Skiing in Les Deux Alpes, France

Since spending 7 months of my year abroad skiing every week (I still can't believe that was part of my degree!), I have felt myself to be quite the ski resort connoisseur. As for the sport itself - I definitely still need more time on the slopes in order to claim mastery. Nevertheless, by October I was having withdrawal from the white stuff, so paid to join Nottingham University's Snow Sport Society and join their Christmas trip. So, on the 13th December we embarked on a 22 hour coach journey from Nottingham to Les Deux Alpes, France. A journey so long and so boring that not even Fast and Furious 6 and all its guns and shouting could keep me awake. If you asked me what the scenery was like when wandering through the quaint French towns, approaching the beautiful mountains, I couldn't possibly tell you. I'm sure it was great though...

Pano Bar, L2A

Being only an hour and a half from Grenoble (and the cheapest to reach), I spent a lot of time in Les Deux Alpes last season, so I thought I knew exactly how the week was going to pan out. Oh, how wrong I was. It turned out, my sense of direction and memory skills are even worst when it comes to guiding myself around pistes that I should have known like the back of my hand. It was like a completely new resort, and with the addition of après at Pano Bar, I still don't quite remember how to get back down that mountain. Either way, I've always loved the resort - there are a huge variety of runs for all levels, with an abundance of blues (my favourites). Even better than the skiing - the après and nightlife is amazing. There are quite a few bars/clubs/holes spread around the resort - if my memory serves correctly, Avalanche and Brasilia were personal favourites - along with a plethora of podiums and stages that us students seem to love (my friend and I a little too much - I ended up falling off and dragging her with me, proceeding to cause a bloody, head injury to said friend, awkward...)

Back to the skiing... If I had one criticism of the resort, it would be that the gondola and chair lifts seem to last forever! When you're not feeling your best at 10am having had 5-6 hours sleep, and you're forced to sway up a mountain practically in a vertical manner for 20 minutes, you can't help but dislike 'the whole skiing thing'. However, once you've reached half way and proceeded to jump on a more open, stable chairlift, there are so many runs to choose from, you're spoilt for choice. Or if you can't decide just yet, there are some amazing views that I couldn't stop taking pictures of (NB: a lot of mountains look the same, no matter where they are in the Alpes; resort-named folders would be helpful in the future).

Besides the skiing, I was hoping to maybe brush up on my French a little, but I completely forgot that a) about 90% of ski resort workers in bars, restaurants or otherwise are English, and b) the remaining 10% that are in fact French, love to speak English. Oh well, I did manage to successfully order a baguette and a pain au raisin (or two), so I'm really pleased that my £3,300 yearly tuition is being put to good practice.

Standard 'picture-on-skis-with-mountain-background' picture