Last Sunday, with hangover in tow, I made my to Tottenham court road – one of the better places to buy electronics equipment in London. A few hundred pounds lighter, and still hungover, I made my way home, this time with a laptop under my arm. Hopefully this means this blog will no longer be as neglected as it currently is – its nice to be able to get home from work and be able to check my emails (and make pitiful excuses to avoid writing a blog).
Anyway, the France trip.
A fairly big group (10 or so) of us headed to the middle of London on the 21st of December to catch the bus that was to take us to Tignes, which is in southern France. 18 hours, one missed ferry and 3 hours sleep later we reached Tignes, which is in southern France. We arrived early in the afternoon, and having picked up our boards and boots, had nothing better to do than to head to the pub. Tignes (in southern France) is really quite lovely – it sits in a valley in the french alps, so offers pretty good views in all directions. To prove this, I stepped outside, looked in every direction I could think of, and was pleased with the results. Even my shoes look good in Tignes, which is in southern France.
We were up early enough to catch the first chair after breakfast the next morning – the weather was ok, a little cloudy at first, however after a few runs cleared a bit, which helped blow out the cobwebs. A good, accident free day, and a few beers that night was a good way to get into the holiday spirit. The next day dawned fine: cloudless, beautiful and crisp like only mountain air can be – it stayed like this the whole day too. The mountains took some getting used to compared to those back home – basically everywhere you look is accessable by lift. We spent a few days just exploring various different runs, doing the ones we really liked a few times before heading off to try somewhere new – the options were vast, and all good fun.
A few more days were spent in the sun, getting burnt, riding lots, then having a few at night. Christmas rolled around quickly, quite without warning. If 2007 was a pizza, Christmas would have been a jalapeno hidden underneath some cheese - one minute you’re eating pizza, the next your mouth is burning and its Christmas. We had a champagne breakfast, exchanged secret santa presents and costumed up to go snowboarding for the day. I was dressed as a bottle of tequila – I chose this costume as it made no sense whatsoever, which appealed a great deal. Pink panther, scooby doo, b-Batman, a taco, a ghostbuster and a bottle of tequila headed up the gondola to the meeting place for the tour group photo. We alit from the gondola to cheers and high fives. Soon people started asking for photos with us - for a while there I knew what being a celebrity (admittedly, one dressed as a bottle of tequila) was like: “sure I can be in your photo, which camera am I looking at?”. Photos taken, autographs signed and babies kissed, we spent the rest of a cloudless Christmas day in France sliding down hills.
The rest of the time was more of the same really – lots of boarding, a torn shoulder ligament for one of the group, parties at night (I went dressed as a bottle of tequila to the dress up night…) and a bit more boarding. The weather was pretty much perfect the whole time – always clear and crisp. We went to dinner one night and the temperature was reading -11 celcius, which, to use a Dad-ism, was “bracing”. I had a mad fun time, with good snow, better scenery and even better people. Even the French were very nice people – any I dealt with did not live up to their unfortunate stereotype – quite the opposite in fact, very welcoming and polite, all round a bunch of good buggers.
Tignes* was good times – after an 18 hour bus journey home, I left my ipod on the bus though. R.I.P ipod, may the person who picked it up appreciate it as much as I miss it.
* Tignes, in Southern France
Tignes, from the apartment balcony.
The subway train from the bottom to the top of the mountain – this did my head in. They built an underground railway from the bottom of one of the main mountains right to the top.
Right at the top of the mountain, just off the subway train.
Tignes, at night, from the apartment balcony. I rested the camera on the handrail and left the exposure going for 15 seconds – super stoked with how it came out.
Same thing.
Being awesome at the top of the mountain.
Looking up one of the hills.
boarding on the first day, this turned into a black run, mighty hard work.
Being awesome on a lift.
Boarding on Christmas Day, full garb.
Being awesome in Tignes, which is in southern France.
