Just as Alex and Sean left us, we had a little rain. Alex felt this was to acclimatise them to returning to the North West UK. In Bourg-Saint-Maurice meanwhile, it meant that what remained of the low lying snow, which has not been melted by 22 degrees C sunshine, was finally defeated. Apart from a few sparse areas in daytime shade of trees, the snow all around us has gone and it feels like spring time, not like February in a ski resort.
There still appears to be snow enough in the mountains though and all the pistes are reported to be open. There is even snow forecast for Sunday, though it has been the case that snow was forecast in a few days ever since we arrived but as the days progressed, the forecasted snow also moved out. This time however, there are fluffy clouds on the horizon building by the day and we may actually get some fresh snow.
In the meantime we have been catching up on a few jobs since our visitors left. Making use of the inclusive electricity to hoover up a week’s worth of 3 dogs walks a day of debris from the van. We have done laundry, filled / emptied the tanks etc etc. We have also enjoyed some home cooking after a week of entertaining and lots of leisurely dog walks in the glorious Alpine scenery.
We had also pre-booked an appointment to get the dogs their rabies booster, which was due and needed to be carried out in Europe to maintain the validity of their EU pet passports. The local vets are obviously well used to UK skiers bringing in their dogs for the tape worm treatment required 72 hours before returning and booked our appointment assuming we were doing that. I explained we were in France for a while longer yet, though we did pass one of our motorhome neighbours doing exactly that as we left with their AHC forms. For reasons best known to the vet / French government, she advised that the first rabies jab given in France was only valid for a year and the following jab would be for 3 years. The fact that both dogs already had evidence of a UK rabies jab having three year validity and accompanying blood titre tests seemed to make no difference to that at all. So we now need to make plans to get additional rabies boosters done early next year in our 2024 planning. Still, at least we are valid again for now.
We have now checked in our rented ski gear and ski locker in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Although we still have the weekend here booked at the campsite, where we will mostly be watching the Six Nations Rugby 😄🏉. Next week, we are hoping to get some more skiing in at La Plagne, a connected resort and part of the Les Arcs complex, subject to Kev’s leg being fully healed. They have a motorhome Aire literally at the side of a ski slope, which we visited in the summer and provides ski-in, ski-out access which will be fabulous, now that we are happy with the winterisation of our motorhome to stay at higher altitudes.
In for a Penney 