Viva La France

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To day is gonna be pretty full on as we have a full 8 hours of driving ahead of us. We don’t leave too early so that we can have a bit of a catch up on sleep and then we head off. The first few hours are fine and we listen to some radio on the way, as Belgium radio stations are really good. They play a really mixed selection of music from the 80’s and 90’s, and Greg gets mega excited in particular when TQ- Westside comes on the radio, saying it reminds him of his teenage years. We know all the words and suddenly realize we are getting old when we know all the other songs that come on too.



The next few hours are a bit more ‘hairem scarem’ as Greg would say, as the road becomes one lane for pretty much the rest of the way and it is raining heavily, foggy and with French lorries who sit right up your backside on a road worse than the A9. I feel sorry for Greg as he does not look happy. Eventually we arrive in Lausanne on the other side of Lake Geneva. It’s taken us over 9 hours to get here, and we are in much need of a refreshment to help relax us. We’ve drove through 4 countries today – Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and France. We manage to find an Ibis and can’t believe how expensive it is, but it’s still cheaper than every other hotel we have looked up. We go to park in the hotel car park but the hotel assistant informs us it is full for the night so we will have to park on the street instead. When we get out the front doors of the hotel, it’s like we have stepped out into the ghetto. We hadn’t noticed it before we had paid for the hotel as we were in such a rush to get settled somewhere, but now on closer inspection we can see prostitutes on the corners, and groups of black pimps necking straight vodka next to them. So that’s why the hotel is cheaper! To say we feel a bit scared is an understatement, and I’m not happy about leaving any of our stuff in the car here overnight so we take as much of it out with us as we can. We drive around for another hour trying to find a parking space that isn’t surrounded by pimps, is nearer enough to walk back to the hotel without getting mugged, and isn’t up a dark alley. It’s proving difficult, but eventually we find somewhere which looks the best option. By this time it is 11.30pm and we are in DESPERATE need of a beer! We have two beers in quick succession which goes straight to our heads, so once again we head to our hotel room for some sleep.



Onwards and upwards to the French Alps



We have to get up at 7.30am this morning to move our car, as it is only free until 8am which is a pain. However, the women in the Ibis takes pity on us and lets us park our car in the hotel carpark for free until we are ready to leave later on which is a bonus. We go back to bed then get up for 11am, as it should only take about 3 ½ hours to drive to our chalet. We’ve to be there for 4pm so that should be fine. Once we have set off, we both realize we are starving as we haven’t had any breakfast, so we try to find a place to get something along the way. After a few miles we come across a services with a burger king in it, so we decide to stop there. I know it’s not exactly sampling the fine local cuisine, but it’s the last time we’ll be eating junk food for a while so why the hell not? As it turns out, a whopper meal will set us back about 13 pounds each (!) so we decide to give it a miss. I’m a bit miffed at the prices, so we just buy sandwiches instead which are a lot more boring, but much cheaper. I admit it puts me in a bit of a bad mood as I hate sandwiches at the best of times, and so Greg and I end up having a little tete a tete in the shop before I storm off. Well, at least we managed to go a full 3 days before arguing which isn’t too bad lol.



Once we get higher into the mountains, it starts getting more snowy and it is really pretty. We pass through a few ski towns before getting higher and higher into the Alps. Our boss has told us to follow signs for Bourg St Maurice, which we eventually see signposted. Half an hour later, we come across a really steep hill which is covered in snow which doesn’t look like it’s been ploughed for what looks like a good few days, so we get our ski socks out and kit out wee Charlie. As we are about to make our ascent, some skiers start snowing down the road and just look at us as if we are completely crazy for even attempting it, especially in a clio which is probably carrying about 60kg in luggage. We take a runny at it, and poor Charlie comes grinding to a crunching halt after about 2 feet. We try again for the exact same thing to happen. Hmmm. The only thing we can do is head back down again and try to find another route. As we get further down again, we pass a gate which is across the road which we have just gone up, and see that there is a big sign saying “Road closed due to avalanche danger”. How the hell did we miss that one?? We phone our boss as by this time it is 3.45pm and we know we are going to be late. She asks us if we are on a motorway, which clearly we are not as we are on a one lane winding mountain road covered in snow, so she tells us we have gone the completely wrong way and need to go all the way down the mountain and basically back up the OTHER side of it. It takes us over an hour just to find our way down the mountain again, as the roads are so confusing and the signs keep disappearing, and we can’t follow the sat nav as it keeps redirecting us back up the stupid road that we have just came down which is closed. I start to get a bit panicky as it starts getting darker, and at one point Greg suggest we might have to bunk down for the night on the side of the mountain which doesn’t help settle my nerves. Greg decides to follow the road down into the nearest big town that we can see, which thankfully then brings us back onto a main road again. After another hour we finally see signs to take us up to Albertville and then onto Bourg St Maurice. I have no idea why the sat nav didn’t just take us this way in the first place, as it is pretty much a motorway the whole way to our chalet!! By the time we get near to Bourg St Maurice it is nearly 7pm, so only the 3 hours late! But fortunately the chalet is only 15 minutes from there (albeit up a steep mountain), so we eventually make it.



A home from home



The chalet is really homely and our bosses and the other chalet staff seem nice. We aren’t the last people to turn up as it turns out, another lady called Jill also drove from England, and she arrives 15 minutes after us. We all have a few beers to get to know each other then off to bed at a reasonable time (possibly the earliest we have went to bed, since, well, since ever actually. Usually we are just starting work by this time), as it will be a long week of working and getting organized for our first guests. Our room is massive with under floor heating and a balcony with an amazing view of the mountains, but this isn’t going to be our permanent room for the season, as we will be moving to another chalet in the centre of La Rosiere at the end of the week. It’s a shame as we could definitely get used to this! There’s 3 other staff apart from us who will be working the season, including a girl called Amelia, a women called Jill and a guy called John. Everyone varies in age from 19 all the way up to 50, so it’s a real mixture, but everyone seems to be gelling well and seem to get on (for now anyway!).

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