Eleven eleven eleven

This is the real reason we moved to France and chose to live in the mountains - so we could do this:

Happy eleven-eleven-eleven, tout le monde.

Monza

Never been to a Grand Prix before, so i figured Monza, since it's only 4 hours away, wouldn't be a bad thing to spend a weekend doing.  This was the view from our seats at Alta Velocita C, right at the first chicane down from the start:

Schumacher and Hamilton battle for 3rd.  Note smoke from Hamilton and the fact that Schumacher is only on 2 wheels.

I don't think there could have been a better place to watch it from - the rest of the circuit is extremely fast and you wouldn't get the time to tell the difference between the cars.  That, and all the action happened here.  The crash at the start, the battle for 3rd between Schumacher and Hamilton, and Schumacher's spin during qualifying.

I'm not sure i'd go to Monza again.  The race organisation was extremely poor, although i've only ever been to this GP, i can't be sure they don't all have this problem.  We had to walk about 7km from where we parked to our seats and the bus service itself was pretty random - if you happened to be on the right line you got (slightly) closer to the track.  On the way out there was a dangerous crowd-crush where the marshals did nothing.  The signage telling you where to go and how to get there was almost non-existent.

I got the impression that if i'd arrived by helicopter i would have been more welcome than just a mere supporter paying a fortune for 20cm of steel bench on a grandstand that wobbled.

So the sport was amazing, the sound of the cars unbelievable, but the full spectator experience offered by Monza could have been a lot better.

Via Ferrata - Chapelle d'Abondance

There is an infinite* number of sports and activities to be done in the French Alps.  It doesn't really make much sense when i tell people i want to be an Alpinist and then have to admit to an over-developed fear of heights.  And there are a lot of heights to be found in the mountains.

Anyway so we recently took up Rock Climbing (Escalade).  We've previously climbed indoors so we have some basic knowledge and have been learning to lead climb at our nearest wall which is just down the road at Bas Thex.

But so far, because we are beginners, we've not got much more than 15 - 20m off the ground, and although this is clearly high enough to kill you as much as you can drown in 2 inches of water in the bath tub, we wanted to get out of the tub and get some real exposure.  Enter Via Ferrata - which is basically climbing a rock face which has been laced with steel cable and steel horse-shoe shaped rungs in the form of ladders.  You clip yourself onto the steel cable with a specialised karabiner and cowslip which has a shock-absorbing system built into it.

I actually didn't realise it would be so vertical, or over-hanging in a lot of places, and i certainly didn't realise that the exposure would be so huge, for the entire trip.  Anyway, it was definitely good for my heights fear - but as usual Natalie had no problem with it whatsoever and climbed it like she was climbing a flight of stairs!

* For large finite values of infinite.

Snowboard Shopping

This weekend Natalie and I went snowboard shopping. Yes yes, we've taken up the evil sport but ya know what? It's actually kinda fun. That must be why all these "moron boarders" do it! Anyway, shopping for the boards was equally fun. We could not, of course, make any decisions without our consultant snow-board gear experts, Runa and Scarlett:

And no... we did not get boards with any obscene graphics on them... Pah - snowboarders!

Learn to Ski

If you really want to learn how to ski, i recommend skiing with the 9-year-old son of a ski-instructor for an afternoon. My goodness me, i have never skied so fast or done such crazy things in my young life. We followed little Mick, age just-turned-9, and currently 4th fastest in his ski-club, down the stash in Avoriaz/Lindarets. It was the first time i'd attempted any features and i still got dirty looks for only doing the baby "table" (like a rail but wider).

Next we were blasting down very mogully runs in a whiteout skiing by feeling our way with our knees only and watching Mick take 2m of air at the side of the piste. After that we just had to bop down 45 degree mashed potato powder over rocks and roots. Exhausted, you get to the bottom, only to be greeted by Mick who got there several days ago wondering what took you so long.

Thanks for a brilliant afternoon Mick - sorry we were so slow!

I love France: Reason #1, Exhibit B

More Mont Blanc, this time from the top of the Aiguille du Midi at 3842m.

Note the teeny climber dude to the far right, about to casually climb a ladder onto the viewing platform with a 1000m drop to his right.

Reasons why I love France: #1

Mont Blanc

As seen from the top of "The Elephant". I continue to be amazed at the fact that the Vallee d'Aulps at St Jean d'Aulps probably has the best view of this magnificent mountain. The mountains part for a perfectly unspoilt view of it which is unbelievable considering how far away it is and how difficult it can be to get to see it from anywhere in the Chablais. This photo was taken on my iPhone just after sunset. This is about a 35 minute 300m vertical run from our house, which is down there in the clouds, just to the left of the shot.