Explore europe in a campervan

Leaving Chamonix on Saturday was not made easy by the low temperatures.  After joining Joy, Oz, Anthony and Damien for a cooked breakfast, then saying goodbye, we started packing up the van up to move for the first time in 5 days.  It was the first time that even the waste pipe from the sink has frozen - after pouring in a pan of hot water with no success we just had to leave the water in the sink.  The slush that had been thrown into the wheel arches had frozen solid too so we had to chip enough off to be sure the ice wouldn’t interfere with the wheels!  We’ll definitely get rid of any slush build up as soon as we stop in future.  The roads were pretty clear though so no problems getting back to Morzine.

I had to get my ten-day xray on my wrist to check it’s healing correctly.  The result wasn’t perfect - there has been a little bit of movement, but not enough to reset it so fingers crossed the healing progress will be as expected in about a week and I will be able to have a shorter plaster and a straight wrist.

We were pleased to find out the room in Seytroux was still available.  Each time we thought we had found somewhere previously it hadn’t worked out so I had started talking myself into being pessimistic - not a long conversation!  But we moved straight in on Saturday evening, to our great relief.

The chalet is huge, with an open plan first floor with living space, dining and kitchen.  Our room (was the cow’s manger) is on the ground floor, along with another bedroom, and has underfloor heating, so we’ve very quickly got used to being nice and warm after the cold of the van.  The house is very much work in progress, with most of the work, since starting as a shell, being undertaken by the ower, Rab, with help from skilled friends.  It is, however, already impressive and totally liveable, with  all of the home comforts we could wish for.

Simon has mostly had his head down catching up with work, but sneaked out for a few hours snowboarding when clear, bright weather was forecast.  He pretty much wore himself out - having less reason to stop and sit as he does when snowboarding with others!  Still had energy for a spot of shopping though.

I will have to persuade Simon to write about the conditions on the slopes as I don’t expect to get up the mountain very soon - although I will take the Les Prodains gondola up to Avoriaz for a wander.  Otherwise it’s the simple life for me, so will just try to  keep updating with photos of our beautiful surroundings and look forward to hearing news from everybody at home (please?!).

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 11:02 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.