The best of the Three Valleys

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!