Snow Play Day

Both girls were tired from yesterday's adventure and long drive,  combined with suboptimal weather conditions - so we decided not to go skiing today but rather have an easy snow play day followed by a soak in the hot tub!

We chose to snowshoe and toboggan at Col du Lautaret. This is the highest pass in France that is open all year round. It was a hive of activity - several people kite skiing, a few groups heading uphill on skins and us on our snowshoes with the toboggan trailing behind. Our first selection of a hill on the east side of the Col was a poor choice. We retreated crossing back over to the west side aiming for a small group of pines in the distance. Unbeknownst to us this area in summer is the Lautaret Alpine Botanical Garden.

It was hard yakka treading uphill in deep snow even with our snowshoes on but we eventually reached the spot. Here, tucked out of the wind, was a steep slope with multiple bumps that looked liked it needed to be christened with a toboggan.

 

 

 

The girls enjoyed each run with the obligatory stop halfway down - the result of a dip! Once they tired of that, it was time for snow building. Katy built a snow unicorn while Ella devised a capture the water bottle snowball game and consequently we had fun throwing snowballs at each other!

Andy then headed a short distance uphill to admire the views!

Cold and hungry we made our way back to the car, changing out of our wet clothes before having lunch at the Hôtel des Glaciers restaurant. From there, we continued on towards Serre Chevalier stopping in short in the village of Le Monêtier-les-Bains. Our destination was Le Grand Bains, a hot springs complex.

 

At the reception, we emptied our wallets once again although nowhere near as much as we did at Sestriere and made our way to the change rooms. From our previous experiences, we knew to take off our shoes before continuing into the cubicles to get changed and exit on the other side. Depositing our clothes into lockers, we showered and proceeded through the footbath then finally entered the indoor pool. Sliding in, we were pleased to succumb to the warmth of the water.

It wasn't too crowded as we floated around before the girls insisted we visited the outdoor pool. Ahh what a life, relaxing in this warmer water with stunning views of the mountains. The girls were itching to continue exploring and off they went with Andy. I was happy to just soak up this moment. Sometime later Ella returned wanting me to come inside so they could show off their discoveries.

The indoor pool took up half of the interior lower area. In the other half were the Roman trilogy baths - the Frigidarium (yes it was freezing!), the Tepidarium followed by the Caldarium (hot one!) Also there was a sauna, steam room, salt water pool and a musical grotto. It took a while to test each of these areas as Andy enjoyed lazing on the heated rock bed! Emerging from the Le Grand Bains 2 hours later we were all relaxed and refreshed and ready to return back to the gite.