Skiing like Graham Bell (Day 11 to 13)

Day 11 Skiing like Graham Bell

Well I am pretty sure that last night was the coldest yet, I get a little condensation where I haven't had time to trim the inside of the door. This morning it was ice not condensation and I am pretty sure it was that cold the fridge stopped working. On the up side this was the sunny scene that greeted me today

I must admit I have had worse views through the window whilst eating breakfast. The skiing today was very good under a bright blue sunlit sky. The runs are very well groomed and again vary between wide open piste to some lovely runs through the trees

There are also some great if distant views of our next destination.....The French Alps

I think another days skiing here will be the order of the day tomorrow.

Day 12

Well another great days skiing at Port du Blancier and I am not going to make you more jealous with pictures of the pristine snow and fabulous piste. After skiing we decided to head for Annecy, can I say the route down from the Haut Jura is interesting.

This pic gives an idea of the snow piled on each side of the road and the blue sign indicates that you can't pass without snow chains......you don't get that in bolton. What the pic doesn't show is the relentless steepness of the decent with constant switchbacks against massive quarry type wagons rumbling up in the other direction. About 2/3 the way down I got a whiff of hot breaks so pulled off to find the front wheels very hot.

Not a bad view of Mont Blanc from my stopping place though.

I descended the rest of the way using mainly engine breaking and the breaks were cool at the bottom "lesson learned"😜

We trundled on around Lake Geneva and pulled up in a layby perched on the side of Mount Saleve recommended by Julie and Jason of www.ourtour.co.uk fame. This is quite a spot and gives fantastic views down the Chamonix Valley and Mont Blanc....it's getting closer😀

And also Annecy by night from OWTs door. Can't wait to see the view in the clear of the morning but for now I have a date with a glass of red and a Charolais ribeye 🍽🍷🍷

Day 13 lucky start look at the view!

Is this the best layby / stopover in France ? It's where we spent the night last night.

It's at N46.073282 E6.12595 if your interested, well after great night and a leisurely breakfast admiring the beautiful view we set off for the 18 mile drive into Annecy. Dropped straight into a great spot on the Aire which is very well situated next to the lake on the bike track 1/4 mile from the old town. We got the bikes off and set off for a good bike ride first into town

Then up the lake and down memory lane, we were last here nearly 26 years ago with our eldest two children. It was our first trip in our first camper van.....an adventure from start to finish.

This bit is for Emma and Paul

We found the campsite that we eventually got to as this was the summer the truckers closed France...but not to us. It is looking a little run down now, not pristine and new like I remember it. It still has the old train at the junction with the bike track the one where Paul learned to ride a bike, no running up and down the avenue for that lad.

We found our pizza restaurant .... the one where mum got drunk😀😀🍷🍷🍷

And the one that has crazy golf next door that mum just couldn't do when she was drunk. We then went on to find the restaurant at the yacht club.....the one we ended up in when we couldn't find anywhere else open (the others were shut due to lack of food because of the truckers). This is the one where the only thing on the menu we thought we would get you to eat was rabbit "we told you it was chicken" the menu still has some strange items look at the second bottom item on the meats.

Look at the price.....would you pay £24 for veal's head.....the rabbit nearly broke us.

We found the tunnel where you used to cock-a-doodle-do all the way through

Mum cried when we got to the far end. We found the rocks where I used to take you climbing and of course the old man had to prove he has still got it!!

Dad cried when he couldn't get down 😀😂

We remember it all like it was yesterday .... I wonder what you remember?