Since learning to ski in Canada five years ago, we’ve tried to keep up some skill, which is hard when you live in a state with no snow. For the past two years we went to Niseko in Japan but this year we headed to the French Alps to ski in Tignes with our fiends, Rob, Madusha and Anna. Seven full days of skiing lay ahead…once we got there.

We left Perth on a Friday night in early February, flying via Doha to Geneva. We were on the same flight as Rob and Madusha, but Anna lives in Sydney so we didn’t get to party with her on the twenty-something hour journey. On the flight to Doha we actually used the bar on the plane for about twenty minutes before the four of us went back to our separate seats. Experience experienced and probably never to be repeated.

The lounge in Doha looked beautiful but the dining room was packed and you had to queue for the showers (most places have those roving electronic buzzer things). Still, always a pleasure to refresh midway through a long journey.

We arrived into Geneva on Saturday afternoon and met Anna at the luggage carousel as her flight had arrived about fifteen minutes beforehand. We bought some gin, then said farewell to Rob and Madusha who were catching the bus to Tignes while Anna, Glen and I went to the French side of the airport to collect the car.

It took ages and when I finally did get the car, I left without the snow chains. Luckily, we’d gone to the restaurant for some food rather than getting in the car and driving away. In a panic, I remembered they hadn’t given me the snow chains so ran back to the counter, got given a whole different car, and some snow chains, and then we loaded up the car.

Originally, I’d thought we’d be able to fit all five of us in the car plus our baggage but this turned out not to be the case so it was lucky the other two caught the bus. It took a while for us to pack the car and then wait until other cars were moved so we could get ours out. We plugged in my phone, connected to roaming wifi and then set off through the scary streets of France towards Tignes.

The Long Drive to the Alps

About an hour or so into the journey, I realised there was sat-nav in this amazing car and we could disconnect my phone and use the car’s guidance instead. Unfortunately, what was meant to be a roughly three hour journey turned out to take a lot longer. We’d left the airport by three but we didn’t get to Tignes until closer to nine. 

Six bloody hours! The traffic was bumper to bumper at more that one spot on the motorway, there was rain AND fog, and I was dead tired from having flown halfway across the world. We stopped in Aimes to get dinner (and a couple bottles of coke) and then ran around the supermarket in a state of delirium filling up shopping baskets until the cashier came to tell us the supermarket was closed. 

We still had about an hour and a half to two hours to go. And as we started to climb the mountain up to the ski village, the snow came down. We passed cars further down the hill that were already putting on their snow chains but I resisted until the wheels started to skid. I pulled over and then came our next challenge: putting on snow chains.

Luckily, Anna had done this before. Glen and I had watched a YouTube video on how to do it before getting to France but we were largely useless. Anna saved the day, almost giving herself frostbite in the process, and then we were safely on our way. The snow kept coming down but we were able to manage it.

We got into Tignes Val Claret about the same time as the bus dropped Rob and Madusha off – we saw them as they were dragging their luggage behind them up the hill to the apartment. We found the building we needed, then got out our luggage, got into the apartment, turned on the water and the electricity, and then Glen and I grabbed the fob for the underground parking and went to park the car.

Only to find that the fob didn’t work. We tried everything, we looked around everywhere, but still we couldn’t get in. The fob didn’t work. So we had to find different parking elsewhere. The other underground parking was full so we went around the town twice until we ended up at the large outdoor parking where we dumped the car and then hurried through the freezing cold night back to the apartment. (We weren’t dressed for this experience.)

We sorted out the sleeping arrangements and by about 10:30pm we fell into bed. I don’t know how I drove that far or stayed awake that long but there you go, I did it.

Seven Days of Skiing

We collected our skis from the place downstairs the next day and hit the slopes. Tignes/Val d’Isere is so much bigger than Niseko so we had plenty to choose from. We took it easy on the first day, getting our ski legs back, then Anna, Glen and I booked a lesson for the next afternoon, and then we had another three days later. Next time, I’ll book more lessons. 

By the end of the week, I was probably marginally better but exceptionally frustrated because I knew what I was doing wrong but couldn’t fix it. Mainly my shins weren’t touching the front of my boots often enough and my hips weren’t throwing me down the hill. Still, we had a good time skiing around the different mountains, the views were amazing (we saw Mont Blanc) and for about three days we had clear blue skies.

Rob and Madusha were learning to snowboard so we didn’t get to ski around with them but there were plenty of dinners and meals that we got to share. 

One day, Anna, Glen and I went right to the other side of the ski field to a place called Le Fornet for lunch at a restaurant that had been recommended to me. It took us a while to get there, catching various lifts, funiculars, and gondolas, occasionally skiing down some blues and greens. 

The last run into the town was graded as a blue but it was steep as and we hesitated going down it. It was tough going but doable. I then almost skied down the red rather than hanging a left to the blue and then got an amazingly fast smooth run into the town. 

Glen was exhausted by the time he skied in and didn’t look like he wanted to go any further…although the restaurant was actually up another gondola which I hadn’t realised. 

Anyway, we got there to a small restaurant called Le Signal with fancy food and big bowls of Aperol Spritz, filling meals, a fire place, delicious desserts and shots of genepy liqueur at the end. We’d had good weather on the way there but the snow came in on the way back and after having a few drinks we were feeling less than confident about our abilities to get back. 

We took gondolas and ski lifts and finally managed to return to Val Claret, relying on the guy next to us on one of the ski lifts to tell us how to get back as there was a point where it wasn’t obvious. It was a good day but we were exhausted at the end and the snow coming in really rattled me.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot?

Apart from the skiing, and the eating, and the drinking, the other stand-out thing from the week was running out of hot water. We’re not quite sure what happened. We think a fuse might have blown, or we were just incompetent, but after our first day there was no more hot water. 

We eventually had to go to the swimming pool in Le Lac to get washed (it was a bit TOO cold in the shower otherwise) and a new hot water system was installed on Wednesday or Thursday and we had no trouble after that, thank gold. All made for a very memorable time.

We played a bunch of games too, and generally took it easy. Having so many days available to ski meant that I didn’t suffer from too much FOMO if I didn’t ski every day…though I made sure to ski on the last day. 

We did the morning, once the sun came out, but by the time we got to the top of the glacier the snow was bad and the wind was strong. We had lunch at the restaurant and I wanted to ski down afterwards but when we got outside, we couldn’t see anything…so we took the funicular down. Anna and I did another run after that but by the time we got in it was about 3pm so we gave up our skis and joined everyone from crepes and drinks and games of Monopoly Deal.

On Sunday morning we said goodbye to Rob and Madusha as they caught their bus back to Geneva, while Glen, Anna and I tidied up the apartment, packed the car (we eventually got a new fob and moved the car underground), and set off for a few days in Provence.

Skiing was done for another year.