Holiday 2 - update 2

I shamefully forgot to mention... Tea on day 2 was an extremely nice affair round at the Armaillis apartment. Nic prepared a salad to accompany the hot chicken, sausages and other stuff we got from the supermarket. The boy made his signature fruit salad with red wine and orange juice. Meanwhile, Hugh and Stew tried to commit suicide with their synchronised Canon flashgun antics (suicide from the point of view that the girls nearly murdered them). Wine, beer and bottle-top games then tired most of us out. For the record, we had a lovely dinner at Café Rouge on Monday night and a below average fare at Daffy's Café Tex-Mex in Val Claret (check out their mad website!) on Wednesday night.

Day 4 saw much better weather than the day before and Andy, the boy and I set out in earnest. We took Paquis, down a short red to Combe Folle (an "adult-only" lift that is only marked as such when you get there), down Creux, up Mont Blanc, down Moutons, up Borsat Express and down Borsat to lunch. With the cloud and falling snow getting thicker we took Marmottes and skied down Diebold to the Tommeuses lift. At the end of this one we were very cold and stopped for chocolate chaud at Toviere. A final run down Piste H to Val Claret and the bus home finished the day.

We all had a last dinner at Le Rendez-Vous before helping Stew, Leise, Hugh and Nic pack to be on their way home for 22:40. The holiday seems to have passed so very quickly.

Just as the boy was going to bed he started to complain of feeling sick. After a night frequently disturbed by false alarms he eventually came up with the goods at 05:00. Nothing very much to bring back made his heaving not a nice experience.

Andy and I left him in his cousin's care while we had a quick squiz up Palafour, Merles and Grand Huit. This is a nice route of wide blues and the weather was fantastic, clear as a clear thing from Clearsville and stiller than Ben. We skied back to the apartment to take over caring duties so Steve could have a run out.

The boy was still feeling proper poorly but his ambition to ski on such a beautiful day persuaded him to kit up and head out. Steve returned to Rosset for more practice and the party of three repeated the first route of the morning. A short rest and more retching at the top of two of the lifts did little to diminish the fun of the way down. However, this was enough for the boy and one more circuit was enough for Andy too.

I decided to go wild and have a final explore on my own; up Palafour, Merles, down to Val Claret, then up Bollin, Fresse, down to La Daille (in the valley just below Val d'Isere), then up Etroits, Tommeuses, back down to Val Claret, then up Tichot, Grattalu, Grand Huit and a final run back to our apartment. That was just enough to tire me out. We then loaded the car, found Kieran, paid the tourist tax and then left Tignes at around 17:40.

Despite ambitions to do something different and to avoid some of France's Péage fees (€68.90 on the way down and €71.90 on the way back), we ended up taking the same route in both directions. We made it to Calais for around 03:50 and took the 04:35 Pride of Kent sailing to be back on British roads for 05:10. A brief stop as Tesco's Ashford store and 30 minutes queueing on the M11 saw us home for shortly after 10:00.

Saturday spent unpacking and relaxing followed by a record sleep-in to 10:50 for Mummy's "special boy" marks the end of this Easter break.