Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a great Xmas and enjoy the holiday season!

Cheese fondue with Paul & Irene

Snow in the village

Apparently Val has nearly had as much snow fall in the last 2 weeks as they had in the whole of last season. It's been a lot but it gets cleared away fairly quickly. In a couple of spots they piled up snow and created some sculptures...

Santa sculpture

Skiier sculpture

2 heads in the middle of the main roundabout

Deadly icicles forming everywhere

Piles of snow along the main street

River nearly completely snowed over

First day skiing!

After arriving in Val with little to no snow nearly 2 weeks (that long already?) ago, mother nature opened up and it snowed basically non-stop for 4 days straight. It got heavier each day and we ended up with 80cm in the village (1800m altitude) and 1.5m at the top (about 3500m). With the snow, the resort sprang into life, and after much chaos in the streets with various heavy machinery, we woke on Wednesday to a beautiful clear blue sky and our first day of skiing. There's definitely something to be said for spending a season out here and being able to pick your days when the weather's nice as opposed to a one week holiday and going out regardless of conditions!! Here's a few shots...

Top of Madelaine Express chair lift - look at all that fresh snow!

Piste intersection

Relaxing at lunch time

Dave's new friend checking he's ok after falling off a chair in the loose snow

Dave skiing down our street back to the apartment

Val d'Isere village from the Solaise Express chairlift on the way back down

Before the snow arrived

Here's a couple of pictures from our first few days in Val d'Isere before the snow arrived...

West view from our balcony

From our bus stop toward village centre

From our bus stop away from village centre

Down main street

Solaise Express chair lift - piles of snow where they had snow making machines going

Tyres covering the tennis courts to protect the surface when they scrap off the snow at the end of the season

Village church

Village fountain

Welcome!

For those who so faithfully followed when I blogged my UK trip a few years ago, welcome back. This is a new era, a new adventure and of course Dave and I are in it together this time so a new blog it is. We will be providing assorted updates from our newly adopted home of Val d'Isere in the Savoie region of France, including snow, ski & party reports, DJ UTONIN exploits and loads of pictures!