Monday, December 31, 2018

Building Resilience at La Bastille

Our apartment is nestled into the bottom of the Bastille, the hill the Fort de la Bastille is perched on and from our window you can watch the les bulles of the cable car depart, so it seemed obvious to us our first Grenoble adventure on the last day of 2018 would be to explore this important historic site.

The easy and popular option would have been to cross the river Isrere and take the cable car - a 5 min journey rising the 260+m to the top. We had all day though so we wandered along the banks of the Isrere, buying des patisseries (croissants) from the local boulangerie (bakery) on the way.

The journey upwards began sneaking between the Porte Saint-Laurent and the Archeological Museum with a wager between Andy and Ella on the total number of stairs to top of the Bastille. Andy had voted for 1000+ while Ella decided on 999 steps. I shuddered as I heard that the stake was a glass seagull Ella had purchased in Murano. If Andy won Ella would hand over the seagull and if Ella won, Andy would have to find her another one.... And so the counting began....we stopped every 100 stairs for quantity control! One good thing about this bet was the girls were focussed on counting and not on the physical exertion.



La Bastille, began being built way back in the late 16th century by Duke of Lesdiguieres however it wasn't until 1823 when Lieutenant-General Haxp presented the designs for it's current layout. Taking over a quarter of a century to complete, the fortress seemed invincible from invasion from the Savoie approaching via the Chartreuse mountains. Only 13 years later, the Savoie joined France and the La Bastille is no longer on the frontline!


Back to our stair climbing, we come to the Giant's Stairs which follow the east trench of the fort. Ella and Katy both decided to clamber up the giant side, while Andy and I tackle the smaller stairs. By the end of this section and after a short break mid way up, we discover that the adults have climbed 200+ more stairs! Now we have two valid counts going and Ella's confidence levels are soaring.

Stops are becoming more frequent the higher we go and the girls are desperate to reach the top. Around the 600 step mark for us, Ella gets excited claiming victory early on seeing a building like structure. Unbeknownst to her, Andy explains that this is not the top but intact the lower wall. No one to like being wrong, Ella bursts into disbelief instantly declaring unfair competition. We encourage her to keep going and that the competition isn't over until the fat lady sings but she is struggling.



Clambering on, the stairs seem never-ending and we (the adults) have reached 1000. Ella has descended deeper into despair realising that her count will be over a 1000 and that she will have to hand over her seagull. Rather than negotiating a deal with Andy, Ella's anger consumes her and she can no longer contain it - storming off from the family. We continue right up to the top - 1326 stairs! Eventually Ella regains her composure and the wager is declared null and void.


Exploring the fort, we watch les bulles arrive and depart, spy Acrobastille (an exciting looking ropes course that was closed for winter) and read a little about the history of the fort and cable car. The view isn't the greatest - either low cloud or smog, we couldn't tell - obscures much of the city and all the surrounding mountains. A good reason to venture back up to the top again n the future! The return downhill trip along the trail was, not surprisingly, much quicker.





Sunday, December 30, 2018

Bienvenue à Grenoble

Under clear sunny skies, our taxi wound its way from Sestriere down through Cesana Torinese into the Susa Valley. Unlike our journey up, it was mid morning and we admired the wonderful views of the Italian Alps during this 25 minute trip to Oulx.

With plenty of time to spare, we lounged around Oulx train station patiently waiting. Not wanting to be too rushed, we ventured outside hauling our 100kg of luggage before the train arrived. Our plan involved the girls being responsible for the day packs and hopping on the train first while Andy and I had our backpacks plus Andy took the ski bag while I had the suitcase.

The train arrived jammed packed luckily though most travellers disembarked probably heading to the snow. As the carriage cleared, we climbed the steep steps up on to the train rangling our luggage onboard. With no baggage area, Andy stayed with the bags while the girls and I found seats together. Luckily this was only a 20 minute journey to Modane where we would switch trains. On this leg of our journey we crossed over the border into France during the 13km long Frejus rail tunnel.

Our connection in Modane was 25 minutes and thus we were confident of making this. Turns out the train was on the opposite side of the platform. With no crowds we took our time to climb the even steeper stairs and find a compartment that fitted us and all of our luggage in. We had time to relax for an hour, eat lunch and enjoy the wonderful mountain panoramas.



The next part of the journey to Grenoble was highly uncertain with only a 5 minute connection. Already this looked impossible given the difficulty of moving quickly with the large load but also we discovered that the train we were on was running late. The upside was that trains to Grenoble ran every 30 minutes so we wouldn't have long to wait if we did miss our connection - but we were unsure whether our ticket would even be valid to do this.

Arriving in Chambery, we made it out of the train only just (my pack got stuck on the narrow doorway and Andy had to rescue the suitcase). We were on platform A and the Grenoble train was departing form platform E, so it was a sprint down two flights of stairs, along a short distance then back up again. Phew we'd made it with enough time to buy a bottle of water!

The Grenoble train (which was fortunately late too) rolled in. We had picked the perfect spot - right in front of the bike carriage area making loading very easy - no steps and heaps of space for our luggage. The ride down the Gresivaudan valley to Grenoble was beautiful with the steep limestone cliffs of the Chartreuse mountains towering above. The girls couldn't understand our fascination with the scenery only occasionally glancing up from their iPads at our request.

The train stopped briefly at the Universite Grenobles Alpes before pulling into the Grenoble train station. Disembarking at Grenoble, we waited for the crowd to disperse before we were spotted by Yves. We are renting his apartment for our 4 month stay and he kindly offered to pick us up. After a small walk to his car, we managed to squish all of our luggage and ourselves into his car. It was a short drive to the apartment.


Yves found a car park close to the apartment. As he opened the graffiti covered old door into a narrow dark flight of stairs, which then led to an even narrower, winding staircase, we'd wondered what we had got ourselves into. Through several heavy metal doors, we arrived at the apartment.

Yves opened the door, took off his shoes and entered the apartment and as in Rome....we followed suit. The luggage was deposited in the dressing room (wardrobe area) adjacent to the front door. From here one could access the bathroom (including washing machine) and separate toilet. They all looked nice and clean. Up a small flight of stairs the apartment opened into a well lit and colourful (purple) living space and kitchen. Two bay like windows over looked the Isere river and towards town. Opening the window, we could see the baubles of the cable car docking and leaving for the Bastille. The two bedrooms separated by a study nock came off this area. We all sighed with relief. This apartment looked perfect!

 

 

The dressing room aka wardrobe for all of us!










The apartment from across the Isere river
The remainder of the afternoon involved settling in (unpacking), a trip to the local supermache (aren't the trolleys cute) and recovering from today's journey.












Saturday, December 29, 2018

Goodbye Sestriere Tour

Our last day of skiing in Sestriere was a tour. We had hoped to make our way over the border to Montgenevre, a French resort with great snow and take advantage of the free day of skiing attached to our pass. However it was not to be especially with the limited snow cover, we couldn't even do the long run from the top of Colle Bercia in Claviere which was halfway to Montegenvre. Instead we skied the Women's Olympic downhill course in Sansicario!

Andy and Ella decided to time themselves on their 2nd run although only on the lower half of the course. They managed 3 minutes for 1.5km (the women's gold medalist took 1min50sec from the top to complete 3km). Meanwhile Katy and I headed back up to the top of Mt Fraiteve for an easier run meeting up with the others at the bottom of the J bar. The chairlifts were busier than they had been for the past week. We have all learnt how to keep our spot amongst this chaos of blatant pushing in to get on to the chair the fastest.


From there we hightailed it to a new lunch spot midway between Mt Fraiteve and Col Basset. Under duress, the girls continued on Andy's planned tour which took us to the western edge of the Sauze D'Oulx area. We rode an extremely long chair over the spruce and larch trees to the top of Mt Moncrons. From there the piste was lovely to begin with before a steep narrow icy and torn up piste appeared. I had my first slow motion roll over stack with everyone watching from the bottom! Once recovered from that we made our way to the J bar - another long, steep in parts and bumpy one but we all made it to the top together unlike a few skiers and snowboarders who had fallen off!



A long gentle road took us to another new (for us) chairlift. From here we cruised back past our lunch spot to the chairlift which would get us back to the top. We enjoyed our final gondola ride to be deposited into another chaotic queue with us all getting on together for our final chairlift. It was an easy ski back to the bottom and short walk home. A great day out and awesome tour to conclude our Sestriere experience.


Life in Sestriere


You've all read about our skiing experiences, but how did we go with general life in Sestriere? The Airbnb apartment we'd rented suited our needs well, being a short walk to both the chairlift and town. We were on the 3rd floor with an awesome panaroma of Mt Sises, Mt Rodnosa and Mt Motta. The girls loved taking the 2 person semi automatic lift instead of the stairs. Only on the last morning did Ella and I try to open the wrong apartment - the resident opening the door with a puzzled look. Apologising profusely we slunk away and climbed to the next level to our place!




Dishes in the dish rack!
Apart from being dated, the interesting aspects of the apartment included the dishrack located in the cupboard above the sink as well as the bideau and the tiny bath! Downsides which we hadn't realised when booking was it lacked a washing machine and an oven. Dinners therefore were pastas, risottos or cold meat and salad. As for the washing, the house keeper Nunzia, kindly did a load for us for 6 euros. The girls thought it was perfect with the bunk beds and soft blankets!




What's the point of this bath?

A taxi transfer from Oulx to Sestriere (30mins) was 50 or $80. A necessity as we arrived too late for the bus but to be honest the hassle of not lugging our bags was well worth every cent.

The 6 day ski pass - 750 or $1200 - was cheaper than what we would pay for at Perisher.

Food shopping was done at the local small supermarkets (there was a choice of 3). The range of products and prices seemed reasonable and of course we learnt as we went. Fruit and vegetables were chosen and weighed for you. Meat and bread were chosen and both weighed at the deli counter.

As for buying morning coffee and croissants - 2 cappacinos, 3 croissants ( 7 or $11) or lunch on the slopes - lasagne, toasted focaccia, chips, drinks all round (30 or $48) on the slopes, we thought the prices were extremely reasonable.



Andy and the girls went ice skating late one afternoon which set us back 39 or $63 for 30 minutes of cold entertainment.

The girls had purchased a selection of postcards in Venice. A trip to the post office saw us fork out 3 or $5 per card for an international stamp!

The biggest surprise in terms of cost was our trip to the local swimming pool - a great activity on our rest day to help with our recovery! When searching for the pool, I wasn't able to find much information apart from where it was located and opening times. Only a 5 minute walk from our apartment, we were all looking forward to having a splash. Turns out that it was the most expensive swim EVER!! For our family to splash around in the 25 indoor/outdoor pool cost us 38 plus more for the required swim caps at 3 each... that's about $78!!! Unable to say no as we were all pumped to have a splash, we swallowed the thought of money and headed in. Again we learnt as we went - shoes were racked before entering the change rooms and one could stand under the adjustable height hand drier to warm up post swim!

Andy and I chuckle about it now - it will be our yard stick for this trip. If it is cheaper than $80, then all is ok!!

Friday, December 28, 2018

In Search of the Pattemouche

Back in July, when this trip was in its infancy, we researched different ski areas with the idea of having a skiing Christmas holiday. Initially an area in northern Italy, part of the Dolomites caught our attention however was soon crossed off the list due to difficulty of access. Looking closer to France, we stumbled across Via Lattea, Milky Way, a ski area straddling the Italian and French Alps. With over 400km of pistes, 88 lifts and comprising of 5 Italian resorts plus 1 French resorts, we thought this area could keep us busy for a week! We were looking froward to exploring the many different areas and riding the various chairlifts and gondolas.

The reality now that we are here is that the season has had an unusually warm start and despite a snow dump of 30+cm a few days before we arrived, many of the lower areas have limited or no snow coverage. Thus our exploration plans have had to be altered to account for this.



Over the past few days, we've explored parts of the Milky Way - Sestriere on the first day, Sauze d'Oulx on the second and San Sicario on the 3rd before having a much needed rest day. Today we headed over towards Pragelato knowing, due to the limited snow coverage, we wouldn't be able to ski there. However we went in search of the Pattemouche - the aerial tramway we would have taken if the snow was good! We (the girls and I) travelled on another magic carpet ski tunnel to get to it. Andy bluntly refusing and trudged up the small incline much faster. As we emerged from the tunnel, the Pattemouche was arriving at the station. We stood and watched it dock and unload the 25+ skiers.


Our mid morning break was at another cafe. This one was full of stuffed mountain animals including a lamp with a paw from some poor fluffy animal! While the girls and I recovered, Andy did a quick solo lap before joining us. Then our journey continued on the area known as Sestriere Borgata. To keep things interesting, the girls and Andy often play follow the leader. Unfortunately I'm still not good enough skier to be involved! Yesterday I skied down the slope to video their antics only to have Ella crash into me! The video, had I managed to start it, could have easily been selected for Australia's Funniest Home Videos!



Our final run of the morning saw us ski most of the 2006 Winter Olympic men's downhill course. Of course it took us much longer than the winning time of 1 minute and 48 secs to make it to the bottom!


Cumulative tiredness has been creeping in as the days go by. Post lunch the girls only wanted to do only a few more short runs. However on the second last run, Ella took a spill and the day was over. Andy did continue on skiing taking his skins out for a test in the Italian mountains.






After recovering back in the apartment for a few hours, we headed down to the outdoor ice skating rink. The girls and Andy did a few laps and tricks while the sunset.