Explore europe in a campervan

I’m writing from the van parked up in Chamonix, getting a tiny bit of sun, and hopefully posting from a nearby bar a little later. The weather is cold but really clear - from Simon’s text it’s perfect conditions on the mountain (where he is). Grrrr!

Generally the news is good though. On Saturday we went to look at the room we were offered in a chalet a bit out of Morzine, in a village called Seytroux - mainly to see what the route was like, as it’s fairly remote so we’d have to get in and out almost daily in the van. The road is ok, but very steep and not cleared for the last few metres up to the chalet. Fortunately there is a place we can park at the bottom of the hill and walk to the door so it should be ok.

The chalet itself is quite a construction. Bought by the British owner as one side of a chalet-style cow barn to convert himself, it seems to be quite a labour of love. He has done most of the work personally with some help from friends with trade skills. There are some impressive features like solid slate treads on the staircases and a climbing wall in the lounge, and the living and dining areas are on the first floor to take advantage of the stunning views.

Our room will be downstairs in what was the cow’s manger! It’s pretty basic in the room itself, but moving into the chalet will give us loads of space, and wifi for work and for me to entertain myself! The other residents are the owner, who kindly drove us out there himself to check it out and a girl who is also recovering from some (older) injuries, so there will usually be someone else around. It’s a huge relief to know that, despite breaking my wrist, we won’t have to give up on our season, I will (all being well) get to snowboard for a few weeks and we’ll both be in a better position to work more and return solvent in April! If the distance proves too far or we’re not happy for any reason we’re not under any contract to stay, and we can stay away for odd nights in the van later in the season if we want to.

We arrived in Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc , yesterday to meet up with a snowboarding friend of Simon’s who he hasn’t seen for years. It’s such a shame I’m not fit for boarding as the first time we were here in 2008 was my first ever time on a snowboard, so it would have been good to see more of the area! It’s very different to the Portes du Soleil where we snowboard from Morzine or Avoriaz. Here, the different areas of pistes are not linked so you have to drive or take the shuttle bus to your chosen area to board. But the areas are generally much higher in altitude and there are several glaciers. The extremity of some of the terrain is the reason many regular skiers and boarders in Chamonix carry probes, shovels and transceivers in case of avalanche. Simon is, of course, sticking to the marked pistes!

The van’s parked in a paying car park - Parking du Grepon. There are lots of live-in vans here, although most appear to be in a designated and cordoned-off area. A little out of the town centre, Grepon is near to the ‘Chamonix Sud’ area of the town where Simon’s friend us staying. There’s quite a lot of space here so we shouldn’t upset anyone by running our (very quiet) generator for a couple of hours in the evening. We were surprised yesterday to get the impression, from another van-dweller, that it would be frowned upon in the more-central car park - not by the authorities but the other people in campervans! I think perhaps we’re not posh enough for Chamonix - even the hippies are a bit picky!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 4:41 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.