The weather has started to turn here in the Netherlands and I can really feel that winter is coming.
Dutchman and I normally go skiing (for me) and snowboarding (for him) in January and we usually book last minute, taking advantage of good deals before the busy season kicks in. One of the perks of not having children — Right, you get to go on holiday outside the peak season and book last minute.
Our apartment is located near this lift. This lift brings us to a blue slope going to the main arena. Another option would be to walk or take the ski bus to the arena. On this particular day though we decided to try this route.
Last winter we went to Flaine in the French Alps, in the Domaine Grand Massif, the 4th largest ski holiday resort in France. We have learned to really like the French part of the Alps mainly because they are spectacularly huge and conveniently wide. You literally get spoiled with space here which I cannot say the same thing, for example with Austria.
These pictures I am posting were taken on our 4th day of skiing. Our wintersport holiday is usually stretched to only 1 week. I am not a hardcore skier so I normally take a day off to enjoy the alpine village, sit at a terrace, walk around, maybe go to a market if there is one and just chill.
On this particular day Dutchman took over the camera and followed me around.
We started the day with blue skies and a bit of clouds hovering in Flaine. When we reached the mountain, the weather suddenly changed to cloudy and grey. This is really something I dislike, and helaas, have no control as well. Because in a weather condition such as this, skiing can be somewhat challenging. You basically just see white all around you, and you lose your sense of perception when it comes to height and depth. It is all flat. It can be dangerous because you will have no idea if you are standing on a very steep slope, or worse off piste. So yes, I am careful.
Nonetheless, I will let the pictures for now do the rest of the talking.
The 4th day of skiing in Flaine… in pictures!
Here I am at the start of the blue slope which will bring us to the main arena. I am locking my ski boots here.
Hey camera man! I am ready to go!
Finally arrived here at the main arena of Flaine.
On the main arena you can find a number of chalet-style outdoor cafe terraces, bars and restaurants. Le Bissac is one of them.
Kids taking skiing lessons.
One of the main slopes in Flaine. I think this is a red one.
The Flaine gondolas.
We are taking the gondola to go up the mountain.
The view from the gondola. As we went up the surroundings became mistier and whiter.
Le Blanchot, one of the cafe restaurants in the mountains. As you can see the weather is not very nice at all.
This is the visibility at the top of the mountains in Flaine. Not really good, so we elected to go down and ski on tree level slopes.
Yours truly here… skiing.
Taking a quickie standing break here as I watch the clouds huddled together and forming a shield against the blue skies, well sadly.
I was lecturing the Dutchman here and he caught me in the act. Look at my mouth, haha.
Enjoying the black and white surroundings.
I do not sit close to the Dutchman because he is a left handed snowboarder. Snowboarders are always awkward getting off from chairlifts so I stay away from them.
Snowboarders always take the end seat so when they get off they can glide away to the other direction without colliding with the others. This guys is trying his best not to collide with the skier.
We further skied to the other side of the mountain. This is one of the chair lifts connecting Flaine and Massif mountains.
There are a series of chair lift + slopes connection between Massif and Flaine. It can be tricky so you really need to be at this connection area at least at 15:30 as they close around 16:00 something, otherwise you will have to take an expensive taxi back to either side of the mountain.
Dutchman and his snowboard.
This is me at the end of the day… just gliding back to our apartment. The nice thing with this apartment is we could just ski in and out.
Travel Period: January 2016
Destination: Flaine, Haute Savoie (Rhone-Alpes), France
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Happy Travels! Enjoy Life =)
All pictures were taken by a point and shoot pocket camera or iPhone.
