This could be my final post from Tignes. As I write we have our car booked which we pick up Saturday afternoon from Albertville ready for the drive back on Monday. The Don has very kindly offered to meet us in Calais and take us back to the UK in the Walk-a-bus. What's Left?
The hopes are to get a couple of hours in in the morning, we've had more snow Friday but I have to be on the bus later in order to get the train to Albertville to get the car. We're planning on having an end-of-season blow out tonight which, effectively, rules out anything on Sunday! We're on the road by 6am Monday.
The end of season parties have continued with the most eagerly anticipated taking place last Wednesday. It was not a Guy Wednesday as we know it, largely thanks to Guy being on antibiotics for some end of season disease he had picked up. It was Jack's birthday and I started off by playing Train To Albertville on the radio for him. We had a bit of a board thanks to the never-ending great snow and lunch at Le Brasero. It all went off from there!
Loop Bar gained permission from the Mayor to have their Après session on their terrace - it wasn't one to be missed as the excellent Bring Your Sisters were in town for their final gig & Loop's 'unofficial' closing party.
For the first time this season a scheduled outdoor Après band could take place without being moved indoors because of the cold/snow. It wasn't Bring Your Sisters as we know them, they had had a stupidly heavy night in Meribel the night before and the lead singer, Rich, had to drop out. They replaced him with Gallie from Monday Après fame. The combination of the band, the sun and a terrace full of drinking seasonaires was a winner:
We powered on through and drank Loop dry of vodka & gin. The Sisters were on form and up for a blow out, they played classics such as 'REM - It's The End Of The Season As We Know It' and then went crazy, here's a pic of Stevie setting his keyboard on fire...
All in all, fantastic way to spend our last Wednesday in Tignes, so often the focal point of the week!
As for the future... Pezza & I will be heading to Meribel in the first week of December 2009 ready for me to start the radio (I had my leaving lunch yesterday - it was like having a proper job!). We have loads of plans for the summer that will take us travelling; we start with Yvonne & Ste's wedding in Cyprus in August. We have also booked to go around Thailand for a couple of months - no hard and fast plans, but the flights are booked and this time we're going to do it properly armed with nothing else than a few clothes, a camera & the Lonely Planet guide and see where we end up. We are also flirting with the idea of a week or so driving through the south of France, possibly taking in Tignes and Biarritz with a few of the guys from down here.
That's plenty to keep the blog going for another year or so, during the quieter times I may do some feature posts of my favourite photos or places I've been to prior to September 2007 when I started the blog up.
A quick one today! The final paragraph of the last post I mentioned that it was snowing, it turned out to be a big dump.
This was unfortunate as it meant we had to dust off all of our gear and head out onto the mountain for, what we thought at the time, would be the last powder day of the season. I left the skis at home and got back on the snowboard for the first time in three weeks, we headed straight up to the top of the Grande Motte Glacier which was very busy for a Saturday but we could use our local knowledge to avoid the crowds and head to the off-piste slope just off the black Descente run. It's a good, solid, high, north-facing run that was a dream to find - so much so that even Pezza was 'shredding the pow' like she never has before!
We were happy, after weeks of slushy porridge to ski on we finally had a day's skiing we would be happy to call our last on the basis that the slush would return. Since then the temperatures have dropped and the snow has kept coming; yesterday it snowed for 24 hours and we're just waiting to see if the cloud is going to lift enough to satisfy the fair-weather skier in me. Worst case scenario, however is that the day will remain shit and we go out in tomorrow's sun!
Events this week: Wednesday will be a BIG one, it's the final Guy Wednesday, the unofficial closing party of Loop Bar, the final 'Bring Your Sisters' gig and Jack's birthday. Just about everyone in the resort is setting out to have a really good night and, if that includes Turbo Foolish Bombs then so be it!
It's nearly over. We have under two weeks until we leave Tignes, it has been our home for five months and we have loved every minute of it. The good thing about the season ending is that you don't feel you are leaving anything amazing, the snow is melting, people are leaving and you know that in 3-4 weeks time the place will be virtually deserted, it makes returning home that bit more bearable.
It's party time in Tignes now, with snow conditions what they are nobody is busting a gut to get up early and ski, even though the best conditions are first thing in the morning.
On Sunday Le Brasero had a Sunday roast on so the four of us joined Ollie, Katie & Ro for a sophisticated meal followed by Jack's final gig of the season. It was carnage with everyone seemingly setting out to be as pissed as they had been all season. Jack didn't disappoint throwing out classics such as Chesney and doing a shot between each song.
Once Jack had finished the real mayhem ensued. With it being Easter there are a lot of school trips around, especially French. We met up with a French school who all wear weird overcoats (Pezza thought they were some sort of cult). It turns out they are an engineering college and these are their customised lab coats. They are animals and we call them The French School of Drunk Engineering.
Unfortunately Stuart didn't last the course as he ended up fairly comfortable on the stage in Brasero
It was a great night and we ended up in Caves du Lac & Jack's Club where Pezza & Katie were getting on well with the French School of Drunk Engineering and adopted the uniform.
The next day was one of massive collective hangovers but it was the Seasonaires Annual Football Tournament where all the bars entered teams and faced-off against each other. We managed to rock up about an hour late but just in time to see what was really going on. The Mark Warner team took the whole thing very seriously and naturally progressed to the final where they faced Jam Bar - a pisshead's paradise. At half time the Mark Warner team were discussing tactics and taking on water whilst the Jam Bar team were being fed shots of vodka by the referee. Top stuff.
Many bars are having end of season nights of mayhem and this week was the turn of Bagus Bar on Tuesday who had their 80s night. It seemed a good idea to have Guy Wednesday on Tuesday and we were joined in the flat for dinner by Ollie, Lauren, Guy and Georgina (Mrs Guy Wednesday). We had dinner, Andy's Fajitas, and had the Chelsea v Liverpool game on in the background. Stu came up with the rule that everytime there was a goal we'd do a shot of tequila; we were expecting a boring Chelsea 0-0 but we got a 4-4 thriller: not good for our health but great for manufacturers & distributors of tequila!
What happened next was a sequence of events that resulted in our downfall.
By the time we got to Bagus we were fairly cooked and the 80s party was in full swing and I'm fairly well in with the crowd at Bagus thanks to the radio and we are sponsoring the free music festival that is starting today, organised by the owners of Bagus. The final nail in the coffin was seeing Christian, the bar manager at Loop bar propping up the other end of the bar. Christian is the bloke largely responsible for feeding us all kinds of shots on Wednesday nights in Loop.
So, in summary, we were 8 tequilas to the good, we had an 80s party night, we were at a bar that enjoys throwing free shots at us and we were with a bloke who we wanted alco-revenge on. The result? A water fight, two hours sleep and the worst moment in radio history the following day
So, as I write the snow has started to fall which may result in a day's skiing later in the week, but we are looking forward to the next couple of weeks of fun!
Since the last blog not a great deal has happened; sure, we've had the occasional Guy Wednesday (Including a GW on a Tuesday!) and the skiing has been great but there's nothing that has happened this week that you haven't read several times over in my fifteen Tignes blogs so far; except, perhaps, Karen causing a kitchen fire by making toast.
I was hoping to be able to tell you about a trip that would have undoubtedly been one of the highlights of the season, the Tarantaise Tour, in which we would ski with a guide off piste through several other resorts. The map, below, sums it up. Wo would start bottom right in Tignes and work our way clockwise through the resorts of Champagny, La Plagne, Peisey, Les Arcs & Villaroger before getting the bus back to Tignes.
It would have been a gruelling day of 8 hours straight skiing covering a phenomenal distance but, alas, the conditions over the last week or so have been too warm and the snow is starting to deteriorate in some of the lower resorts we would go through Champagny is only 950m).
So, nothing's happened, although I have had my only bout of man-flu of the season. Nic, the owner of Brasero both me and a friend of his in Oz posted on Facebook that they had man-flu - he wanted to alert the WHO of a clear worldwide epidemic!
Right, Tignes, what can I tell you about it that differs from other resorts? Well, resorts such as Meribel and neighbouring Val d'Isere rightly have an party reputation but folk over here don't mind that. I can't speak for the French but certainly over the last few years there has been a British invasion of bars and clubs that are kept in business by the huge number of Brits that come here for the entire season - the French don't like it as they like the dichotomy between the resorts of Val d'Isere & Tignes: the theory being Val can have their party nights and we'll take the mountain seriously. However, people in Tignes know better and are quite smug knowing that we have the best skiing and a cracking tubing venue to boot. This all means we don't get the wanky clubbing types that Val gets - the atmosphere in this resort is far more laid back than Val or Meribel and I am really going to miss it!
We have one of the highest resorts in the Alps at 2100m and Europe's highest pisted skiing at 3456m, this means that when other resorts shut down in mid-April, we keep on going right through to mid-May and thr glacier stays open for skiing ten months of the year, closing only for maintenance in July & August.
Tignes was originally a town around 1500m above sea level, just down the valley from Val d'Isere but after the war it was decided that France needed it's own power and the position of the mountains around Tignes made it perfect for the erection of a HUGE hyro-electric dam. This was built in the 50s and resulted in the old town of Tignes being completely drowned. A new town was built up the neighbouring valley and in the 60s the decision was made to develop the town as a ski resort and heavy investment has taken place to ensure the lifts are quick and the snow is good (I swear I have never seen so many snow cannons in any other resort!)
To sum up, we've spent the last 5 months in a resort that offers quality skiing, superb drinking and a phenomenally laid back attitude. We leave here in 19 days, it's going to be missed! Oh, and the radio is brilliant!
March in ski resorts is always fun; before this season every time I had been to the Alps since the February Half-Term school trips have been in March and they've always been boozy affairs; the families have gone and the boozers are arriving!
On top of that the locals here are beginning to realise there's other stuff to do in the resort other than ski or board. We had a great dump of snow a couple of weeks ago but that weather changed almost instantly and the fantastic off-piste conditions changed to icy crud (crud is another youth term meaning chopped up, icy off-piste crap that's hugely unpleasant to ski on).
What we are left with is superb on-piste conditions but by far the best place to be in conditions like this is on the sun terrace of one of the many bars offering happy hour in the sun. A typical day would be to venture out at around 11am, do a few runs and hit the Après well. It's one of the main ways the Alps differs from North American resorts, you can often find live bands and great drinks offers in the afternoon. North American resorts can party like no other but if getting mashed between 4pm and 7pm is your thing then the Alps is for you! There's going to be snow this week so today is the last chance of some sunny Après-ski and we may give the legendary Folie Douce in Val d'Isere a go today, if we do then expect some videos on here very soon!
This week has seen the arrival of our only returnee of the season thus far, Captain Kevin Liability Watson, he is here for this week's Guy Wednesday. He arrived at a far more reasonable hour than last time and didn't turn up hungover from his journey so we ventured out first to Brasero where we relieved them of a bottle of gin and then to Loop for their weekly snowboard raffle. I am delighted to announce that for the first time this season we can boast a winner, Miss Caroline Bell is now the proud owner of a new Nitro snowboard so well done to you for (a) winning the raffle and (b) for not caving and letting Stu swap them for a lovely pair skis!
Kev decided we needed to have a 'quiet one' on Saturday so I cooked up a curry and we settled in for an evening of Ant & Dec and other generally trashy weekend television shows. Kev was quite eager to have a full day on the hill on Sunday so the order of the evening was a few glasses of wine followed by a good eight-hours sleep. Somebody forgot to remind Kev of this plan and he proceeded to demolish vast quantities of vin rouge, the best guess we have is that he had two bottles and for those of you who know Kev will appreciate that this isn't a recipe for a 'quiet night'. He did his best to break the coffee machine and lounge light and then had to be put to bed by Stuoobs after lots of debate about whether The Big Lebowski should be in the top eight comedy films of all time.
So, yesterday morning we were all full of the joys of spring (happy Spring by the way) and raring to go but poor Kev managed three runs and then had to retreat to the sofa for several hours kip in a darkened room. There was a period of time in the last couple of years where Kev has threatened to shake off his 'Liability' title but Saturday night's actions, coupled with his admission that he gave his BOTT wristband to a girl, has meant that Liability Kev is here to stay!
That'll probably do for now, I'm currently at the Radio station about to do my final broadcast of the day before heading home and finalising today's Après plan!
Speak soon, it's probably right that I leave you with my al time favourite picture of Liability Kev, from January.
When Paul & Karen were here we lost two days due to the weather. It's a feature of Tignes, we are one of the highest resorts in the Alps and as a result we have wonderful snow, on the downside we do lose the occasional day to horrendous weather. Last week we had the latest of our apocalyptical dumps, we had 60cm of fresh snow resulting in me, Stuart & an entire French ski school (instructor included) getting very stuck off piste.
Paulie said that the last thing he wanted to hear was that the weather picked up after he & Karen went home on Wednesday. Paulie, I would stop reading here, just for you I have posted this picture of a nice, fluffy kitten. Enjoy.
Right, for the rest of you; two days later and we are enjoying the warmest conditions of the season with no wind, blues skies and very warm temperatures of well over 15 degrees in the sun. It has resulted in more of what Andy Forbes calls, “Dirty faces with white eyes.” It’s what spring in the Alps is all about, fantastic on-piste conditions and wonderful outdoor Après-Ski.
And then it was the weekend. René, the boss at the radio, asked me a while ago if I fancied Meribel next season. Meribel is a resort that I have been to a couple of times and I know it quite well; the job is a much better one than I’m doing now and would be a close to a ‘proper job’ as I’ve had since September 2007 in the sense that it’s decent pay but the truth is it’s not the job that’s taking us to Meribel, it’s allowing us to go to Meribel.
It was never the plan to do another season but this is a great opportunity so Pezza & I hired a car and drove there on Friday afternoon, it’s only 75 minutes from Tignes and the drive in the sun was great. We spent two nights there so Pezza could get a feel for the resort and see if it’s her cup of tea. Meribel is very different from Tignes:
• the resort is 650m lower than Tignes meaning warmer weather, less wind and slushier snow;
• the resort is much better looking than Tignes – Tignes was built in the 60s and looks like Birmingham whereas Meribel is a more ‘traditional’ alpine resort with low-rise chalets.
• Meribel is overwhelmingly British – there are arguably more Brits in Meribel than French.
• The Brits in Meribel are more likely to be called ‘Henry or Charles’ whereas Tignes attracts the ‘Ollies and Sarahs’.
It was a great weekend and I’m happy to report that Pezza fell in love with the place (a sunny afternoon in Rond Point is enough to convince anyone!)
With that in mind I’ll be doing the radio in Meribel next season, it’s very exciting and the radio dudes are currently trying to find accommodation for me & Pez to stay in Meribel Centre, out apartment this weekend was in Les Allues, a very pretty place but it’s 350m down the valley and it’s not the kind of bus ride I’d be able to cope with at 7.00am with the kind of hangovers I’ve produced this season. Pezza will get a job doing something or other, we’ve got all the bumph on nursery jobs & bars and it should all be good!
Between now and then we have six weeks of the season in Tignes remaining – we’ve all made mental lists of what we want to get up to in that time, today is day one and is St Patrick’s Day and there’ll be plenty going on, there’s a few Guy Wednesdays to negotiate and we have our only returning guest of the season, Captain Kevin Liability Watson who arrives on Friday for ten days of Spring Tubing.
As for this week, it’s very quiet in the resort this week, the beginning of March is never rammed but we’ve still got loads of perfect on-piste snow and the weather is amazing – today may be the inaugarul hoodie day!
Always a 'Catch 22' situation, when it's busy and there's loads been going on I tend to choose sleep over blogging.
I last blogged on the Friday after the Guy Wednesday a couple of weeks ago. Andy & Laura arrived shortly after and brought Pezza and Cazzie with them. Stuoobs & I took Andy & Laura's car down to Brevieres for the free parking and had an excellent board back to Lavachet.
Friday & Saturdays tend to be quiet in the resort because of weekend transfers, with not much going on in our end of town we went up to Val Claret to the Crystal Holidays run bar, Crowded House. It was a good night, Andy Forbes was turbo mashed and ended up confusing his new ski jacket with a little baby 'Grim Reaper'
The following morning was my day off and I heard some rummaging around in the apartment but nothing too hectic so I stayed in bed. When I eventually got up I found Laura on her own saying Andy had gone out for a wander, unsure of where he was and assuming he'd be milling around the Lavachet shops I got ready to get some breakfast, as I walked out the door Andy strolled in. I asked him if he fancied coming to the shop but he totally ignored me and looked a bit annoyed.
By the time I got back Laura was sporting a new shiny ring on her left hand. Apparently Andy had hiked up to the top of Lavachet wall (a good 500m vertical climb) in knee deep powder to write 'Will You Marry Me' in the snow. As he discovered, it was an impossible ask and hence the reason he appeared to be a bit annoyed and short of breath when he came back!
Congrats Andy & Laura!
What followed was a fabulous day on the mountain and (until today!) the warmest day we have had so far. We spent the day on the nursery slope teaching Andy & Laura the basics and making sure we burned our faces with the blazing sun.
Andy Forbes and Instructor Stuoobs
That night was spent celebrating in Couloir enjoying the kangaroo steaks before a walk across the lake and a bit of a play around in the igloo by the natural ice rink.
Andy & Laura left on the Tuesday morning and by the afternoon Laura & Tracey from Alder Hey A&E fame pitched up to kick off the celebrations for my 30th. They had had some skiing lessons in England and were raring to go on the slopes. Hats off to Laura who completely neglected to turn and went straight down the slope as fast as I have ever seen anybody go on their first day on snow!
The great thing about Laura & Tracey's visit was thet they were here for a Guy Wednesday. It's always messy, especially when Bring Your Sisters are on at Loop. We were, to a man, mashed and ended up in the Caves Du Lac and Jacks clubs. When we got back the music continued in the flat and we had our first complaint of the season from the neighbours (thankfully the apartment next door is on a weekly let).
Thursdays after Guy Wednesday are always tricky and all I wanted to do was stay in bed. Eventually Pezza told me I had to be up by 6.00pm as she had a birthday surprise for me. None of us were really in the mood for anything but as soon as we got to where were supposed to be we picked up. Pezza had organised a Wilderness Evening followed by tobogganing at night. We started in Tignes Les Boisses, about 300m down the mountain from Tignes and had some soup and an aperitif around the fire.
It was then inside for fondue and LOTS of genepi. The bird who ran the show had wind that it was my birthday and loaded me up on the tradional Savoie shot - I ws officially back in the game.
It was a top night, and just the thing to shake off our hangovers. The tobogganing was carnage, we ended up going down the red run to Brevieres!
It was then time for a lot of R&R before more debauchery on Saturday. We had a huge dump on Friday and Saturday was a great powder day. I took it upon myself to ski in a funny hat knowing full well that people who wear funny hats should be shot, unless they man up on the slopes. We found some excellent new powder in Val d'Isere.
We were in the apartment getting set to head out when Paulie & Karen turned up, unbeknownst to me - it was a great surprise! Pezza had arranged for the local, Brasero, to lay on a table, banners, balloons etc. Nic & Karen (the owners) laid on a bottle of bubbly and a huge gin for me! Nic put on the top 20 from the year 1979 and we boogied away. (I appreciate that I know too many Karens).
It was a great night that was preceded by an awesome day on the mountain - easily a contender for best birthday ever. I was as smashed as a bloke on his 30th should be, Morgan from Loop Bar made sure of that at the end of the night by making me a triple Foolish - I forced Stu to have one too, such a nice bro!
All in all a great couple of weeks. I hate leaving it so long to blog because I could have waffled on for hours about everything from Andy & Laura's visit, Laura & Tracey's skiing skills.
Everyone has now gone and we've had a few nights off the pop (even sacrificing a Guy Wednesday). Today marked the start of the Nissan Freeride of Tignes, a truly remarkable event where the best Freeride skiers in the world tackle an area of off piste known as the Grande Balme.
I'm going to leave it there but I'll have loads to update you on next week, hopefully Monday.
I'll leave you with a picture of the Couloir De Tufs area of off piste, known colloqially as 'The Fingers', lit up by night.
A couple of Mondays have passed with no blog. It's been the usual combination of laziness & alcohol I'm afraid but with so much coming up it's necessary to catch up.
I left you on 6 October with stories of wedding & Concorde, the next day was Karen's birthday and I surprised her with a trip to Paris, just there and back in a day on Easyjet but it's somewhere I'd always fancied and it was a fairly safe bet that Pezza would enjoy it besides, it's cheaper and quicker to get to Paris than it is to get to London.
Our day began early getting to Liverpool airport in time for our 7.50am flight. We didn't need to get there too early as we had no bags to check in and could make our way straight to security. As we flew a budget airline, nothing went wrong (it tends to be national carriers who screw me over the most). We landed and got the train to Paris for around 10am and headed straight for the touristy things such as Notre Dame & the Louvre (home to the Mona Lisa for those who haven't read/seen the Da Vinci Code). We didn't go into the Louvre, I'm not a very museumy kind of chap and we already know what the Mona Lisa looks like so we didn't go into the Louvre and instead continued walking through the gardens towards the Champs Elysee for some lunch.
We then continued our Paris Day with a trip up the Eiffel Tower and a boat ride along the Seine. We had an hour or so to kill but we couldn't find a Starbucks anywhere so we had to settle for a stunning 19th century tea room called Laduree where we ordered (accidentally) the sweetest chocolate chaud you could wish for and a pain au chocolat each. It's places like this that highlight what's wrong with chains such as Starbucks and Caffe Nero - we need more independent places (like Coffee Revolution in Sheffield, home of the legendary gentleman's coffee mornings!).
We made our way to the airport shortly after rush hour traffic and were home by 11.00pm. I did weigh up the pros and cons of staying the night in Paris and all we would have benefited from a good night on the tube but it was quite rewarding simply popping to Paris and back in a day and I would certainly recommend it.
Aside from that we've had the girls' first snowboarding lesson this Monday and they have two more booked for the next couple of Mondays and we're narrowing down our selection of boards to buy for the winter. We were originally planning on choosing our stuff in the UK and then buying it when we're in Chicago but at the rate the pound is falling we'll soon be seeing Yanks coming here to go shopping!
Between now and our relocation to Tignes we've got a very busy schedule with a weekend in London this weekend for the NFL and Vegas/Chicago is less than three weeks away. Before all that though we have the latest in the series of Foden Leaving Dos as they are moving to Dubai on Monday to earn billions of Dirhams for couple of years to set them up in life, it's Walkabout on Friday then!
For those who don't know what the Mona Lisa looks like, here is the lady in her Halloween costume:
A blog this Monday may be optimistic - we're travelling back up from London on the train and will be in a state from a good three day session so it may be Tues/Weds.
Again, it's been a couple of weeks. It seems that I'm just too damn lazy, I will try harder. Promise.
The first Blogworthy thing is our trip to the south of France in sunny Nice. We decided to get away for a weekend for our anniversary and after a quick scout on Sleazyjet Nice represented excellent value for what we were after (sun & alcohol).
Nice is a resort that's been around for donkeys years and as a result it's become quite 'purpose built' in the sense that it's very easy to get to and from and there's plenty to keep you occupied when there.
It was a 4am start for us on the Thursday and Liverpool airport was as busy as usual with the ever-colourful groups of people in the Easyjet check-in queue (hen dos in pink, stag dos being sleazy, old people flying for the first time etc etc). We've decided that Easyjet check in queues are probably the best looking (and in Liverpool, the most orange) in the world.
I have had an awful lot of airport sadness but so far it's all been with 'respectable' airlines and never with the budget carriers (except when we couldn't get to Geneva because the French decided they hadn't had an air traffic strike for a while). So, as Easyjet seem to have an unblemished record with me I need to take matters into my own hands:
We got to Nice airport, straight through immigration, our bags turned up immediately and we were through to the bit of the airport occupied by chaps with moustaches holding up bits of paper with peoples' names on. Pezza went for her customary airport piss and I rummaged around to get the info on the bus to the centre of Nice. It was then I realised that airport sadness had befallen me. I had left my wallet on the plane. D'oh!
I braced myself for the worst but tottered through the airport to an office with the Easyjet logo on the window (along with a couple of other airlines including my friend Aeroflot). I was expecting an arrogant Frenchman to greet me with a smirk and pretend not to understand me; I was very wrong. He couldn't have been more helpful and had my wallet back to me within 3 minutes, result!
Once in Nice it's a €4 bus ride that takes 20 mins and drops you off outside your hotel, so far so good. Because everything had gone a bit too smoothly we arrived at the hotel a couple of hours before the room was ready so we took the opportunity to have a wander around Nice. It was fairly cloudy so we weren't suffering from the sweats at this point and enjoyed some food by the harbour and booked our Monaco boat trip.
Pezza sampling snails.
Our hotel was quite nice, bang on the beach. We were sharing our hotel with a load of people from Great Rail Journeys who are a tour company that sees the world from trains. It seems like a great way to see the world and it's not hard to see how the journey along the south coast of France along the coast line is great.
After a quick nap we tried the Nice nightlife. It's fairly typical with the usual mixture of al fresco dining and bars. Generally in Nice you can't go wrong. We ended up in an Irish pub that had Karaoke on, they didn't have any Roxette so I settled for 'Mistletoe & Wine' by Sir Cliff - it seemed to go down very well.
After a night on the pop our second day in Nice was restricted to some hardcore sitting on the beach.
When I was a nipper we used to have the occasional holiday in the south of France, I'm a bit too young to remember and really only have the family albums to rely on. This is where I differ the most from my dad. Flicking through the albums from my childhood holidays was one of my first lessons in sex education, it's as if dad's camera would only focus on nipples on the beach. I was a little more reserved but we were next to some woman who had permanently erect nipples the size of your fist, incredible. Anyway, it was a glorious day, hot as hell.
After another night in the Old Town we were looking forward to our final full day. This would be spent in Monaco. We got the boat from Nice over to the principality, it's strictly a tourist route as it's far easier to get the bus or train over but the view along the Côte d'Azur are stunning with numerous bays and cliffside mansions owned by the rich & famous. The highlight is obviously the views of Monaco when entering the world-famous harbour. You get the idea very quickly that Monaco is a truly ridiculous place with its massive private yachts dotted all around the harbour and you really get taken in by the place.
After a jaunt around the harbour and taking many pictures of the various vessels from Grand Cayman etc we stumbled across a couple of chaps renting out their Ferraris for a spin around the Monaco F1 track. Who was I to resist?
The dude came with me but I was allowed to drive, he even made sure we slowed down before the tunnel so I could floor it and hear the roar of the engine.
After I broke Kimi Raikkonen's lap record we tottered up the huge hill to witness the changing of the guard at the Palais, a typically colourful ceremony that draws the crowds everyday.
Monaco's not the biggest of places and it didn't take long to stroll through to Casino Square, taking in some more sights of Monaco along the way. It's amazing how well turned out the place is, every road junction, every path, every bit of space is turned into a garden with perfect rows of flowers and freshly mown lawns. I suppose if you want to attract film stars and F1 drivers to live there it needs to be a 5 star country and it certainly is.
We ended up in Casino Square for lunch at the Cafe de Paris, a great spot to people watch and spot the ludicrous cars parking outside the casino. Drivers of Mercedes & BMW cars would feel inadequate here!
Casino Square
After a boozy lunch we crawled back to our boat via a couple of more beers ready for another night in the Old Town!
The journey back was again via an airport which meant more self-inflicted sadness. We (Karen) managed to lose the passports in the airport. Many people would panic in this situation but this kind of stuff is now water off a duck's back for us. Even people around us were panicking and amazed that we weren't going mental.
Nice Airport has the best thing in the world. A very enthusiastic set of girls on rollerblades waiting to help you! I sent one of these roller bunnies on quest for my passport but she was beaten to it by an Easyjet bloke who was looking for us. Passports returned, no need for drama!
Safely home and ready for the next trip to Lord's!
Stuart, The Don and I had decided to catch Day 1 at Lord's for the England v South Africa test. This would involve a trip to The Don's for a couple of nights and we decided to get the train down to save a load of hassle. We arrived at The Don's on Wednesday afternoon and it was Pimm's o'clock, the evening sort of drifted from there into a bit of a drunken mess.
We had to be up at 8am the next day in order to get to Lord's in time for the start of play. We got the train to London and walked to Lord's. I've been to many of the test grounds in England (all of the 'original' 6 grounds anyway) and been impressed by all of them but Lord's is a different class. The ground is gorgeous but it's the land around the ground such as the nursery that sets it apart.
I always whinge that Lord's gets two tests a year and with the Oval having one a year it means that three a year are in London which I've always seen as a disgrace considering Old Trafford will not have any in the next three years but it's clear to see why the ECB wishes to stage two a year at Lord's; with a capacity of 30,000, a dead pitch guaranteeing 5 days play and a sure sell out at £75 a pop it's a no brainer! The money pouring through the gates is staggering. I'm sure it's got nothing to do with it being a 'special place' as they could easily drop one test a year from the calendar and still let all test players have a go, but they would run the risk of upsetting people like MCC Bloke....
...you know the kind of bloke who can't actually speak anymore and just lets out lots of upper-class noises.
I will always be a fan of Lord's though, it's the only ground where you can take in your own booze! Result!!! Seriously though, I'll probably not go for a while due to my objection to it's test monopoly and the extortionate prices but it was a great day of tubing, cricket and lunch on the nursery...
What I was expecting for the remainder of the day was a walk back to the station, perhaps a snooze on the train and then a few drinkys back at Château Don. We're renowned for making a session out of anything and this would be no exception. We boarded the train at Paddington for the 30 minute journey to Reading, it was quite busy and I suggested finshing a seat before getting a cup of tea from the shop on board. Stuoobs and Ian poo pooed this idea and we went straight to the shop, or as it could otherwise be called - The Bar. Although we were getting off at Reading, the train continues onto Plymouth so there was a mix of commuters (with their computers), people who had been to Lord's and some folks going to the south coast for a long weekend. Stu ordered 'three gins, one tonic' and we were on our way. It turned into a mini mobile Roxettival with a few renditions of classics along with a bit of 'Jerusalem' and a few others. Most people were in the mood and the atmosphere in the cabin was awesome, we've come up with ideas before but I think the BOTT franchise of the westcoast mainline is an absolute winner.
I have looked on the Great Rail Journeys website and there is no reference to the delight that is Paddington to Reading. I've emailed them and will let you know.
The rest of the evening went to plan as we had a curry and sat in Ian's drinking whisky and looking for power ballads!
So that brings us just about up to date.
As for the future, well it's going to pan out a bit like this. Stuart, Karen & I have now booked up winter, we'll be in the French ski resort of Tignes from December to April. We've booked an apartment for the whole season and will be open for guest whenever you fancy! We're hoping that Caroline will join us but we're just waiting for her to sort her life out!
Right, the blog. I think one of the reasons I update it so infrequently is because once I miss a week I know it'll take me hours to do it so I'm going to make a real effort to update it AT LEAST every Monday!
