Explore europe in a campervan

We had a good evening on the campsite in Thonon. It wasn’t quite up to the standard of the last two we visited. The manager showed me the toilets, but not any showers and I will admit we didn’t do any further investigating that evening so had a bit of extra time on our hands. As we were hooked up to the electricity we took full advantage and did a good few hours of work on the laptops. (It may not be obvious, but this site is quite time-consuming you know!) We had a healthy and unhealthy dinner of pasta with loads of vegetables, only made bad by creme fraiche and cheese. We even found time to watch a film (Point Break - gnarly dude!) and felt we’d had a really productive evening.

In the morning we had planned to head off around late morning. It was a lovely, warm day and as we had wet snowboarding gear that needed to be dried it made sense to hang around a while and tackle some cleaning jobs around the van. It’s quite surprising how much dust and dirt we generate - I suppose usually it’s spread all over the house, rather than concentrated into such a small space. The atmosphere on the campsite was very laid back so there was no concern about leaving by a certain time. Eventually, with a clean van, some stickers applied to the back so we don’t look like a motocross van any more, and having paid a very reasonable €14 it was time to go.

Our sat nav is quite useful because it can tell us where petrol stations are, so we used that feature to guide us to the nearby Carrefour shop and petrol station. As usual, we had a good browse and got a few essential items like a new plastic box to collect our waste water outside, an egg cup and device to cut the top off boiled eggs! We also bought a few things for lunch by the lake and filled up the LPG at the petrol station.

To find a nice spot to picnic by the lake we headed towards Evian-Les-Bains, which is the next town along the shore of the lake, from Thonon. And, Yes, it’s the Evian where the bottled water comes from! We had chosen the day of a carnival to visit Evian so it was very busy. Eventually we managed to park up right by the lake and had a very nice, indulgent lunch and a short walk to take some photos, then headed back ‘home’ to Morzine.

The next day we headed over the mountain to Switzerland, looking for the elusive kite-spot! This time we were successful, and also had a look at the two snowparks in ‘Les Crosets’. The kite area is marked by flags in the middle and seems a little limited in size, but very accessible without heading ‘off-piste’. We still haven’t seen anyone kiting in this area, probably because there has been very little wind, but will keep an eye on the conditions and maybe, finally, do some snow-kiting ourselves!

Although tired it seemed a good night for a little ‘apres-ski’ as the bars looked busy. A cold beer in a buzzing pub was a great way to wind down - it turned out to be busy because of the Carling Cup Final. Although neither of us are avid football fans, to say the least, it was a good atmosphere and quite a nice change to watch the television!

By Monday the laundry bag was filling up and the sock drawer was a little empty so we had to make a trip to the laundrette and combined it with a, now rare, stop at the internet cafe to try to update the laptops and itunes. It was late by the time we got to the chairlift to get on the mountain, but we were both determined to make the most of the time we had and did a good couple of hours boarding.

The supermarket car park was busy and our preffered space was full so we parked elsewhere and popped to the shop while waiting for the mass exodus that happens when the shop closes. A good while later, and equipped with steak and chips for dinner, our space was free and we had a slap-up meal and vowed to tighten the purse strings for the next few days.

To get right up to date - today was pretty warm again - the van was 19º inside - with no heating on, around mid-morning when it had been warmed by the sun. Unfortunately the snow is really suffering now. I tried out some of the runs in the ‘Super-Morzine’ area, which is supposed to be excellent for beginners. In the conditions the runs were slow, as well as fairly flat, and not very exciting. When we reconvened it was decided to head a bit higher in search of drier snow. We found the half-pipe construction was finished so Simon took a couple of runs through, getting some air! The snow was better on the pistes here - of course we both took a couple of falls, but no damage done worse than an aching neck and bottom tomorrow! Back at the van we were wetter than ever - wet trousers, gloves and very wet boots. Simon rang his socks out (and didn’t put them back on I’m pleased to say!). We met a couple of guys in a big, old Mercedes conversion who assured us that the warm weather is on it’s way out, but we’re not convinced. We left them chopping logs for the wood-burning stove in their van - and headed to the town to park up for the night and go in hunt of new gloves for Simon. When they actually fall to pieces and are totally sodden through it’s time to replace them!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 10:35 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.