loose inside the kennels walking round with the kennelmaid as she did her jobs. It has clearly been a cold and wet week at home because Holly was filthy. First job was a bath.

Ski holiday day 8: our last day and the perfect ending

For me, it's always a bit of a worry on the last day of your ski holiday that this is the day (just before a long drive home) that you fall and hurt yourself. Better to do it on the last day, rather than the first perhaps, but it's almost as if I've been tempting fate all week and this is the day I say hello to Mr Tree.

I'm never worried about hurting myself, the big worry is getting home. Margaret would be concerned about my theoretical broken leg, of course, but might be more worried about Holly getting out of kennels on time and having to drive in France, on the wrong side of the road, for 700 miles.

Of course, there was no last-minute injury (not even a fall). Saturday is change-over day for most people, so we stayed out of the busy Tarentaise tail-backs and spent the day in a Sainte-Foy that was even quieter than usual.

The snow was wonderful and it was very cold, but also sunny, so the top slopes were a real treat.

Lucy, who would make an excellent spy or journalist, had been eavesdropping on a conversation about the cafe/bar on the Grand Soliet run just above the Marquise lift. Apparently, it had been a disaster and all the staff had been fired except Barbie. They couldn't fire Barbie because she was something of a Sainte-Foy legend. Barbie was still working at Les Marquises and Sam was very keen to see whether she deserved her nickname.

Cold, but sunny on the terrace at La Marquise. We really
need a proper selfie stick.

So, after skiing the top run a few times (I stayed on the Grand Soliet, but Sam and Lucy went off to do some harder runs) we met up at Les Marquises. I'd been given some late skiing tips from Sam and Lucy (my two coaches) - mainly involving getting my hips further forward, always facing down the mountain and practising my hoppy turns. I find that it all works very well for a little while, then I either lose concentration or the slope gets a bit steeper and I revert to leaning back and skiddy turns. Anyway, it was a great morning and the balcony at Les Marquises (which I think means either "high windows" or "the penthouse") was in the morning sun.

Barbie was a charming, very attractive, middle-aged Frenchwoman and deserves a kinder nickname and Les Marquises is a great place to stop for elevenses. While we were there a Frenchwoman arrived on snowshoes having walked up from Sainte-Foy accompanied by a small Jack Russell terrier, who was very shivery and would have preferred to sit inside.

We skied a little more after our break and then met Margaret for lunch in the Piano Bar. They do nice snacks, but everything is served in polystyrene packaging (like a fast-food outlet) and the cutlery is also plastic. It's not good for the environment and trying to eat a crispy croque monsieur with a plastic fork is a recipe for fork breakage (best to use your fingers). Sam and I skied a little more after lunch, then I called it a day and left Sam to it for another hour.

I've really, really enjoyed my skiing this holiday. The snow has been great and we have managed to miss French holiday weeks. I'd go to Sainte-Foy again. I wouldn't want to ski there every day, but if you have a car, it's very easy to get to Tignes, La Rosiere, Les Arcs or La Plagne. Even one of the Three Valleys resorts are close enough for a day trip. It’s also been lovely to spend some time with Sam and Lucy. Their home will be in Jersey now, so we will have to get used to seeing them maybe three or four times a year. I was rather spoiled when they lived in London and I worked in London.

The rest of the day should have been about packing and other dull tasks, but at about 4pm it started snowing and soon everywhere was blanketed. After packing, I suggested a walk in the snow, so Sam, Lucy and I headed out like excited children. Margaret had not slept well for a couple of nights and was not feeling that good, so we left her and headed up into the village.

Sam and Lucy in the snow.

Cars were arriving in the resort and several of them (probably English people without winter tyres and snow-socks) were struggling to get up the hill. The BMW was already covered by an inch or two of snow. I'd put the skis in the rack already and they were buried too. I do have winter tyres, and my journey would be downhill, so I wasn’t too worried about getting on the road next morning.

It was very pretty in the village, some children were sledging on the nursery piste and they had the snow blowers working at the bottom of the slope and where you turn for the first lift. With real and artificial snow, there was a real depth building up.

I wish I was skiing tomorrow rather than a 15-hour journey back to the flat fens.

Ski holiday day 7: raclette for dinner

When we got into our chalet last Sunday, we had a good look around to see what equipment was in there. Lo and behold, in the kitchen cupboard was a raclette grill, so a big chunk of raclette cheese was written on the list for the Super U shop on Monday (and subsequently bought).

All week the daily question has been: is it raclette night tonight?

That is one big piece of cheese.

We might have done it a couple of days ago, but the cheese overdose of the La Bergerie pizzas stumped us, but we're running out of days and tonight was the night.

I don't think the grill had been used and there was one of those why-didn't-we moments when Sam said perhaps we should have checked that it worked before we bought the cheese; but it did work and there was considerable excitement as we settled down to Morteau sausage, gherkins, potatoes and salad - and cheese, of course.

The grill actually worked really well. When we stayed in Val Thorens, our whole chalet went out one night and we were seated at a round restaurant table with hardly any room. Four of us ordered raclette and you've never seen a table more crammed with food and accoutrements. What was worse were the wires trailing across the table (only just long enough to reach) and the red hot grills pouring out molten cheese in the middle. It has to rank as one of the most stressful, dangerous meals I've ever had. In the end, we turned off the grills and removed the burn risk; we were all lovely and warm on a cold night though.

Who ate all the cheese? Note the expert scraping technique.

No such problems with our Sainte-Foy raclette, we had lots of room and there was no need to trial wires across the table. It was Margaret's first raclette and she took to it like a duck to water, probably eating the most cheese, followed by Lucy, then Sam and me. As the responsible adult, I was positioned next to the grill and had to scrape (or supervise the scraping) of the cheese. Thanks to my care and attention, no-one suffered cheese burns and there was minimal drippage.

As for the skiing, I stayed in St Foy today, while Sam and Lucy went to Val D'Isere and had a great day. The best thing about Sainte-Foy (apart from the pretty village) is its location. It's easy to get to lots of other places - Les Arc, La Plagne, La Rosiere (Italy) and Tignes/Val D'Isere.

There was nice snow in Sainte-Foy, it had been quite cold overnight and was a little icy first thing, but the sun came up early and it was nice and quiet. I spent the morning skiing the blues and then broke for lunch with Margaret. We had a walk around the village in the afternoon.

Ski holiday day 5: We all overdose on cheese!

We deliberately didn't buy a week's ski pass for Sainte-Foy. This was mainly because Sam and Lucy had plans to travel to a few other resorts, but also because (if we were lucky) we'd get some coupons from Super U supermarket in Bourg-saint-Maurice which would give us money off a day's ski pass.

True enough, our big shop on Monday provided three coupons for cut-price ski passes which could be redeemed either on Wednesday or Saturday.

Today was /is Wednesday, so we got cheap passes and skied in Sainte-Foy. After the trials and tribulations of yesterday, it was nice to have an easy day's skiing.

Also, I tried out my contact lens/goggles combo instead of sunglasses and it worked a treat. I wish I'd had them yesterday, it would have been much easier. I've not worn contact lenses for a couple of years, so it took me a few attempts to get them in, but it was well worth it.

Quick drink with Margaret before lunch

I skied on my own during the morning, I've got my St Foy compass set now, so I skied all the blues in the resort (some of them three times). Sam and Lucy were doing some of the harder reds. We had planned to meet Margaret for lunch, but about noon, I was very thirsty, so I texted her from the top to see if she wanted to meet for a drink before lunch.

On the way down, I bumped into Sam and Lucy so we all skied down together; I met mum for a drink while Sam and Lucy skied another few runs.

We'd agreed that we'd have lunch at a restaurant called La Bergerie, which translates as The Sheepfold. The menu offers a nice line in steaks, but at lunchtime pizza is available. I had Royale, Margaret and Sam had a Catalane and Lucy had Quatro Fromages.

The pizza base was good, thin and crispy, but Lucy's was an inch thick with cheese - far too much - and mine was almost as bad (but with mushrooms, olives and ham). There was just too much cheese and it was also super salty. We had thought we might go there for dinner one evening (perhaps Saturday), the place has nice decor and pleasant service.

We had a quick ski after lunch, but it was very hard work with a belly full of pizza. We skied three blues and Sam got his GoPro camera attached to his helmet, so he took some videos with that. They turn out quite well.

Ski holiday day 3: are those my edges that I can feel?

Our first day skiing in St Foy and it was a pleasant day, a little cloudy and snowing lightly at the top, but the snow was really nice and some fresh snow had fallen overnight.

Sam says the snow cover is very thin and they need lots more snow if they're going to get through the season. He can see off-piste areas that he and Lucy skied last year where this year you can see rocks which were completely covered in 2014.

I don't have those worries as I'm staying on the piste. There are just four lifts in Sainte-Foy and as one of them leads to some reds and a piste nature, I'm limiting myself to just three. The blue down from the top lift is a lovely run, fairly steep in the very top section, but good and wide, it then levels out, steepens, levels out and steepens again. It's a really nice run for someone of my level to do.

With Sam's coaching, I found that I'm starting to carve properly and my turns are getting smoother and more controlled. I can actually feel the edges getting engaged on the downhill ski and I'm learning to bend my hip into the slope to make the edge bite and avoid skids. It is a good feeling, although when the slope gets steep, I still find that my turns are not quick enough and I have to carve quite long turns in order to control speed. What's good is that I can stop and I have got the skid stop fairly well nailed, which gives me quite a bit of confidence.

What's more I've been skiing for two days and not fallen over. I've also discovered a new run called Plan Bois, a gentle blue which takes you from the top of lift one back to base via a gently graded ski road through the wooded side of the mountain. We walked part of it on snow-shoes last year when we went to La Monal. Lucy, who has new off-piste skis, despairs at my ability to find a 'Gollet' in any resort.

We had a quick drink in the Piano Bar at the end of the day and discovered it sells a wide selection of Belgian beers! Our other job for the day was a trip to Super U in Bourg-saint-Maurice (about 20 minutes drive). It was a familiar sight from last year and we stocked up on beer, wine, cheese and meals for the week, which Sam had planned the night before.

I mentioned that Sainte-Foy has a lot of English holidaymakers and it's far more middle class than Les Arc or La Plagne. For example, the chalet next to us is occupied by husband, wife, baby, nanny and springer spaniel called Merlin. He can be seen chasing a tennis ball in the snow each afternoon when his owners have finished skiing.

Lucy has also been eavesdropping on conversations. She heard two men bemoaning past divorces; one had lost two houses (presumably to two failed marriages) and, to rub salt in the wound, his ex-wife had gone to the estate agent and sold the house just after the market crashed. Apart from divorce, the other favourite theme is diet and the theory is that the ski-resort diet of cheese, sausages, potatoes and alcohol is offset by calorie burning on the slopes.

"I must have burned two-thousand calories today."

"More, you burn an extra thousand just being at this altitude."

It would be nice if it was true.

Ski holiday day 2: I'm back on skis

I wanted to make quite an early start (8am) in order to meet Sam and Lucy in Annecy, so we were first to breakfast. There was plenty to eat and Novotel gets a good mark from us.

Outside, the car was covered in thick frost and there was a freezing fog. It looked pretty grim, but I put "Annecy centre" in the sat nav and off we went. The roads were dead quiet and the fog soon became thinner and then disappeared completely.

We were in Annecy within two hours; Margaret texted Sam to say we were getting close and he said to meet us at the car park by the Hotel de Ville. I was busy looking for that when we passed Hotel Splendid where they had been staying, so I pulled up in front to get my bearings. Margaret said she could see Sam in reception and, sure enough, he was just checking out. Lucy had gone on ahead to the car park. We loaded their cases into the car (it was a tight fit), Sam texted Lucy to say come back and we were all set for Sainte-Foy.

Beautiful Annecy - on Lucy's iPhone 6

I'd been to Annecy last year with Sam and Lucy and we'd had a nice wander around the mediaeval centre and also a swim in the lake. There was no swimming today, but Sam took over the driving and it was good to see the place again - it is a beautiful location.

Sam and Lucy had not had a great journey yesterday. They'd flown from Jersey to Geneva and had hoped to get a bus to Annecy. Unfortunately, there was just one bus available and it was a long wait, so they'd had a very chilly afternoon in Geneva and got to Annecy much later than planned. At least their hotel booking was on the computer!

Annecy and the drive to Albertville was familiar and once we got into the Tarentaise valley, it seemed like going home. The gothic churches are dotted about the hillsides and going past Bellentre brought back memories of a sunny walk last spring. If it was familiar for me, it must have been much more so for Sam and Lucy, who lived here for seven months and were both feeling quite nostalgic about the place.

We got to Sainte Foy by just after noon and found the cleaners still busy, so we dropped our bags, parked the car and went to a cafe by the bottom lift for lunch. It was a lovely sunny day - quite similar to our last visit when we'd snow-shoed to La Monal and had visited the same bar at the end of our trek. We got a seat on the sunny terrace, surrounded by high, snowy mountains and I have to say - this beats sitting on a hot beach any time! We had the fixed menu - massive salad for starter, then sausage and polenta. I was very full, but Sam and I had said we'd have a ski in the afternoon, so we had to keep moving! The snow was lovely and the resort really quiet.

We only skied for an hour or so and then called in at the Piano Bar for a drink. Sam has a lot on his plate right now. He's about to buy into the doctors' practice in St Helier so has been arranging the loan for that, he'll soon buy into the pharmacy business as well and will then need to borrow more money to buy a house, perhaps in 2016. It's a lot of debt to take on - perhaps seven times annual earnings - compared to me where my maximum debt has never been more than three times annual earnings. Debt is such a necessary evil for young people today. For sure, my children earn a much better salary than I did, but they are saddled with debt from the age of 18 when they leave for university. Owing so much money must be really stressful and quite scary, especially with inflation being so low. At least I had the advantage of relatively high wage and retail price inflation to devalue my debt and make it easier to pay. Interest rates hit 15 per cent during the 1980s, but inflation was pushing 20 per cent some years. I'm not sayings that's a good thing - it definitely isn't - but an inflation rate of two or three per cent does help reduce debts quite a bit over 10 years and, with government debt being so great, I'm pretty sure they'll be making sure we get back to those levels quite soon.

Our Sainte-Foy chalet is fantastic, there are three bedrooms downstairs, two bathrooms, a large lounge kitchen upstairs and a mezzanine area at the very apex of the roof. It's fitted out to a good standard  and the views from the front are amazing (as this picture from Lucy shows).

View down the Tarentaise towards Bourg-Saint-Maurice from our chalet.