Saturdays are ALWAYS Glorious!!

Well, maybe it's a small exaggeration to say ALL Saturdays are glorious, but I personally can't remember the last truly ghastly Saturday we had! Today was another stunner, blue sky all day and hot, hot, hot! It was +8 degrees here in the village and +3 degrees up the mountain at 3000 metres, that's pretty scorching for this time of year.
Unfortunately for all our new guests who just arrived, the weather is going to take a turn for the worse tomorrow with the sun disappearing off elsewhere and leaving us with covered skies and the chance of snow. The weeks forecast presently says cloud and snow all week long, I'm staying optimistic though in the hope the sun comes back really soon. It can snow all it wants to at night!
It's getting to the time of year now when things are heating up and the snow slowly starts to slide of the roofs of the chalets! After HUGE snowfalls the local radio puts out announcements advising to keep your children away from playing around the edge of buildings in case any snow falls off the roof. The same can be said for these warm days too . The picture above illustrates the overhangs some chalets can get, stay away kiddies!!!

International Week

This week at Finlays in Val d'Isere, we have international guests galore, these include guests from Columbia, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Guernsey, Wales, America, Scotland, England, Holland and France! We welcome guests from all countries and it's always interesting having lots of variety! Even with the diverse range we have this week, it still doesn't beat a week I had whilst working in Chalet Echo, I had 10 guests from 10 totally different countries, it was awesome!!!
Up in Chalet Grand Pares, I contacted our host Owen to ask where one of our guests named 'Jesus' was from. It could have been that I didn't pronounce the name properly, but Owen replied he wasn't sure, but thinks he was from Israel! Figures we weren't talking about the same 'Jesus' at all, Owens being the more biblical kind and mine being the skiing kind! Oh dear Owen, that was quite the dizzy moment, it is your Birthday today though so I'll let you off! Have a fab day!

Comparison Night!

As today was Wednesday and our day off, we decided to indulge and order takeaway pizzas for dinner! In the past we have always used 'Flash Pizza' who I have always sworn by, this year though, they have a new competitor in town by the name of 'Val Pizza'. Always willing to try out new eateries, we decided upon ordering a pizza from each, totally unnecessary to have two HUGE pizzas, but hey, this was for research purposes! So, plan of attack, order one from 'Flash' to be delivered at 7pm, and one from 'Val' for 7.30pm.

The pizza on the left is from 'Val' and the one on the right from 'Flash'.




'Flash' lost points straight away for being late, in truth though it wasn't their fault as the telephone number they'd taken for us didn't work, so they couldn't contact us, however, that didn't make the fact the pizza was cold and soggy any better! I never thought I'd say this about 'Flash', but it was most disappointing, I do class this as a one off baddie though and am sure the next one we get will be fab!
'Val' were bang on time and the pizza was steaming with a nice crusty base, the driver forgot to bring Chilly oil though so lost Brownie points there! All in all, from the experience tonight, I would have to say that although a euro more, the 'Val' pizza was the winner, we wont be mean though and stop using 'Flash', we'll now just have to use them both, 2 pizza delivery shops now means twice as many pizzas have to be ordered and consumed! Not a bad thing at all!!

Adventurous or Sheer Madness???

Inspired by the stunning views looking up toward the Pont St Charles on Saturday, I decided to venture up there today to satisfy my curiosity as to if the bridge had been buried with the copious amounts of snow we've had this season! Having been a sloth for the best part of the past 10 weeks, I opted to take the bus up to Le Fornet and commence my walk from there. It looked like the sunshine had given a few dozen other people the same idea and a whole lot of people were all walking along. On a mission, I stormed on ahead. Off course, being at Le Fornet, the wind was whistling around my ears, but the sun was blaring down on my back so I battled on, sure that on the walk back, the wind would be against my back and the sun in my face.

On approaching the bridge, which to my dismay wasn't nearly as buried as I was hoping it would be, I spotted some very adventurous tracks coming down a very dodgy looking mountain. Whilst standing and observing the madness it would have taken for someone to actually make those tracks, three people skied into view and down along the same tracks! WHATTTTTT! Apart from anything else it would have taken an absolute eternity to hike up there, and they were down in a matter of seconds, guess it was pristine snow though! Made me think of all those Bank adds which are on the tubes and buses in the UK with two pairs of contrasting pictures and opposite words, ie the Broccoli being good and Chocolate cake being bad etc, then vice versa on the other picture! All my walk back I was just seeing a poster in my head with these three nutters on and the words 'Adventurous?' / 'Mad?'. Not sure what would be on the second half of the picture though! The red dot on the top picture shows where the tracks started from!!!

Walking back down to Le Fornet, I saw my first Chamois of the season with an absolutely massive pair of horns, they were HUGE! I've never seen a Chamois this early in the season, it looked quite the fine specimen though and was merrily munching away on something! (Whoops, have just been informed it's actually a Bouquetin, they all look the same from a distance!!! Thats my excuse anyways!)

Unfortunately my hopes of having the wind at my back and sun in my face on the walk home didn't materialize due to clouds coming in and covering the peaks, it was still a lovely walk though and highly invigorating!

Lets hope it's clear enough tonight for our 'Mardi gras' fireworks display to take place!

Richards Mission.

As tonight was Finlays Drinks Evening, I set Richard a mission to be photographer for the night and snap me lots of pictures to blog, however, he came back with just two pictures, it was way too busy down there to be snapping away! Unfortunately the other shot is of Craig and Paul with glowing red eyes, looking like a pair of demons, so instead here's the nightly entertainment in the form of, urrrmmm, Richards forgotten his name, senile moment! Sure it'll come back to him at a random moment later! As you can see from the advertising behind, the Pacific place is the place to go if you're missing Pukka Pies and need a fix whilst you're in Val d'Isere!

Drinks evening as always was a roaring success and copious amounts of Kir was consumed, as is the norm!

Spiffing Saturday!

Today was just a glorious day, the only downside to it.... it was a Saturday, changeover day! Regardless it was still lovely to have a third consecutive sunny day and all the guests who weren't due to depart till noon no doubt had a lush morning up all the hills!

I was up at Le Fornet at lunchtime awaiting the arrival of our coach to whisk our guests off home, I was a tad early so ventured up to the piste-bashed path which leads to the Pont St Charles bridge. It is a stunning walk and people galore were taking advantage of the great weather and warmer conditions today and were merrily strolling along! The snow is so compact that it's a walk which doesn't require snow shoes, a lovely walk for the non-skiers who come out to Val!

Easy Access!

Being half term week, I tend to shy away from the slopes and hide out in the office, the sunshine got the better of me today though and I just had to escape up the hill! Pondering hard on where to escape the crowds and have easy access to the slopes, I opted for the Laissanant chair lift. Situated just below Chalet Branges on the road leading up to Le Fornet, it's a fool proof lift if you don't want to que at the Solaise or the Bellevarde! I jumped off the bus and straight on the lift, no que at all, and not another person on my chair with me! Most peaceful and quiet.

The views from the chair are great and it's worth riding for those alone! The chair delivers you to the top of the mountain, more or less midway between the Solaise and Fornet areas. Continuing on my mission to avoid the school holiday crowds, I decided to head to the Fornet area. This was both a good and bad choice, good as it was soooooo quiet, bad as it was soooooo amazingly cold, then again that is to be expected atop a glacier. It really was a bit too extreme though and I had to bottle out after a few runs and hopped on the up and over to the Solaise area. More sheltered than Le Fornet and not quite so high, it felt positively warm, still the damage had been done and my feet were so numb from cold I felt they had vanished entirely from my legs ends and I had to admit defeat, I cruised all the way down to the town centre and called it a day, it was a fab day though!

Icy Icicles!

We're going through a most chilly spell at the moment, to the extent that the icicles have got a frosty coating on them! I braved the cold and snapped these freezing specimens at the top of the Glacier Express. Rumour has it that the temperatures should be warming up a little in the next few days so lets hope they do!

Finished Championships!

Today was the final day of the 2009 FIS World Championships! In the morning the first run of the Mens Slalom took place, then the second run this afternoon, followed by the medal ceremony, then the closing ceremony!
In between races Richard and I went to meet up with Pat, the original plan was to go to the very decadent 'Chevallot' but it was totally packed. Plan B was the Billabong cafe, no joy there neither! Finally we opted for an ice bar and a makeshift alpine lodge style bar! All very nice, with the sun blazing down too it was lovely to loiter around and watch the activity around us. Some strange man was running around dressed like a pig and the background noise was of cowbells clanging, horns tooting and bangers banging!
I ventured back over to the slopes in time for the medal presentation. The Gold medal for the Slalom went to Manfred Pranger of Austria, Julien Lizeroux from France won the silver, the crowd went absolutely wild, obviously a great deal of French supporters!
The closing ceremony followed, like the opening ceremony, all the flags of the 73 nations that took place came on out! The FIS flag was then lowered and given to Germany who will host the 41st World Championships in 2011. Off course there were the compulsory speeches and then a strange mix of music, including snippets from 'Auld Lang Syne' and ' When the Saints go marching in'. Interspersed between speeches and flag lowering were tunes very much like those heard during the ending credits of sci-fi films!
Unfortunately Nicolas Sarkozy didn't appear to give a speech. He arrived in town yesterday, not sure how long he was going to stay around for though, most disappointing I didn't get to catch up with him!
Directly after the ceremony ended, I headed down to get my final block of chocolate from the Milka people, only to discover they'd packed up and left town already! Gutted. It looked like the majority of other spectators were trying to get out of town too, the roads were jam packed!
Walking on home I passed another band merrily playing away! It'll all seem most quiet tomorrow once the resort resumes its general status once more.
Shall have to come back to Val in about another 50 years or so when Val d'Isere hosts the event again!

Blue Skies at last!

Well, guests this week sent me a request for sunshine today, and it happened! Hurraaahhhhh, finally, a beautiful day! I was kept busy all morning, firstly putting in a reservation for a pair of new 'old' Rossignols for returning guests ( Hi Charles), then was in the office till 2pm, however the sunshine won me over and I headed up the mountain. On my way home to get changed, a solo, tiny, fluffy cloud was hovering over my house, I should have known it was a sign! By the time I got to the top of the Glacier Express, I was encased entirely in cloud, was most strange. Being freezing cold and not expecting it to be quite so windy and stinging on the face, I opted to ski all the way down via the 'L' run, then walked home. Lo and behold, by the time I got back to my house, the sky was perfectly clear with not a cloud to be seen. Most unusual, beginning to believe I was caught in the Bermuda triangle or twilight zone or something as no guests or other members of staff seem to have experienced this bizarre weather behaviour, everyone else had a stonking day! STRANGE!

Definitely in need of chocolate I headed down to the Milka stand for a free slab of chocolate, amazingly it was the first time I'd been to claim free chocolate all week long!

A group of Gentlemen were playing French Horns, all looking very smart. They must have been freezing as I saw them when I first headed up the mountain at the bottom of the Solaise Express! I swear this is the same day, note how the perfect blue sky has returned.... hmmmmmmm.

Tonight Val once again hosted another pyrotechnic display ( Fireworks to you and me). They went all out once again with a display to rival the one we saw the other night which we claimed was the best ever!

With only two days left of the Championships now, the past two weeks have just whizzed by!

Unfortunately the UK isn't doing very well at all on the medal front, however, the Swiss are doing brilliantly! I think credit has to be given to all competitors though as the courses are more than tricky, these have been made even harder too by some of the non to favorable weather conditions.

It's all going to seem most quiet once it's all over, it's made a most welcome change for the last two weeks!

Dining at the Monal!

Today we decided to avoid the races and murky weather of val d'Isere and headed down to the 'Monal' for lunch. Situated in Ste Foy, it's a great spot to dine!
Today there was a three course 'Menu du Jour' for a bargain 16 euros, not being meat eaters though, we opted for the usual vegetarian fare, pizzas! Still, at the prices starting at just 8 euros each, the prices are a snip of the Val d'Isere ones, it has a really nice atmosphere too. On bright sunny days it's possible to sit on the terrace and bask in the sunshine whilst watching the mountains ( which we couldn't really see today), and also spotting people from Val driving on by ( The Monal is situated right on the Val - Bourg St Maurice road).
A great stop off point if you're gasping for a drink en route to Val d'Isere, or a fantastic lunchtime destination if you've spent the morning skiing in Ste Foy, great for it's off piste!!!

Fire Flowers!

After the disappointment of the women's downhill being cancelled today, and postponed till tomorrow, the World Championship organisation put on an absolutely MASSIVE fireworks display! I've never known a display last so long, just when we thought it was over, another batch would go banging off! They were all set off from the top of the nursery slope and must have cost an absolute fortune! Lots of Japanese people I have met call Fire works, 'Fire Flowers' which I think is a much more appropriate name!
We have had a pyramid erected next door to Persval with a glitter ball suspended from it, not quite sure why but it kind of looked pretty tonight half covered in snow with fireworks floating down above it.
Tomorrow (weather permitting) there will be the men's Super Combined, and hopefully also the women's Downhill will be able to take place!

Mens Downhill

Today in Val d'Isere we had the Mens Downhill. People went on over in the thousands to watch the spectacle.

Parachutists floated into view at 10.20, all with french flags attached to themselves!

The Mens downhill started at 11am on the dot, and the first skier out of the blocks..... Hermann Maier. Our Austrian guests up in Ruby had driven all the way from Austria to support the Herminator, so we decided as he was the first to go, we would go and see him and support him too. He set a great time for the other competitors to beat doing his run in 2.08.19, most speedy, however, not speedy enough. He finished in 6th place which is still fab, but the winner, Canadian John Kucera came flying down in 2.07.01, he was second to go, think I blinked and missed him though!! In the picture below, the tiny air-borne speck is the Herminator!

We only stayed for the first 6 races as Saturdays in resort are really busy, during the 6 races we saw though, two skiers crashed!

The crowd went nuts when one of the French skiers came on down, Adrien Theaux, they were really getting into it, the atmosphere was brilliant!

Didier Cuche who walked away with gold the other day, won the silver medal today! Looks like the Swiss are doing pretty well so far.

Tomorrow the men get a break and the women have their turn at the Downhill.

Womens Super Combined!

Today was the second of the women's races. It was the 'Super Combined' which kicked off at 11am. I went for a mooch and a look to see what I could see. Think I was a little late in getting there as it was packed, people everywhere! In hindsight I should have taken my lift pass and taken the Solaise Express up and down, that would have been the prime location to see the racers from! I'll have to remember that for the Womens Downhill on Sunday.
I managed to sneak in to snap some shots, took an age though to actually get a shot with one of the ladies in it! They go so fast that each time I tried to snap them, I'd just get snow! I did eventually catch one though ( just) .
The winner today was Austrian ' Zettel', much to the delight of our Austrian guests staying in Ruby this week.
Tomorrow is the Mens Downhill!

Best Seat in the house!!

With all the preparations which have been going on for soooo long, it's great that everything is now underway for the Championships.
Today was a training day for both the men and women. As is becoming routine now, I went on my afternoon stroll through the village this afternoon to collect my free hot chocolate and slab of chocolate before ambling up to the slopes to see what the situation was! Admittedly it was after 5pm that I was there, so not a great deal was happening , did discover though who had got the BEST seat in the house for watching the Men's downhill down the 'Face' on saturday..... Non other than one very smug looking jumbo Milka cow.
His buddies, scattered all over the resort, including another 2 on the nursery slopes, are pretty hard to miss.
Tomorrow the races start again with the Women's Super Combined, this kicks off at 11am on the Solaise.
Men's training will be held at the same time on the Bellevard 'Face'.

Val has a New 'Buzz' about it!

I know I said the other day that the vibe in Val was changing, gearing up for the World Championships, now that the events have started though, there's a different buzz, to the tune of helicopters constantly lurking overhead, If one zooms away, it's not long before another one zaps into view!

Today was the Mens Super G, they go at some speed! Didier Cuche of Switzerland walked away with the gold medal, Yesterday it was American Lindsey Vonn who won the Women's Super G.

Tomorrow is a training day before the next race on Friday which is the Ladies' Super Combined which is at 11am.

The high street is now a pedestrian zone during part of the day, different events are held each afternoon. Today on the centre stage we had 'La Caravane Passe' playing Balkan Rock Music. There were a whole bunch of folk and dogs dancing in front of the stage who were clearly absolutely loving it!!

Between 4pm and 6pm each day, there is the chance to get the Val d'Isere Soup, especially invented for the occasion ( not vegetarian friendly!!), also free hot chocolate and bars of Chocolate from the Milka stand in the tourist office square ( very vegetarian friendly!! Hurrahhh!) you've got to get in quick for the chocolate though as it just goes REALLY quick. For all the liquid items, you have to purchase a plastic cup, emblazoned with Val logos etc. For this you pay a euro, you then get it filled at the Milka Hot Chocolate, soup and vin chaud stalls for free, then at the end of your holiday, you can take the cup back and get your euro back! Cant ask for better than that!

All the ice bars have now been unveiled, I snapped this one whilst heading up to the slopes to see what was going on there! It's all go in Val d'Isere!

Thats Entertainment!

Strange things are happening in Val! I know that the World Championships are on and all, but so much more is happening as well, things which aren't even advertised!
I had to take a trip to the Post Office this morning and got drawn over to a group of Gentlemen playing horns, all nicely painted with Edelweiss. They were most tuneful and had quite the crowd, Very considerate men they were too, making sure that once they'd finished, they warned everyone to be careful and not slip on the ice! How thoughtful! Lo and behold, no sooner had they said this than a pint sized child went flying on it! Whoops!
The tuneful men ambled off and a Man riding a Jumbo Chicken appeared from nowhere. Most bizarre. Not sure what he was doing, or was going to do as duty called and I had to dash!

The crowds were out on the slopes ready for the Women's Super G races at lunchtime! Looks like a whole lot of School Children have come on field trips. If anyone is travelling here from neighbouring cities, the TGV have put on promotional train journeys for a euro each way, then free buses are running between Bourg St Maurice and Val, apparently 60 a day. A great and (almost) free day out!!

Championships have Commenced!!

Tonight at 18.45 saw the opening of the World Championships! People headed over to the Bellevarde area in mass hordes, by the time I arrived, no room was available anywhere near the stage so I had to hover by a 'Boutique Stall' which had been conveniently placed for the event!
The ceremony started on time and a procession of 150 school children from Val and the surrounding areas came on out bearing flags and the name of the 73 nations which are competing. Each child was clad in a Bonneval wool cape, each one made especially for the occasion by the textile mill in Bourg St Maurice, do hope the children were kept warm enough as I know I myself was freezing! After the flags, there were speeches, and more speeches, and unfortunately my toes and fingers got a little too cold to stick around, especially as the sound didn't reach very far, so I ventured off to check out the high street. Sarah and Roddy both were there a little longer than me and saw the crane which was there swing around to the stage area with a drummer and acrobat and such like! Down on the main street, it has been turned into a pedestrian zone with local produce stalls with lots of cheese samples to try. I munched my way though a fair amount of Beaufort and Tomme before going and hovering around the Milka stall where they eventually started handing out mini Milka bars!
This was one very happy cow jigging along quite merrily and most probably the highlight of my evening ( apart from the chocolate)!!

The races start tomorrow with the first being the 'Ladies Super G'. This kicks off at 1pm on the Solaise!!

1 day to go and the Cows have Arrived!!

With just one day to go before the opening ceremony for the World Championships, I took yet another stroll around town to see what was what. Rumour had it that cows in bubbles had arrived, so of course, they were high on my list of things to find! One was located just around the corner from Persval, on the snow front, not surprisingly next to the Milka promotional hut!
Milka is one of the sponsors for the event so there are purple and white things everywhere!
Satisfied I had found a cow, I went on down to check out the finished head snow sculpture. I was hoping to check out the ice bars too which have all been carved, they are presently all covered up though so I will have to go and suss them out when they are all revealed to the public.
A bizarre event is happening each evening in resort at the moment, a lorry drives though the streets loaded with snow, also on this lorry is a 'Muck Spreader' ( for want of a better description), this has a whirly, spraying arm on it which spits out snow in little balls, all over the high street! Not sure who thought up that one! Maybe they wont have to use it over the next few days as we are forecast snow and very high winds for at least the next 24 hours, hopefully it wont hamper the 'Opening Ceremony' tomorrow night!