Molins in the Mountains: Activities Planning

(A picture of us at the town cenotaph on Remembrance Day, waiting for the two minute silence at 11am. We were on our own, sadly, since the town's ceremony started, unbeknownst to us, at noon. So we observed the silence on our own, with a few other random Brits who clearly had made the same mistake. Oh, well. We at least had a thoughtful moment with the girls.)

So the pressure of planning the girls' activities - for the winter ski season this times - begins again. Life in a ski resort dictates that there's a lot of options, of course.There are ski clubs in Chamonix and Les Houches (the former very competitive and by invitation only I believe); there's a mini-club in Chamonix (which actually skis in Les Houches); there's 'ski samedi' which is Saturday afternoons only; there's the Sport Loisir again on Wednesday afternoons... the list goes on.

We've already missed the sign up for some, not sure when the sign up for others happen... And I was originally told that Zoe could do the 'mini-club' too, but now it seems she can't... My head is spinning.

I also don't know what level the girls are at, since they've never taken official lessons, and the French levels don't seem to match the Canadian levels anyway. I'm sure if we were here for longer than a year it wouldn't feel quite so important to get it right first time (also keeping in mind the girls are only 7, 6 and 4, not exactly competition material yet) but we've only got the one shot...

So... drum roll please... we've plumped for 'mini-club' for Anna and Indie, which will be Saturday afternoons in addition to two weeks' of ski camp (before xmas and the feb holidays), Zoe will do 'Ski Samedi', and then they're all going to do the Sport Loisir skiing on Wed afternoons. That is the highly subsidized activities courtesy of the town - it will work about to about 4 euros per 5 hour session, per child! So the girls will be skiing at least two afternoons a week, plus hopefully skiing with us on Sundays. Plus they will do a week of skiing with their school in January, in addition to their ski camps. Skiing is taken VERY seriously here.

My ambition this year is to improve my skiing - my 'joke' of last year that I couldn't keep up with Anna and Indie anymore sadly is no longer a joke, it's the truth. (The fact that they have no fear probably has a lot to do with it). So since I'm now in danger of being overtaken by Zoe, I think I'd better up my game. (This is the problem of taking up a sport in your 20s, as opposed to when you're three...). I've found a very nice woman who gives private lessons, and I'm determined to get stronger, faster and more confident. It's also a real social handicap here not to be a good skier - there are lots of back-country ski touring outings etc. that involve off-piste skiing and hiking up glaciers and cols with 'skins' on the bottom of the skis (I bet I didn't even get that terminology right, demonstrating yet again my novice status...). Oh well, Zoe will hopefully concede to keep me company on the easy runs.

Now all we need is snow! They had a terrible season last year with very little snow, and people are already starting to mutter about how this year is going to be the same... it's been such a mild, dry autumn (I'm not exaggerating when I say we've only had three days of rain the three months we've been here) that people here are worried it's going to be the same again. And what's a ski resort without snow?? I see Montreal has already had its first snowfall - beating us to it.

In the meantime, we're still enjoying the sunshine and warm weather (in the afternoons, at least, when the sun finally hits the valley, more on valley living another time...). Here's some pictures of a recent walk to Les Praz, where poor Anna, while jumping from stump to stump across a stream, fell in and soaked herself. The result? A very fetching ensemble of fleeces to get her back to the car. She was very good humoured about it, because it was a little embarrassing.