It has been a while and we have done some nice skiing since my last post – more to follow.
However, for now I must show you these incredible pictures. Very cold temperatures and very strong winds here in Versoix (near Geneva) have resulted spray from the waves freezing to anything they touch. The formations are incredibly beautiful and I am glad I do not park my car by the lake!
You can see a gallery of my ‘ice storm’ photographs here.
And there we have it – the top of the world. Well, the top of the Grandes Montets ski area in Argentiere, but it felt pretty special to me!
It seemed that the Alpine Choughs (chuffs) were enjoying being at Les Grandes Montets as much as we were; they love to play in the rising air.
The weather was far from ‘bluebird’ at Flegere, but the snow was out of this world. More to follow from this great day.
I just love the moon – it never fails to impress. It even managed to balance on the ridge above Argentiere!
Once again we found ourselves skiing until it got dark – although this time it was due more to a late start than a powder frenzy! This is taken from Les Grands Montets, Argentiere looking towards Chamonix.
We are still getting to know the Chamonix valley (as are those who have been here all their lives I imagine). The view from the pistes of Les Houches is certainly nothing to complain about!
We were enjoying the new power so much that we didn’t even notice it getting dark. The camera noticed it though; I quite like the effect that I ended up with as Rachel skied through the trees far too quickly for me to take a ‘normal’ photograph.
It would seem that it never snows but it dumps here in Cham. After many weeks of waiting we got many weeks of snow all at once!
Another one from my road trip South.
Just outside Nice, en route to Monaco and Monte Carlo – not bad for a winter bike run!
And there we have it, two weeks of one picture a day giving some idea of the Summer I have enjoyed. I imagine my next blog will be ski related – not long to go now! That is of course unless something good turns up in the meantime, which out here is far from unlikely!
When November came around, it was a bit cold to get much cycling done up in the Alps and there was still no sign of snow. I felt it was time for a road trip! The bike went on the back of the car and I was on my way to Antibes in the South of France. On my way I managed to stop off and climb the mythical Mt Ventoux (a classic climb for cyclists).
I also put an afternoon aside to leave the bike in the garage and explore Antibes’ old town. It is a glorious place with a warren of side streets. There is also a Picasso museum there with a lot of his paintings and ceramics. This shot is taken outside the museum. It was actually really windy when I took this and the narrow streets are creating a decent vortex and making it look like somebody has made a nice neat pile of leaves.
Another city on the Swiss shore of lake Geneva is Lausanne. Lausanne is a lovely big city and as the HQ for the International Olympic Committee it has an interesting museum, some fantastic events throughout the year including the marathon, 20k road race and Cyclosportive around the lake.
It also has this lovely little statue and a nice view over the lake.
I have described this website as a collection of things I have seen.
Well here is something I saw but couldn’t believe! I took this at the foot of the climb up to the Col del la Forclaz. What worries me most is not that he has a huge uphill push ahead of him but that he then has to get down the other side – how will his brakes cope? And don’t for a minute think he was somehow enjoying it; he kept stopping and as I passed he was close to tears with pain. Still, we all like a laugh!
I cycled around lake Geneva a few times this Summer. It’s a lovely cycle, quite long but really flat with (of course) beautiful views along the way.
Montreux, a town at the opposite end of the lake from Geneva is famous for its annual Jazz festival and musical heritage. Queen have a studio there and Freddy Mercury really appreciated the tranquility and the lack of paparazzi. There is now a statue of him on the lakefront with a constant stream of tourists having their photographs taken.
Chamonix is not a bad place to sit in your back garden and enjoy the evening light. I know it looks like the colours have been enhanced in Photoshop but you will just have to believe me – it really does look like this!
This is the Aguille du Dru and the lighter patch you can see on the right hand side is mainly due to a rockfall back in 2005. There was another one in September this year though and then again in October. Read about the September one here.
This September we had a wonderful trip to Interlaken and Grindelwald to take part in the Jungfrau marathon.
As you can see it is quite a nice place! The race starts in Interlaken and climbs 1,800m over the 42kms to Kleine Scheidegg above the ski resort of Wengen.
Although it is quite a tough race, the scenery was so breathtaking over the entire course that we hardly even noticed the pain!
This picture is taken on one of my regular cycle rides from Chamonix up to the Col de la Forclaz in Switzerland. I always love passing through this little village, it is so quaint and typically Swiss.
I am sure that one day I will find the von Trapp family mid sing-song on the hillside there!
