Take Two

So all I do now is spend time with Guillaume and go for walks in the snow... that is if you judge the contents of the second post of 2009 and compare it with the first. More winter wonderland pics of the French Alps, again from two raquette walks around the Cross-country skiing resort of Plaine Joux, and a few more pictures for fans of Guillaume, who is now almost permanently smiling!


The first trip of 2009 into the Alps was a welcome one. They call it stratus, low cloud that hangs in the alpine valleys during cold, fine weather. Underneath this cloud it is grey, cold and pretty miserable, however with the help of ski resort webcams to convince you, above the cloud it is picture perfect weather.

So, with two weeks of permanent stratus clouding the mind as well as the skies, I set out on a Sunday morning hopeful of finding some open space and some sunshine. It did not take long, passing frozen forests on the way, driving into the cloud at about 600m altitude where the temperature was -9C, and then bursting through into beautiful blue skies. It was like being on an air plane leaving dreary, dank heathrow behind and climbing into the upper atmosphere, however this time I was driving! Arriving at Plaine Joux, at 1250m altitude, the temperature was now a tropical -1C and at 10am in the morning, not too busy (yet).


- Looking west. That's the Saleve in the distance poking through the stratus

Time to put on the 'raquettes' and make a vigoruous trek up to the mountain hamlet of Ajon, another 200m higher, and soak in the 360 degree views. I kind of felt sorry for those stuck down in the valley (including a housebound Vero), missing out on these amazing clear skies and superb views, and that itself made me appreciate even more how lucky I was to be there.

- Looking towards Mont Blanc with the Arve valley below shrouded in cloud

The snow itself was fairly hard, having not snowed significantly for about 3 weeks. It was still very abundant though. However some sun-facing slopes had softened enough to make a fun descent with the snowshoes.



Two weeks afterwards, Philippe and Peggy came up for the day, with snowshoes in the boot of the car. So with it being the closest, Plaine Joux again was the destination. The weather was better in the valley, just a bit of lake fog and the sun was out in the mountains, however threatening skies were looming from the Jura in the north, so time was at a premium.



Fresh snow a bit higher up meant the descent was even more fun than the last time, and we extended the walk into green forests past cross-country skiers before looping back to the car, and more importantly, the restaurant for some diot sausages and a welcome beer. The weather held up pretty good too, although the wind on top blew away a few cobwebs.




Since then weekends have been quiet, relaxing with Guillaume. Last weekend we had a stroll in some fine weather in the Swiss countryside nearby - Guillaume's first international trip! (He has a French ID card for any of you thinking he was travelling illegally :-) )



Today we have had snow at home - only a few centimetres but enough to convince us that chilling out and relaxing in the warm this morning is the best option. Feet up in front of the tennis it is then.....