Ski Trip to Les Arcs - #Chicandstylish #LINKUP

Hi there,

Thanks for joining me today and big apologies for no post on Monday.

I hold my hands up to just being lazy and not getting back into it after returning from skiing.

Skiing, as I imagined, came and went so quickly - I blinked and was back home again with all the washing to contend with.  That's the worst thing about going away isn't it, coming home to all the laundry!  Read on to find out all about my week in The Alps, it might even tempt you to go!

Silver lining to returning from my trip was the arrival of the brick layers who started on our new build.

For those of you who don't know, David and I bought the property we live in to knock it down and re build two new houses on the plot - it's huge and you might have often read about me moaning that there's so much grass to cut!  So the second house is started and you can see some piccys on my IG account Mummabbuilds.  Our new house will be started when this one is finished, but I don't know when that will be! Ha ha. 

So let me share my recent skiing trip with you.  We booked quite last minute and was quite shocked at how expensive skiing has become.  We had basic accommodation, good food, excellent ski conditions and ski in ski out accessibility. But there wasn't much change from £1300 for the week!

Our holiday started on a Saturday, with a later than normal flight leaving at 3pm.  We eventually arrived quite late in the evening and after dropping our luggage in the rooms made our way to the restaurant.  Unfortunately what was on offer wasn't very nice, just some dried up cake that looked like it had been there all afternoon, some fruit and not much else.  We left and went to the bar - yes you guessed, it was closed.  So we decided to take a look in the pizza place next to the hotel, that was closed too!  Nothing else to do but head for the bar we'd spotted on our way in!  No food in there, so liquid dinner it was!  After a few Aperol spritz's and jaeger bombs we retired to bed.  I was a bit miffed that there was nothing to eat, so chomped on a couple of handfuls of peanut M & M's!

This is Mont Blanc, a stunning view from our hotel.  

The room in the Hotel L'Aiguille Rouge was comfortable but basic.  The hotel is situated on the slopes of Les Arcs and was ski in & out, which I find is best and as I mentioned before the hotel was quite basic accommodation but adequate for my needs.  It was warm, had plenty of storage space, hot water and comfy beds.  The bath had a shower above it, which was just as well as the bath was barely big enough for a child let alone me - I surprised myself and managed a bath in the week but my legs and feet were basically up the wall!  

Breakfast was much more impressive the next morning.  It consisted of cold meats, bread, crossants, pan au chocolate, bacon, scrambled & boiled eggs, yoghurt, fruit, tea and coffee

The ski conditions were perfect.  Gorgeous sunshine and just the right amount of snow.  It was very cold there though, the temperatures dipped to -11 one day, and may have even been colder up the mountains!

It certainly needed extra layers and I put to good use the hand warmers I picked up before I left.  They were an absolute god-send.  I'm seriously considering buying some heated gloves for next time, unless I drop big hints next Christmas lol!

Did you remember me saying we took Max with us?  He was a dream and it all worked out very well.  We all looked after him with the majority of the time his mum and dad taking turns to go out morning and afternoon, but we all got plenty of skiing done and enjoyed the apres ski together.  The hotel catered quite well for kids - they had a creche for children but they had to be over 3 years which didn't work for us.  The evening entertainment was fun too.  There were quizzes, karaoke, singers and plenty of staff to make sure things ran smoothly.  We don't usually go for this sort of thing, but as Max was there, it seemed a good idea.  Max loved the night Leo & Lia visited.  Two giant furry foxes with people inside entertained our Prince and he was in his element. He laughed with them and copied what they did and had so much fun, he really was a joy to watch!

Les Arcs as a ski resort is fabulous, we stayed in the highest village which was 2000.  We went to the lower resort of 1950 on the last day.  This is a pretty little venue with ski in ski out areas and a center which was surrounded by hotels, apartments, shops and restaurants.  We took the free cable car down on the last morning before our flight.  We bought some cheese and had a tasty lunch there before returning to the hotel in time for our coach transfer.  We did have a delay though, because it was the beginning of the French school holidays and the roads were stuffed.  When the coach finally arrived we got a brilliant view on the journey down.  It was still gorgeous sunshine, like we'd had all week and we could see all the mountains and villages on the way down.

A view of Mont Blanc from 1950.

I'd taken basics with me.  A few pairs of jeans, faux leather trousers, pretty silky shirts and another pair of chunky boots.  The hotels are always hot so I didn't need any of the camisole tops I took and fortunately I didn't bother with jumpers or cardigans either.  I knew my padded blue coat would be welcomed when I did venture out, but as everything was good in the hotel I only needed it on the last evening when we dined out in a nearby restaurant.

You may have gathered by now that I'm a big fan of skiing.  It's a crazy thing to do and a close friend of mine once called it 'throwing yourself down a mountain' which is exactly what it is!  I can manage a red run and even get down a black one, not very prettily I might add, but I draw the line at moguls.  They are horrible and literally kill the knees.  There were plenty in Les Arcs but I checked out the runs before I ventured onto them, my knees are bad enough without and bumps like moguls! Are you a fan of skiing?  Do let me know in the comments if this is a sport you like. 

Thanks for joining me today, and should you have any questions about a ski holiday please do drop me a comment I'd love to help (you can email me if you prefer).  

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Time for the first #LINKUP of February 2023, welcome to #Chicandstylish.

Say a big hello to Iris - La Moumous who's charming us with her stunning green trouser suit.  

I've finally found one I like and even though it's beige I'm thrilled with it, do watch out for it on the blog soon.

Now let's start linking up.

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Good to have you here, many thanks for joining me.

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Cheerio for now. X