Skiing 2012 - Vaujany

The boys are back to school tomorrow after their two week half term break.  I am at this moment, on the ferry, heading to Portsmouth, for a couple of weeks work and now have time to write a post.  The last two weeks has just flown by, and although ‘post on the blog’ was on my list of things to do it didn’t get done.

The first week of the boy’s half term I took them Skiing in the French Alps.  We stayed in Vaujany which is a small resort connect to Alpe dHuez.  It is a nice little place but built on the side of a mountain and wherever you went it involved walking up or down steps.  At least there is an escalator from the top of the village- where our apartment was – to nearly the bottom where the cable car to the lifts is situated.  The only thing lower down the hill was the swimming pool. We only went there once as it was a hike back up to the apartment especially after a day skiing and then a swim. 

We travelled down to the Alps by train and as we had over three hours to kill in Paris I took the boys to see the Eiffel Tower. It was a very cold but sunny morning so it was a good time to see the tower.  Tom & Ben hadn’t realised it was so high.  Unfortunately there wasn’t time to go up the tower and the views would have been stunning – a trip for another day.

We then met up with my sister, Sally, and two of her work colleagues, Alison and Pippa, at Gare de Lyon for the train to Grenoble, then a bus up to the resort.  Due to it being half term the traffic was terrible and we were late arriving in the resort but soon found the apartment and sorted ourselves out – passes, equipment, etc.  

Off Piste Boys

Alison and Pippa were on the first skiing holiday so had lessons in the mornings, as did Tom & Ben.  All of them had a good week in their respective classes.  Alison and Pippa were doing blue runs (I believe Pippa did a red as well) confidently albeit slowly by the end of the week.  Tom passed his Bronze Star and Ben his 2^nd Star.  So they were very pound of themselves.  

Whist the others were in their lessons, Sally and I skied around the resort.  We both found Alpe d’huez  a little boring and much preferred the satellite resorts for harder and more varied runs, plus the scenery was much more interesting.  We did do the longest black in France, which was overcrowded and apart from a couple of bits was not that interesting as a piste, although the scenery was stunning.

Helping Ben after his Celebrity Roll

In the afternoons we skied a little with Alison and Pippa and then took Tom and Ben off for a ski.  Their skiing improved greatly by the end of the week and Tom did a black run down to the resort.  Not a majorly hard black and well in his capabilities, but he was under strict instructions to follow Sally all the way down.  I took Ben off and we zoomed around and then did a little ‘off piste’ skiing.  Both boys then got the urge to go ‘off piste’ and we found routes around which they could handle and they had a great time.  Although Ben did become the Vaujany celebrity when he slipped over and rolled 20 metres down the hill in a cloud of snow.  A little laughing snowball picked himself up to the sound of applause.  Next time Ben, don’t fall under a chairlift full of people!!  Both boys, but especially Ben, seem to be getting a love for ‘off piste’ skiing.  Tom likes the speed and challenge of the piste.  Ben also did the Black run on the final day.

And the boys and I did one final activity on the last evening.  We went ice skating.  Something I haven’t done since I was a teenager and then only about 3 times.  Ben was a little nervous but did okay whist Tom and I sort of got the hang of it – although I don’t remember Torvill and Dean skating with their bums sticking out that much!  

We all had a good week which was all over too soon.  We enjoyed our stay in Vaujany and had some lovely meals out.  In the main the weather had been kind to us, so all in all a very good skiing holiday.  And for the first time I wore a helmet skiing.  I thought I’d hate it so had always put it off, but having seen a fatal accident last year the decision was swayed, and I must say it was fine and I would recommend one to all skiers.

For the boys second week of half term I have been doing more tree felling, and we are getting a good stack of firewood for future years, and getting other jobs done.  Our neighbour’s great grandson, Toni, has been staying with her, so Tom and Ben have been playing with him.  Plus they were taking swimming 3 times.  Tom is off to a lotto today with our neighbour.  He’s taking up Bingo!  Apparently there are prizes of TV’s, computers, laptops, digital cameras and much more.  We did warn him that he will most likely win nothing!!  I’m looking forward to hearing how he got on.