A Weekend ..................

Well I've been very busy this weekend.

Yesterday (being Saturday) (and the day of 'eating whatever you like') was a bit dull so we set off to x- country ski at a local ski resort - Vars. It's not a picturesque resort though the downhill skiing can be good - and in years past the x-country has been free.........

{Photo of apartment blocks at Vars}

We arrived about 12.30 and decided we'd better have lunch first.

{Photo of what appears to be an ice-cream!}

It was still cold and not sunny so we went to have a look at the x-country - BUT - the tracks weren't prepared at all. They must have stopped providing them.

A bit gutted, we headed for another place nearby where it's also free, called Freissinieres.  (It has to be free as it's about 7 Euros a day otherwise - which seems a lot x2 when we were only going to be out for about 2 hours (or less).

Here the snow was gorgeous. The temperature was low but the sun had come out a bit and brightened up the day.  A good time was had by both!

{Photo of x-country ski track through the trees}

Today I had arranged to go on my first proper snowshoeing trip with a friend.

It was brilliant!

We plodded along a track and up to the village at the head of the valley. It's called Ailefroide and is in an area where there's a lot of rock climbing and bouldering in the Summer. In Winter the road is closed as the snow isn't cleared (there's usually too much of it) and so it's very Winter Wonderland.  Most of the houses are extremely old, made of stone with wooden beams (mostly larch). We were out for about 4 hours altogether. There were chamois on the rocks above us and a beautiful deep blue sky all day.

{Photo taken on the way up to Ailefroide}

Now I have two quite tired legs.......................