Spring Schming! Winter's Back!
March 20 is the first day of spring, it is the day in the year when the Earth’s axis doesn’t lean towards the sun, the sun is positioned just above the equator and there are exactly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. It is supposed to mark the end of winter and the start of spring. Spring is a wonderful time where the birds sing, we dare to occasionally go out without a coat on and we are counting down to one of the year’s best days – Tit Monday.
Spring came early this year, we were sunbathing on the balcony and skiing in t-shirts and sunglasses. This must have pissed winter off because it has decided to make a cameo appearance this week. We have had loads more snow and high winds (even to the point that this week’s Guy Wednesday was celebrated in the confines of our apartment, with Guy.
It’s been a feature, whenever we have guests we seem to get the worst weather – terrible really when many have been beginners and needed the conditions to be ok because learning in deep snow when you can’t see beyond your nose is not ideal.
That being said, Tubing is an all-weather sport and we have taken full advantage this week. When I left you last Monday I said we may pop over to Val d’Isere and get an afternoon in Folie Douce (essentially a bar on the mountain that is more like a nightclub). Monday was the last day we saw the sun so it was good to get there to see it off for the week. People ski to the bar and prepare to crack on, it’s a unique place and a good tubing venue.
We should recognise such venues by publishing a book and presenting them with plaques to display outside the door, much like Michelin Stars.
The main problem with such venues is that you have to ski back to the resort. Easier said than done after a few jars but we all got down relatively unscathed (apart from Kev who smacked his face on the floor and got minor women’s whiplash).
It was straight to Brasero for some more Après with the ever-entertaining Gallie, he was really up for it and got us all up and going. The best Après of the week, and indeed the season, came on Tuesday. We were all feeling terrible after Monday (we ended up in Loop for some sort of rock night) and Tuesday was a tough day including a strict regime of film watching. We eventually started drinking at a quarter to three and I suggested that we leave the flat at 5pm and catch Chris who was the live turn on that day. There were a group of people in there, many of whom are mates with a few of the bar staff at Brasero, there must have been 25 of them in there and they were all up for getting totally smashed. We jumped on board and got on with it. We were firmly back in the game after an Après Ski session that included Flugels, Jager, Sambuca and the alpine special, Toffee Vodka. On top of all this were other firsts for Après ski – crowd surfing to The Proclaimers. All of this before 7pm. We were tubing like pros, the kids in the bar went home to their chalet to sort themselves out whereas me, Stuoobs & LK went for a kebab and ended up in Bagus Bar where we had control of the music.
By the time Guy Wednesday came along we were pretty screwed but Wednesday is Wednesday so we got the man around and got on with it.
Generally it’s been a good week and we had the main event on Saturday – it was Liability Kev’s 30th birthday. We hit the slopes on a cold and windy day, thankfully conditions on the lower slopes in Val d’Isere were better and we got some good boarding in with Kev hitting the occasional tree.
That evening was a good one, went to the best Savoyard restaurant in the resort (best, not the most expensive!) and did more shots of The Viper.
Kev’s now gone and the weather will therefore pick up. We’re now in the final straight of our season in Tignes with under a month left now. More to come…
xxx
