This Week – Winter, Spring & Méribel
I’m British, I talk about weather.
When Paul & Karen were here we lost two days due to the weather. It’s a feature of Tignes, we are one of the highest resorts in the Alps and as a result we have wonderful snow, on the downside we do lose the occasional day to horrendous weather. Last week we had the latest of our apocalyptical dumps, we had 60cm of fresh snow resulting in me, Stuart & an entire French ski school (instructor included) getting very stuck off piste.
Paulie said that the last thing he wanted to hear was that the weather picked up after he & Karen went home on Wednesday. Paulie, I would stop reading here, just for you I have posted this picture of a nice, fluffy kitten. Enjoy.
Right, for the rest of you; two days later and we are enjoying the warmest conditions of the season with no wind, blues skies and very warm temperatures of well over 15 degrees in the sun. It has resulted in more of what Andy Forbes calls, “Dirty faces with white eyes.” It’s what spring in the Alps is all about, fantastic on-piste conditions and wonderful outdoor Après-Ski.
And then it was the weekend. René, the boss at the radio, asked me a while ago if I fancied Meribel next season. Meribel is a resort that I have been to a couple of times and I know it quite well; the job is a much better one than I’m doing now and would be a close to a ‘proper job’ as I’ve had since September 2007 in the sense that it’s decent pay but the truth is it’s not the job that’s taking us to Meribel, it’s allowing us to go to Meribel.
It was never the plan to do another season but this is a great opportunity so Pezza & I hired a car and drove there on Friday afternoon, it’s only 75 minutes from Tignes and the drive in the sun was great. We spent two nights there so Pezza could get a feel for the resort and see if it’s her cup of tea. Meribel is very different from Tignes:
• the resort is 650m lower than Tignes meaning warmer weather, less wind and slushier snow;
• the resort is much better looking than Tignes – Tignes was built in the 60s and looks like Birmingham whereas Meribel is a more ‘traditional’ alpine resort with low-rise chalets.
• Meribel is overwhelmingly British – there are arguably more Brits in Meribel than French.
• The Brits in Meribel are more likely to be called ‘Henry or Charles’ whereas Tignes attracts the ‘Ollies and Sarahs’.
It was a great weekend and I’m happy to report that Pezza fell in love with the place (a sunny afternoon in Rond Point is enough to convince anyone!)
With that in mind I’ll be doing the radio in Meribel next season, it’s very exciting and the radio dudes are currently trying to find accommodation for me & Pez to stay in Meribel Centre, out apartment this weekend was in Les Allues, a very pretty place but it’s 350m down the valley and it’s not the kind of bus ride I’d be able to cope with at 7.00am with the kind of hangovers I’ve produced this season. Pezza will get a job doing something or other, we’ve got all the bumph on nursery jobs & bars and it should all be good!
Between now and then we have six weeks of the season in Tignes remaining – we’ve all made mental lists of what we want to get up to in that time, today is day one and is St Patrick’s Day and there’ll be plenty going on, there’s a few Guy Wednesdays to negotiate and we have our only returning guest of the season, Captain Kevin Liability Watson who arrives on Friday for ten days of Spring Tubing.
As for this week, it’s very quiet in the resort this week, the beginning of March is never rammed but we’ve still got loads of perfect on-piste snow and the weather is amazing – today may be the inaugarul hoodie day!
xxx
