Skiing week

After a lovely few (far too few) days catching up with family and friends we flew to Geneva,met our friend PM who had flown in earlier and was joining us for 3 days. We hired a car and drove up to the gorgeous Haute Savoie village of Samoens, stopping on the way at Carrefour to stock up with some essentials.  In Singapore you can buy most foods but some are tricky to find, expensive and you only get a limited choice of 'continental foods' so I was very excited to see a huge range of cheeses...

                                                                 mountain sausages........

and chocolate!

We also had a wonderfully large choice of wine to choose from but I forgot to take a photo in the excitement!

So far this year the European winter ski season has not been great, with not enough snow and limited skiing. However we were very lucky as it had been snowing hard for the previous 24 hours and it continued to snow for the next 36 hours so there was masses of snow both on the piste and in the village. Our apartment looks so pretty with a thick blanket of snow surrounding it.

Skiing that first morning was quite challenging as it was snowing so hard and visibility was reduced but fortunately not 'white-out' conditions 

It was also pretty cold, so we wrapped up well to expose as little flesh as possible, except for poor NT's whose beard quickly grew icicles, as well as this his bad back (which had started a few days before) was hurting-perhaps that's why he looks a bit grumpy! 

There was still just enough daylight left after skiing to take a short walk along the river and through the nearby woods. I have never previously seen these trees so heavily laden with snow.

 

The following morning PM and I headed off to the slopes whilst NT and BT waited at the apartment for BT's friends to arrive. Unfortunately due to the heavy snowfall they hadn't made it out of Geneva the previous evening as planned, and NT was suffering with his back. It was a lovely sunny morning but clouded over before the others made up to the slopes.                                     

                                               PM enjoying the powder snow just off the piste

                                            Then the girls joined us.

           

It was such a pleasure having SM, NdB and JJ joining us for the weekend and BT was thrilled to host her old University friends-now all working in the big wide world. It seemed slightly bizarre that we had seen JJ most recently in Singapore over the New Year period (See East Coast Park post) and had been swimming in the South China Sea, now we were all enjoying temperatures at least 30 degrees lower.                                                    

Walking into the village for supper that evening was a pleasure, the streets looked so lovely and the girls all snuggled up in their 'furs'. 

We take it in turns to do the morning breakfast shop and the following morning it was my turn. We are very fortunate that just across the road from our apartment is a very good boulangerie, look at all the delicious choices...

My brother was celebrating his big birthday and staying nearby with a group of friends. It was lovely to meet up with him ( and them) for a birthday lunch at L'Aero, a mountain restaurant that we hadn't found before as it's sneakily tucked away, but will definitely visit again as the food was excellent.

SM, BT, NdB and JJ taking a 'selfie' on the chair lift                                                                                    

When all our and BT's friends had left BT and I were able to ski hard and really enjoy ourselves! 

During the week we had occasional glimpses of Mt Blanc which always looks spectacularly beautiful.

 On our last day the sun came out, the snow was perfect and Neil's back pain had eased enough for him to join BT and I for a last day of skiing together.  

The views of the Criou were as good as ever

The last morning back in the UK my brother insisted I get up early to join him on a last walk around the farm, it was a stunning morning and well worth the effort.  He and my mother came to the airport to wave us off, sad but I'm very pleased that I have my next flight home already booked for a very special wedding in May

    

We had a lovely wintery visit to England and France; appreciated all the more by both NT and myself as there is not much seasonal variation in the weather in Singapore, next time I visit it will be late Spring/early Summer and I can't wait to see the flowers in the UK then