I had never heard of the Partridges Food Market until Saturday morning when Kristy suggested we go and check it out. So check it out we did, and it’s awesome!

We turned up around 2 PM, and we were both hankering for a late lunch. The only downside of the markets was that every store seemed to offer something that we wanted, but we only had limited stomach room (let alone cash to burn)! Making a decision was near impossible! We eventually settled on Moroccan Flat Bread filled with lamb and tomato – delicious!

Since we were on our way to Al and Becca’s for the evening, we also picked up a mixed pack of 12 mini cupcakes from Crumbs and Doilies. Their flavour of the week (month?) was “salted caramel”, though I must admit I had difficult working out which ones they were, and which were the vanilla. Not that I was complaining; that was merely an excuse to eat more – you know, to do some more thorough testing…

We definitely want to check out the markets again; next time I’ll be getting a half-dozen oysters (only £5!) followed by a nutella crepe.

One of the evening activities organised by Skiworld during our ski week was a quiz night, which I must admit, I have quite the penchant for. The only downer was that it didn’t start until 10 PM!

Still, we managed to round up a team of nine, and along we went for the ride. It was actually a pretty decent evening in the end – even the drinks weren’t terribly overpriced, at €5 for a JD and coke. We don’t know how our team (“Quizzing in the Name Of”) fared, as they only announced last place, and the top three (of which we were in neither); but we did secure victory in the Aluminium Foil Sculpture round.

Basically, we had to make something out of a sheet of aluminium foil, on the theme of a circus. Todd took the bull by the horns, and sculpted us a cannon (i.e. the human cannonball) – and quite an impressive one at that! It even had wheels, and a 1p coin in the back to weight it correctly!

Impressive, no?! Was there ever any doubt that we wouldn’t win? Especially compared to one of the other teams who simply wrapped three champagne flutes in alfoil, juggled them, and then dropped (and broke) one. Pah! Pathetic.

This post is as much for the memories as it is a reference for if we find ourselves in the Three Valleys again! Here’s a few standouts for me:

Best Eat In Meal

We ate at the restaurant at the bottom of the Granges and Teppes lifts on Thursday, and we were blown away by the value for money (well, it’s all relative!). For €12, I got a huge lasagne (big enough for two really, but hey – we were skiing all day!) as well as a side salad with lettuce, tomato, walnuts, and some other stuff. The meal was so big that I couldn’t even finish it – yes, I’m as shocked as you are, but it’s true! I also ordered the first café crème that I’d had all week, and it was fantastic.

Best of all, the middle of the restaurant had a huge fireplace, which had a shelf around its protective grill, so you could put your gloves/beanies/goggles/etc there to dry off while you ate, and then enjoy toasty warm fingers/heads/eyes/etc for the first 22 seconds when you stepped outside!

Best Take Out/Picnic Meal

On our first day we had randomly arranged to meet everyone for lunch at the base of the Mont Vallon chair. Kristy and I shared a massive tuna mayo baguette, and a bottle of lemon fanta, which came to the princely sum of €10. Yes, it wasn’t the cheapest place on the mountain, but that baguette was delicious, and it was worth it just to sit and bask in the sunlight for a while.

Best nutella crepe

Aubain and I were straight out onto the slopes as soon as we arrived on day one. Having not eaten lunch, we stopped for a quick snack at the top of the first lift we took, where I promptly ordered: “One nutella crepe thanks love!”. Turns out the bird didn’t speak Australian, as instead of starting to prepare my piece of chocolate heaven, she simply looked at me with a somewhat confused expression on her face.

Thankfully Aubain – fluent in both Australian and French – came to the rescue, and said “une crêpe nutella”, which she had no trouble understanding. Now to me, they sounded pretty much identical, but I guess this is why Australian’s aren’t known for their language skills.

Anyway, her ignorance of the Australian language (as well as the pre-made-then-reheated crepes) cost her the title of “best nutella crepe”, which instead has to go to the little green crepe stand in Meribel-Mottaret. We only discovered it on Thursday, but you can bet your bananas that we were right back there on Friday. €3.50 of pure nutella ecstasy!

Best toilets

The cold weather (and possibly the altitude, though I don’t know how) was playing havoc with my bladder all week, and no matter what I tried, I needed to pee as soon as we hit the top of the first lift. (Too much information?) The toilets at the top of the Morel lift (or more accurately, at the bottom of the Altiport (Meribel) lift) were always there to offer a little piece of ceramic comfort. Not only were they immaculately clean, but there was only two stairs to traverse to get there! That’s a huge comfort when you’re busting, and wearing ski boots – ordinarily a fatal combination!

Coldest lift

Yes, it’s not really an award that any lift would want to win, however the St Martin 2 chairlift was so much colder than any other, that I just had to give it a mention. Kristy, Eva and I had the “pleasure” of riding up it on Thursday afternoon, only moments after learning that it was -17˚C at the base. High up in the air, between two valleys acting as a wind tunnel, we almost died of frostbite. We tried to comfort ourselves by thinking the warmest thoughts that we could… curry… beaches… under floor heating…

Kristy decided to take things one step further, riding about 2/3rds the way up with her ski jacket unzipped! I tells ya, she’s hardcore!

They say that “all good things must come to an end” and in the case of our week of skiing, that stupid cliche came true yesterday when we got back to London. To be fair, I think everyone was happy to be resting their tired muscles after a week on the slopes; but a relaxing weekend in our chalet followed by another week of skiing would have been a much better outcome than having to come home!

Our chalet was in Merbiel, which – along with Courchevel and Val Thorens – is part of the largest ski area in the world, known as “The Three Valleys”. One thing I can definitely say about the area is that there is an absolute metric crapton of snow – way more snow than I’ve ever seen before. And, since we were also higher than we’ve ever skiied before (the highest slope we hit was just over 3000m), the quality of the snow was generally amazing.

We were very lucky to enjoy perfect weather on our first few days, but the clouds rolled in on Tuesday night, bringing with them a fresh dump of snow. By morning the weather hadn’t improved at all; four of us did venture up to the top of our closest mountain, but the fog was so thick we could barely see each other, even just a few metres apart. It took us about an hour to very cautiously ski back down!

Still, even though hitting the pistes were out of the question we weren’t going to let all that fresh powder go to waste! And given that our “backyard” consisted of a fairly steep, wide open hill, Giovanni and Suzie found some shovels and slaved away building a huge kicker! I must admit, it took quite a bit of courage just to hit it, and it seemed even bigger once you were in the air! But the landing pad was like a well fluffed pillow, which I think we were all very thankful for…

The visibility certainly improved on Thursday, though the snow continued to fall well into the afternoon – so much so that they didn’t bother grooming the slopes until after the resort had closed for the day. Still, boatloads of powder, freshly groomed runs, and perfect visibility added up to an unbeatable day of skiing on Friday – just a pity it had to be right at the end of our trip!

Aubain, Ingrid, Kristy and I took the opportunity to venture as far as possible, and after about three hours, we managed to make it to the eastern most point of the resort, and into The Fourth Valley – one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, in all the world. Photos don’t do it any justice!

This trip was also both colder and hotter than any other ski trip we’ve done. Thursday and Friday were especially cold – it was -17˚C at the base of one of the lifts, and that doesn’t account for windchill, nor the 1,000 metres or so of extra altitude at the peaks. I was mostly warm enough in two thermal layers, a fleece, a neck warmer, and the hardshell outer layers, but the wind rushing in and out of my goggles (which prevents fogging) was enough to give me a brain freeze! It’s even worse when you’re sitting on an “open plan” ski lift, as you’re not moving to keep warm, you’re up in the air, and you’ve got no protection from the elements! Brrrrrrr!!

On the contrary, our ski chalet was way too hot! Everything had in built heating – the rooms, the floors – even the sofas! And there was a problem with the wiring, which meant none of the thermostats worked properly (neither did the lights – they flicked on and off at random – but that’s another story). Most of the time we needed a door or window left open just to balance out the temperature a bit, and the hot, dry air meant everyone woke up feeling dehydrated each morning. Still, we can’t complain too much – too hot is definitely better than too cold!

All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip, and given how far in advance it had been planned, I’m still in disbelief that it’s already over. My fingers are crossed for a second ski trip this season; I just can’t get enough of it!

More photos in the skiing and the kicker albums.

It’s been a wonderfully quiet week, in which I’ve enjoyed lots of down time. I’ve been to the gym every day, played lots of PS3 (I finished Darksiders in 18 hours, and have started on Assassin’s Creed II), and got lots of tasks ticked off the never-ending “To Do” list. It’s been very satisfying!

Tomorrow, we leave for a week of skiing in Meribel, France, along with Nick and Suzie, Aubain and Ingrid, Eva and Ali, Todd, Giovanni (who we met at last year’s ski trip), Russell (Suzie’s old flatmate), and Russell’s brother. We’re actually heading off tonight to stay in an airport motel near Gatwick, as our flight leaves very early tomorrow morning.

Once we get there, we’ll be staying at Chalet Laetitia – a brand new, four star, fully catered chalet. Awesome! Just hope the weather isn’t actually as cold as the forecast – I can’t imagine what -26C (after windchill) will feel like, but by Wednesday afternoon, I might know!

See you in a week!

At 294 metres above sea level, Leith Hill is the highest point in all of south-east England. And, at only an hour’s drive (or thereabouts) from Chiswick, it makes a perfect destination for a one-day adventure – so off we trolleyed with Julian and Shelley on Saturday to make the most of the beautiful weather!

At the top of Leith Hill stands the very creatively named Leith Hill Tower, which was apparently built in order to raise the top-most point of the hill to over 1000 feet above sea level. Yes, really. No, I don’t understand why either; but to be fair, it did provide a great vantage point for 360 degree views. Since the day was so clear, you could (barely) make out London City to the north-east in the middle of the top photo (the distinct shape of The Gherkin is the giveaway); and Gatwick Airport was a bit easier to see, at only nine miles directly to the east.

Unsurprisingly, the area is also littered with Geocaches; we managed to find In the Shadow of the Tower 2 which was a great adventure to find, and the very craftily hidden West Side Wandering, which I think was the hardest cache we’ve found to date.

Being a hill, and being in the forest, it’s also a very popular destination for mountain bikers. We (obviously) weren’t equipped with bikes, but that didn’t stop Julian catching some huge air over a jump on the way down.

Impressive!