Other than a couple of nights when we all met up in the pub, we were mainly with our smaller group of seven which included ourselves, Wendy, Jason, Angela, Frances and for half the week only, Paula. Cheese, wine and chocolate was the order of the day (every day!) and a fine time was had by all. Or maybe Jason would argue with that  - early in the week he hurt his ribs badly and on the second last day, he broke his arm. It seems beginners snowboarding is not for the faint hearted!

The rest of us are all skiers of various levels, and were able to get on to the higher runs and explore the valleys nearby. Alpe d’Huez is a great resort, with plenty of runs for all levels. I was very proud to complete an 18km black, La Sarenne, on the last day, when Eddie and I covered a lot of ground with the lovely Claire Westbrook as our ski buddy (PJ we missed you!). Many Vin Chauds followed and although the bars were lacking the Apres Ski madness you get in Austria, I actually enjoyed the more chilled out approach to unwinding after a day on the slopes.

I absolutely loved this skiing holiday.  We stayed in an apartment - Pierre & Vacances Ours Blanc Privilege – which was better than we’d expected, the rooms were small (as accommodation in France tends to be) but the living space was big and comfy enough for us all to eat and sit around in comfortably. The lifts were bit of a trek (15 minutes with your ski boots on ain’t easy) but there was a free shuttle bus, thank God.  Having flown with Ryanair and travelled to/from the airport with Ben’s Bus, the trip didn’t cost the earth either. Big thanks to our apartment chef Frances for feeding us well on the nights we ate in, to Meatball for doing the initial legwork and to Jason for sorting out all the gear, transfers and apartment.  Roll on skiing 2011!!!

]]> http://www.lickablewallpaper.com/2010/02/alpe-dhuez-skiing-2010/feed/ 1 http://www.lickablewallpaper.com/2009/10/a-short-trip-to-france/ http://www.lickablewallpaper.com/2009/10/a-short-trip-to-france/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:09:28 +0000 Riona http://www.lickablewallpaper.com/?p=60 Back in the middle of August we had a short but sweet stay in the the Dordogne region of France. We went with my mum and sister and stayed for four days in the Château Des Vigiers, which is close to the village of Sainte-Foy-la-Grande and about 25 minutes away from the city of Bergerac.  We flew from Knock to Stanstead and then on to Bergerac, where we rented a car, so it was all very handy – both Knock and Bergerac airports are so quick and easy to get through that it made the traveling stress-free. We’ll definitely be checking out flights through the U.K. from Knock in the future.

We arrived on Wednesday evening and left on Sunday morning, and over the three days and four nights we spent our time eating, drinking and driving around sightseeing.

We had a day in St. Emilion, which is a lovely old town with narrow cobbled streets, steep hills and lots of vineyards. There we sampled some of the local vino, had a gorgeous meal in Les Giron’dines and generally had a nice time for ourselves. We visited one of the many wineries outside the town and discovered the tunnels that run under the entire area which were built by hand years ago, but which are now used for storing wine during the fermenting process.

Another day was spend in Bordeaux, shopping and strolling around. It’s a nice city, but I was glad we had based ourselves in the country instead as we saw a bit more of the region. On our third and final full day, the sun came out from behind the clouds so we spent the day by the pool. That evening we went into Bergerac for another lovely meal in L’Imparfait. Bergerac is a small and pretty city, close to many vineyards and perfect for a hassle-free weekend break.

Chateau de Vigiers is a golfers paradise, and I would recommend it to any non-fussy eaters with deep pockets and a love of golf, foie gras and French wine. It was definitely relaxing for us non-golfers also, but I’m not sure its worth the normal rates they charge – we availed of an offer of €100 per night per room, which was pretty good value. The main consideration is that you definitely need a car, as it’s in the middle of nowhere and the restaurants on site have limited menus and are on the expensive side. We ate there two nights out of four and the food was good, but the menu was definitely geared to local tastes which resulted in us eating foie gras, venison and rabbit.

Overall we had a lovely relaxing time in France, stuffing our faces with rich food and good wine and soaking up all that sunshine we have been deprived of this summer in dear old Ireland.