Tignes, France (Val d'Iser)

This story starts in Paris.  After saying goodbye to Suzanne and Corinne, we got in our car for the 7 hour drive to Val d'Iser.    Quite unfortunately, 1/2 of Paris had the same idea!  We now call our GPS Fifi, but that is more about the trip out of France!  So, for about 13 hours we plodded along in pursuit of the French Alps.  We drove from Paris to Grenoble and then to the mountains.  I think it was there that we ran into big trouble.  We seriously sat or inched forward about 1K in about an hour or so.  We had allocated the entire day to the trip, but when we realized that it would be close to midnight when we arrived, we started trying to contact the rental office.  We were assured that we could check in at an alternate location up until midnight - I think we arrived at 11:45!  We quickly accepted our key and parked the car (apparenly illegally) and proceeded to our rental.

This is the most amazing and REAL picture that I have ever seen from a ski trip.  It is so difficult to take good snow/ski pictures since everything looks the same.  This one could be the cover of a magazine!  Please read on for our French Alps skiing experience...

We got DUMPED ON....The snow was unbelievable and this did seem to make up for the 13 hour drive to get there!!!  Everywhere you look it was a meringue pie waiting to be scooped up into your spoon!  We have skied Europe before, but this was the most amazing powder we have had!  It was so thick and heavy that I had a very hard time skiing it.  Jeff loved every inch of it.

I have no explanation as to the lack of pictures of our rental in France.  Jeff thinks that this is best!  It was self-catering, which we thought meant that it had a kitchenette, which it did.  We entered the unit to find a hallway kitchen with a coffee maker - all set!  Then, we see the bathroom to the left, no problem.  Continuing forward, we found a "lounge room" with a couch, corner table, two chairs and a TV cabinet.  We both thought, this is a great lounge, where is the bedroom?  In fact, the couch did have a trundle bed, so we soon realized our sleeping arrangements for the week...

I think they downplayed this little detail on the website!  I ended up in the trundle and when pulled out, it covered the entire room!  When we finally put 2 and 2 together, we wondered, where are our sheets?  So, THIS is what the French call 'self-catering'.  Ca-ching...20 Euros to rent sheets.  Jeff antied-up and we slept on borrowed linens for the week.


Next, we asked, why doesn't our TV work?  Another 20 Euro or so, but we figured that we wouldn't need a TV anyway.  Internet?  Don't even think about it!  So, we spent our evenings and our Christmas dinner at a very chic hotel restaurant and bar in town.  We needed to eat and drink anyway, so why not find a posh base camp to call home?

As is always the case when skiing in Europe, you can spend an entire day getting to a particular location to ski.  This area is called Espace Killy and is the oldest skiing region in the French Alps.

 We stayed high on the mountain in Tignes Val Claret, right at the base of the lifts and the funiculaire!   For our first run of the season, we boarded the funiculaire and rode to the very top of the mountain!  Why?

Of course, there was only one way down and it was a Red run.  The slopes in Europe are color coded:  Blue, easiest and perhaps groomed; Red, very steep and treacherous; and Black, crazy off-piste death traps!

On our second gray day we decided to venture down to this lake.  We had a great pasta lunch on a covered bridge over the stream feeding the lake.

GREAT POWDER...I know I should say more, but I am starved for words!  After a week of skiing in France, we were off to the Dolomites in Italy!