We have been treated to the most beautiful weather here in the French Alps. Since Friday (when we arrived) the sun has shone down and it has been relatively warm – even on the mountain.
The odd person bravely skied in just a t-shirt while one bloke decided to take it a bit further and enjoy a beer in the sun, bare chested. I’m guessing he was English -surely! No other nationality seems to have the urge to take their tops and display their (more often than not) rounded bellies as soon as the sun is out.
Skiing conditions have been excellent- with some locals claiming this is the best season they have ever seen. It has certainly made it easier for the kids to enjoy. Unfortunately, Mrs T is still a bit young for skis but my niece and nephew gave it a go. My nephew, six, is the eldest and absolutely LOVED it. After a two-hour lesson on the first day, he came up with the adults on the second where he was put through Cal’s ski school. He did amazingly well and was going down some blue runs at quite a pace (certainly faster than me when I started learning aged 25). Most importantly he REALLY enjoyed it and left wanting to do more.
My niece decided to stay at home on the second day with ‘Mary Poppins’ – an amazing nanny, we booked through a local agency in Portes du Soleil called Jack Frosts, to look after the children – she could do three of them at a time and was worth every penny. It meant Cal and I could enjoy some time skiing together- without setting up some kind of ‘tag team’ (this was how we dealt with the rest of the holiday…alternating days or one going in the morning, the other in the afternoon). But for a couple of days we enjoyed spending time on the slopes with the rest of my family (my sister, brother and brother-in-law).
Mrs T seemed to love spending time with Poppins and got a bit upset on the first day when Cal took her away to go up the mountain to meet us. Thankfully, she was also very pleased to see me when I came back.
Poppins, who is originally from Austria, had them doing SO many craft activities including: making face masks, painting, cooking chocolate biscuits and decorating balloons . She had a seemingly endless list of ideas which went down particularly well with my four-year-old niece. Even Mrs T and my sister’s eight-month-old got involved with some feet painting (see below). It made me feel a bit bad for not doing more with Mrs T…I really need to beef up my repertoire of activities. Clearly the way forward is to invest in lots of paint, paper and general craft type accessories as well as a load of plastic covers to prevent any mess (no idea how she managed to keep the place looking spotless).
It isn’t easy leaving your child with someone else but after spending a couple of hours with Mary Poppins on the first day I felt so reassured. It helped that she had been a nurse for 10 years too. With anything like this, it is important to go through a well established agency and this one was run by a British woman so communication was easy with all the nannies speaking English. We were kept up to date with what Mrs T had eaten and how long she had slept via text. Just a shame we can’t take her home with us!
