La Clusaz skiing

This year we decided to ski over the Christmas break. It involved shunting Christmas to the 23rd Dec and driving across France on 25th itself; our Christmas dinner was ham baguette at 80 mph, though we stayed in a top hotel; the Best Western in Bourg en Bresse (Best Western are a totally different proposition in Europe- for a start the branding is tiny tiny, see if you can spot it!):

I had pretty raw meal - oysters and steak tartare. It was good. The next day, the 26th, we drove up into the Alps and checked in. We needed to put snow chains on for the last little bit up into the garages. We had a great view from our apartment: 

It's a lovely old mountain village that has grown into a ski town. These type of resorts are invariably more picturesque than the resorts built specifically for ski-ing. Here is the centre of town and the 19th century church: 

The ski-ing was good. George, if technically not quite there, can outrun me on a long downhill when I am tiring, and Ollie stayed on the pace brilliantly for the first three days. Very impressed. Here is a good shot of Ollie and George ski-ing red (equivalent to single black in US) with the town in the valley below. Check out the ski lift building in the lower middle of the shot as we will return to that in a minute.   

There was one amazing day when George and I set off. It was cloudy and visibility was down to only a few yards at some altitudes. We were right in the thick of it and wondering if it was safe to get on the chair lift and ski down. There was no-one else around but we thought if we were careful we would give it a go. We got on the chair and went right into the thick of the cloud. It gets colder and claustrophobic in the middle of cloud on a chair lift, especially when you can't see the chair ahead or behind. And then....amazing.....we came out of the cloud, above it. It was utterly beautiful and very still. There were very few people around. As far as we could see were clouds. It looked like a huge sea. There were a few peaks of the tallest mountains that cut through, like rocks sticking out of the water. Perhaps the most dramatic shot is the one below from a similar place where I took the shot above. Look for that ski lift building again. You would hardly know it was the same place. 

Other times we just took it easy. George, Ollie, Charlie and myself took a lovely route through the woods one day: 

For New's Year Eve we celebrated by going out for a meal. Here is a picture of tartiflette, a delicious local dish with reblochon cheese, bacon, pototoes, onion and cream. Comfort food par excellence after a vigorous day outside.  

Boys tucked away duck and fries followed by tasty chocolate crepe:

Not caring for the little blob of raspberry jus (too nouveau)...

New Year's Day was our last out on the slopes. We tried snowboarding for the first time. After a couple of hours, George had pretty much mastered the basics. Ollie and I kept falling over - I fell at the same place through the turn every time and of course fell on the same part of my left butt. I gave up when it began to hurt too much. Here is a pic of George and Ollie both up on their boards. 

For a fuller set of pictures, click here.

England vs France at Wembley

17th November George, Ollie and I went to Wembley to see England vs France in a football friendly. I had just flown in from Germany, and met them in West Hampstead early evening. We set off to Wembley. All the pictures are taken with my (new) trusty blackberry.

We arrived very early and found our seats. The stadium is huge - really impressive. We were sitting up high. I had a brief bout of vertigo we were perched so high up!

Here is the stadium, and the lit arch from outside.

And here is the view from our seats, about 40 minutes before kick off.

The flags of the two nations were paraded around the pitch.

And the crowd at one end of the ground made the George Cross.

George and Ollie were having a great time.

Then the football started. What a let down. England lost 2-0 and it was very boring. Almost as boring as the hour (at least) wait to get on a tube to begin the journey home. 

In short, amazing stadium, terrible team. 

Thaxted and Audley End

After a short but super stop with the Whites, we drove back to St. Albans, then set off to Felixstowe to drop Ollie off with Uncle Alick for a couple of days. George did the same thing last year. I hope Ollie does a post on his couple of days. He tells me he will. Let's see if he does.

After we dropped Ollie off, we meandered back to St. Albans, stopping to say hello in Ipswich to Andy and Angela and then heading off into the Suffolk and Essex villages: places like Cavendish, Clare and Finchingfield. Lovely, pretty, archetypal English villages.

We stopped for the night in Thaxted in the excellent Swan Inn. Here are a few pictures of Thaxted: 

The following day we headed off to Audley End, one of Britain's finest historic stately homes. The official website is here, and here is the Wikipedia entry. And here are some pix:

With the Whites in Bath

 A great Sunday/Monday with the Whites in Bath over the start of the half-term; 24/25th October.

Gauguin Day

After morning football (Charlie) and badminton (Ollie) in the afternoon we headed off to London to go to the Gauguin exhibition that is on at the Tate Modern. It was a good little trip, which took in a fair few sights.

We got out of the tube at Monument. The stop is named after the column, above, which commemorates The Great Fire of London of 1666 and burned for three days. 

To get to the South Bank (of the Thames) we walked across London Bridge. There is a good view up and down the river. The shot below is looking east towards Tower Bridge.  The ship on the right is the HMS Belfast, one of the navy's largest cruisers in WWII.

We turned right (west), down one of those little nooks and crannies that you have to have prior knowledge of otherwise you miss, and headed along old cobbled streets, past The Clink , a prison that dates back to the 12th century and is now a tourist experience, and onto the Golden Hind. 

It is very small. I realise that people nowadays circumnavigate the globe in much smaller boats, and single handed, but they have some idea of what is in store for them, and where they are heading. I am less sure that Drake did. Compared to the great tea clippers that raced to and from India, and other ocean going boats under sail, this is a tiddler. 

This area of London is called Bankside. Only a couple of decades ago, it was unpleasant. In the last 20 years it has been rejuvenated almost beyond recognition. What used to be dark and somewhat intimidating backstreets, passageways and tunnels have become an area for tourists and locals to meander and enjoy the variety of cuisines, the historical sites and the Tate Modern. 

The Globe is around the corner from the Golden Hind. It is a reconstruction very close to the site of the original globe, in which Shakespeare had shares and put on his plays. 

Then comes the mighty Tate Modern. 

It's the old Bankside Power Station and it is brilliant. Whoever thought of the conversion should be given a knighthood or some such similar thing. Here is a shot of the insides. It is a great space. 

The Gauguin exhibition (or 'Gog in' as Ollie referred to him) was good. Not amazing but good to remind oneself of how important he was to the evolution of art. Some of the best pictures are quite magical and seem to be an almost childlike evocation of a different world. 

The final shot, below, is of St. Pauls in the background, and the Millineum Bridge in the foreground. It is taken from the 4th floor cafe at the Tate Modern.

And here a little map that outlines our walk. It is a good one. Lots of interesting things within a short space. And we didn't even get to Borough Market. A recommended long half day, or with the market and some additional meandering and art, a whole day. 

The Wooz On Flickr

I have already posted on The Wooz and I going on a boy's weekend to Paris, here. At last I have posted all the pix to flickr, here. There are too many pix, certainly too many duplicates, and no labeling of the shots. I will have to go back to edit and label. At least they are up. Narrow boats next.

Narrow Boat Week

We have just spent a narrow boat, gently taking in the delights of the Stratford and Warwick sections of the English canal network. For those of you who don't know much about narrow boats, they are very long (ours was nearly 70 feet) and very, well......narrow (less than 6 foot wide I would guess). They were originally built for moving cargo but today are generally pleasure craft, hired for holidays or owned like a mobile second home. If you are very interested, have a look here. This was our narrow boat.

It is slow going. There is no point even trying if you want to do something fast. Speeds are 2-5 mph (max), and what with having to negotiate the locks it is quicker to walk if you want to go any distance! Our longest day we did probably 5 miles including 17 locks. Here is a short 'flight' of them.

It is a great holiday for taking things very slow, and doing very little, though you need to keep your eye on the steering, as the canals are often narrow, the locks and bridges really tight and the bridges very low.

We chugged through some lovely English countryside, the stuff you forget about caught in the endless commuter existence.

 

We ate at some good pubs and saw some lovely village houses.

Including where Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, supposedly lived as a child.

We also went to Stratford-upon-Avon, home of Shakespeare.

And the castle at Warwick.

I will put the entire collection of pix up on flickr, hopefully, before too long.