SKI
 2002
Here are a few pictures of our skiing holiday in Meribel. 
First we stayed for a couple of days at Hotel La Chaudanne right in the centre of Meribel. This is the view from our balcony - the ladies slalom course at the 1992 Winter Olympics was held on the slope behind me. Fantastic hotel - especially the sauna and jacuzzi after a hard days skiing.
Then we moved on to Chalet Rousillon for 2 weeks with a company called Simply Ski. It was a beautiful chalet which looked very old from the outside but was only built a few years ago. [If you're looking for a little foreign investment it's currently up for sale at £4.5 million]. As you can see, there wasn't a lot of snow and conditions on the piste were not great when we arrived - plenty of ice, rocks and even the odd bit of grass poking through. However Clive and I were still the first ones out and the last ones back.
It snowed on our fifth day - not a huge amount but enough to keep us happy until the end of our holiday.
Here's Clive enjoying a 'vin chaud' after his well-earned lunch on the first day. We were both finding it a bit tough going having done so little exercise for two years!
Fortunately the weather was beautifully sunny when we arrived and on the first day I spent an hour after lunch recovering from the mornings skiing in a deckchair.
As conditions on the lower slopes were deteriorating rapidly we went across to Val Thorens a few times to ski on the glacier. I can't believe this piste looks so flat in the photo - I'm sure that mogul field on the left hand side was nearly vertical when I came down it!
Here I'm at the top of an area called La Masse - Les Menuires is in the valleybehind me. Great skiing and great views - that's Mont Blanc on the left hand side of the photo.
Clive was snowboarding as usual. There's not much he can't get down these days.
I tried out carving skis for the first time - hated them at first but loved them by the end of the first week.
I decided to take a few lessons though - here I am with my instructor Stefan. There were only five of us in the class - it's amazing how these guys can inspire you with so much confidence and he made it so much fun. He told me that he and his wife are both ski instructors with the same company, 'Magic in Motion', and they have worked every winter season for the last 7 years. In the summer they teach sailing on a lake near their home in Bordeaux - what a life! 

They also have 2 young children about the same age as ours. So where were David and Catherine while all this skiing was going on? I hate to admit it, but actually we left them behind in Abu Dhabi.  Clive's mum and dad volunteered to look after them and I'm not sure who enjoyed themselves the most; us, the children or the grandparents!
 Grandma and grandad after our skiing holiday!

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