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Published: February 5th 2010
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Mareuil sur Ay Thursday 28-01-10
Here we go again, 10 weeks till we need to be back in Inverness for my niece’s wedding. Off to the Alps and then to seek out some early sunshine in Sicily. It’s the 28th January (happy 24th birthday Abby), and we are in a Motorhome Aire in Arques near St.Omer in northern France. The plan is to meet up with my brother Bob and his family who are ski-ing in Courcheval. We have equipped the van with a smart looking external insulating blanket, snow chains and re-fillable LPG in anticipation of some testing conditions. (but due to the recent bad weather in Britain we are still in search of a snow shovel). The site in Arques is beside a small lake where there are lots of plastic ducks sitting on the water and some real ducks trapped by the dastardly French at shooting points in 3 different places. We expected to be woken at dawn with all hell breaking loose but the ducks didn’t play fair and the weather was foul so no fatalities. (Sacre bleu!)
Friday 29.01.10
The next night we were again on an Aire in Mareuil sur Ay in the Champagne region. It
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Aire in Mareuil sur Ay was a pleasant spot next to a canal and we had a quiet night. In the morning we went to get some bread and croissants at the local Patisserie/chocolatier and had real treat when a very pretty girl in a pillbox hat wearing what can only be described as fetish apparel (that’s what Liz said it was), served us in a most cheery manner. The good time girls image was reinforced when another female assistant appeared similarly clad, I felt like an extra from the film Chocolat.
Saturday 30.01.10
Moving on from Mareuil we drove down to a campsite in Auxonne just south of Dijon, the drive here being a bit dodgy as it was very cold and gently snowing and threatening to become less gentle. We had made a decision to avoid Autoroutes (and tolls), whilst this takes longer it allows us to see more of the real France which is great but also leads us into the prospect of narrow roads, low bridges, hairpin bends, etc. Anyway we made it to the campsite ok. The campsite manager gave us loads of information in French about 50% understood by us, however one of the key facts we missed
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Courchevel was he wanted us to park on the roadway as the grass pitches were very soft. Needless to say we parked on the grass and the next morning the van was going nowhere fast as it slowly got more and more stuck. I decided to put the snow chains on, which if you have ever done this job in mud and -8 degrees you will know how much fun I had, anyway it worked and was good practise for the Alps later on.
Monday 1.02.10
Next night we stayed in a campsite in Lyon where we had been before during the 2007 rugby world cup. Then on Monday 1st we headed with some trepidation to our rendezvous with my brother in Courchevel. It was a sunny and spectacular drive with deep snow on the verges, but the road was fine although the last 10km up to our planned Motorhome aire in La Tania was typical alpine hairpins with Liz having the occasional near death experience as she looked at some of the drops by the roadside. (He exaggerates everything, I was calmly seated on the left side off the ‘magic bus’ as it’s a right hand drive and we
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Courchevel drive on the right, so I’m positioned in the middle of the road, he was doing all the screaming!) As the Aires are all first come first served and we new from our guide that there were only 6 spaces we were delighted to find there was 1 space remaining for us. Snow chains were required for the last 10 feet in order to slide into the space available, but our neighbouring van greeted us with a couple of cups of coffee and some helpful advice on the local area. Of the 6 motorhomes here all are Brits with one couple taking a year off (sounds familiar) including taking there kids with them. It is very cold outside but so far all is well, but it is snowing and we could be here longer than we planned if it doesn’t stop by the end of the week.
Wednesday 03.02.10
Had a great meal with half the Forrest clan in Courchevel in a wee local restaurant with most of the food cooked on an open fire in front of us. The day had been bright and sunny as hopefully the photographs portray. On the Wed. Liz and I went up
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Courchevel on the cable cars to the summit and had the most expensive coffee (£5 each) but the financial blow was somewhat softened with the spectacular scenery. Later in the day we had drinks with the couple who are bravely touring with their kids in their Motorhome together with some other fellow Brits who are parked alongside, it was only the shortest of staggers back to our van which was just as well as I might just have consumed more than the recommended government daily allowance!
Thursday 04.02.10
Short on gas, water, electric power and with a forecast for a lot of snow we decided to head down the valley to re-charge our resources and make sure we were in a good spot for watching the Scotland v France rugby on Sunday. So we arrived at Bourg St. Maurice close to Les Arcs into a good campsite and have battened down the hatches as the wind is howling and the snow is expected later on this evening.
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Grindlay
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Thanks
So I finish a particularly long and arduous gynaecology theatre list to find a picture message on my mobile of you guys drinking beer at 8000 ft in a snowy pastiche. Thanks....not :D