The Elephant Never Forgets: Skiing in Alpe D'Huez

So it is now Sunday, which means we can now nearly start our 4 week countdown for leaving the UK for 5 months and I am really feeling holiday blues. As I returned from Alpe D’Huez in the French Alps on Saturday and the weather here is miserable, with an obscene amount of rain, causing ridiculous floods, causing lives to be ruined, so all in all not a good start to the week.

Anyway I had a fantastic time in Alpe D’Huez with my mum and dad. The chalet hotel we stayed in, Le Christina was a fantastic location, located right by the main lift (DMC) to the top of the mountain, so ski-in, ski-out and a very short walk to the town and also the oldest hotel in the resort, although you couldn’t tell.

The weather conditions were a mix, we had 2 days of lots of sunshine, 2 days of half sunshine half cloud and a snowy day and a VERY snowy day, which ended up being the last day of the holiday and there was such a white-out it meant that skiing just wasn’t possible. So instead the three of us headed down to the local pool, which was included on our lift pass and went swimming, did I fail to mention this was outside. So we went swimming outside in a blizzard, all rather bizarre really! The experience was interesting but I’m not sure it could be described as enjoyable. The water was colder than expected and I very quickly got brain-freeze. However, despite ridiculous conditions my insane mother hopped out the pool, into the snow and then proceeded to roll around, if that is not the definition of crazy I don’t know what is. However, not one to be beaten I soon did the same, but only managed to get onto my knees before the reality kicked in and I quickly ended up back in the pool. Our visit to the swimming pool was short lived. We then headed to a Italian restaurant, Pinochio and enjoyed quite a bit of red wine.

During the week we also skiied down the longest black run in Europe, Sarenne which is 16km.

I was also happy to hear that Alpe D'Huez had a Folie Douche, now I'm not sure if you've heard of this but it's awesome. It's a chain now and I went to the one in Val D'Isere a few years back. It's basically a restaurant/bar/clubby place usually set at the top of a chair lift and everyone drinks mulled wine, mulled cider or beer and dances in ski boots if you'd believe on the top of tables and then skis down afterwards.