Forced onto our feet

Margaret on the Haute Tarentaise.

This is a little embarrassing - we set off to drive up to Arc 1600, but when we arrived Sam realised we had locked the ski clamp, but had not brought they key. It wasn't practical to drive all the way back to the chalet and then all the way back up the mountain, so we decided we'd do the walk that Sam had mapped out a day or so earlier.

Back to the chalet and on with the walking shoes. The route planned would be on part of the Tour de Haute Tarentaise, a two or three-day walk around the higher villages and paths along both sides of the valley.

We drove down to the main road and parked the car at the side so we didn't have to walk back up to Villaret at the end and then walked up the hill to Vulmix. It was a lovely day, warm and sunny, but also clear so that we had excellent views across the valley. Flowers were springing up everywhere and people in the villages were getting their vegetable gardens sorted out and their geraniums out of winter store.

There's a lot of building work going on, with new chalets being built and quite a lot clearly constructed in the last five years. Some of them are very grand, large places and I wasn't sure if they were homes or holiday homes being let. There's clearly a lot of money being spent in this area.

Coming down from the Haute Tarentaise, we descended via the road and then steep paths down to Bellentre, where we had a picnic lunch in the sunshine. A lot of French villages have a communal parking area and this also had a couple of picnic tables, a boules pit, some play equipment and a table-tennis table made from concrete (even the net was concrete). Villages also have communal rubbish and recycling bins; and most have a running water trough as well. I guess this is where everyone would once have got their water and they're being kept for sentimental reasons (an old focus point of the community).

From Bellentre, we were able to walk under the main road at the bottom of the valley to the Isere river. There's an excellent, wide path running alongside the river, which would take us back to Bourg-saint-Maurice. The path was shared with cyclists and was quite popular. It was better regulated than Rutland Water, so it wasn't too much of a nuisance and we made quick progress back to Bourg. We'd walked about 12 miles and the last mile was a real struggle. Even though we'd parked the car at the bottom of the road up to Villaret, we still had a long climb up from the river to where we'd parked.

Quite a hard day, but nice walking.

Lucy spotted this photo opp' during the walk. Aircraft contrails had
make a giant X in the sky.

It’s snowing, we're in the Alps - no surprise there then

Margaret has several wishes to fulfill this holiday. She had wanted to try snowshoeing, she had wanted it to snow and she wanted to see Roxy (aka Maurice), the very smelly farm dog.

On Saturday night and through Sunday, the snow wish was granted as it snowed pretty steadily all night and through part of Sunday. I was woken at 5am by the snowplough, which reaches the highest point of the village and the end of its run just outside Maison Blueski.

It pushes the snow into a road-blocking bank just above our house and the farmer then has to clear it to get to his higher fields. He often does this by driving a tractor straight through it or sometimes by means of his mechanical shovel. Anyway, the snowplough turns round amid revving engine and a bleeping reversing alarm.

It was nice to see the trees covered with snow and in the afternoon we saw a small herd of deer moving down through the trees towards some open, snow-covered, pasture.

The woodpile is laid

Big excitement today was the fact that we had something for breakfast, milk for tea and the wood was being delivered.

There was a bit of furniture shifting going on and Lucy had taken on the mission to wash all of the chair covers (which were a bit grubby, it has to be said). The chairs are all beige, which isn't the best colour for a holiday let.

I was keeping an ear open for M Vincent. We'd given him Sam's mobile number so he could call when he got to the village, but he just followed his nose up and bang on 11am, I heard the sound of his truck at the front. He greeted me like an old friend and I used my limited French to wish him good day and ask how he was. We then had to revert to grunts and sign language to explain where we were and how he would unload the wood.

He has a Mazda 4x4 with snow tyres and a tipper, so he can deliver wood pretty much anywhere. He was able to back the truck down the passageway between the chalet and the farm next door and tipped it reasonably close to the end of the building. It was a pretty large pile and it looked good wood, nice and dry and aged.

We were stacking the wood under the stairs leading up to the balcony around the top chalet. The stairs come down onto our patio, but they're for emergency use so I've never seen anyone using them. They also lead up to a level above (at the same height as the roof) where there's a small level patch (which is the garden). The chalet is the last building in the village (it was a cow barn belonging to the farm) and the hill is climbing steeply at this stage - a good 1 in 3.

The driveable road finishes at our chalet. You can get a car up there, but that last bit is steep, narrow and has a sharp bend. The road is cleared of snow, but the plough comes up the village pushing the snow ahead of it and piled it up just after our chalet, creating a large snowbank. The tarmac road turns into a dirt track after that and it's used by quads, jeeps and horses only.

Anyway, the space under the stairs off the patio make a great place to store some wood and keep it dry. Lucy was the stacker, Sam and I ferried armfuls between the pile and the stacker and Margaret was the loader. It proved a good system and the pile went down slowly, but steadily as the stack increased at the same rate.

Maurice arrived to check out what was going on and 'helped' a little by bringing some wood back to Margaret in the hope that she might throw it for him. We were very focused though, so Maurice was a minor distraction.

The wood store grew into two layers and Lucy had to add a small third layer to finish off. We also had about five bags of kindling from chips and sticks.

The nights are very cold, down to -5 deg C or lower, but we are on the sunny side of the valley, so once the sun is up, it gets warm quite quickly. The patio is a real sun-trap and it is nice to sit out there in the late morning/early afternoon. Sam had shovelled snow off the previous day and, without the snow cover, the ice underneath had begun melting in the sun. It was melting still more today and would be clear with a further couple of days' good weather.

With the wood stacked, we got changed and headed down to town for some lunch and a wander around. It was about 1pm, so all the shops were shut for lunch, but we had a slow wander and then went into a small cafe by the main square for lunch. It was good food and they were very friendly. Margaret has been practising her French and we're trying to get her to ask for 'van rouge' rather than 'vin rouge' and also specify whether she wants a glass or a bottle. She did remember ‘van’ this time, but when the waitress asked how much and suggested a carafe, Margaret agreed immediately and so ended up with over half a bottle of wine for lunch.

Afterwards, we had a little more of a wander and then headed back to the chalet. Sam was doing veal shank for dinner and it needed a long slow cook. I got the fire going with the last of the supermarket wood and we were soon very warm. The wood-burning stove soon heats up the lounge/kitchen and, if you leave the door open to the bedrooms, then the whole chalet gets warm.

Maurice had been around in the morning and had enjoyed a little more rabbit stew left-overs. Margaret had still more saved for her supper, but she failed to put in an appearance.

Next day, we were planning to go to Val Thorens so we spent some time checking out the options. We'd park up in town and get a half-day ski pass. Margaret would have happily stayed in the chalet, but I was keen for her to come, so she agreed and we planned that she could have a look around town and a few coffees or vin chauds by the side of the piste.