Days 6 and 7

Friday 11th and Saturday 12th January

On Friday, it was still snowing, and had been snowing all the previous night, so the snow was wonderful. Unfortunately, the higher slopes were also still covered with fog, and Paul, who went up and tried it, said it was much worse than the previous day, so he suggested we stayed on the lower slopes; he took some video so he could be sure I was skiing parallel. 

The snow was very good, soft and fluffy and not at all icy so my turns got a lot better and I stayed out for longer than usual enjoying the snow. I was keen to go out again after lunch, but by the time we had eaten I realised that my left knee was quite painful and was looking very swollen. So, I had to abandon the wonderful snow and rest the knee. 

Paul went out on his own, but to my great surprise was back in quite a short while. He had gone up on a chair lift with a Russian family and when they got off the chair, the mother of the family had got her skis entangled with Paul's skis. She fell over, the liftie failed to notice and didn't stop the chair, so Paul fell over too and the chair went over them both. The result was a twisted knee for Paul, and though he said it wasn't very painful, he felt it was safer not to ski on it. So we were both sitting inside looking gloomily at the wonderful snow which we couldn't enjoy!

Saturday was the most beautiful blue sky day. The sun shone from a beautiful unclouded blue sky, the snow was inviting, deep and gleaming white and fluffy, and the pistes were quiet since it was changeover day. This was the idea day for me to be on the slopes. Unfortunately, my knee was still swollen and painful, and even walking was difficult. I suggested Paul go out and enjoy the wonderful snow on his own, but he was unhappy about the state of his own knee, so he felt he too should have a day of rest. This was even more gloomy than yesterday! It seemed such a shame not to be able to enjoy the weather and what would undoubtedly be the best snow of the holiday. Instead, I was stuck in the apartment with an ice pack on my knee.

In the late afternoon I decided to try walking on the stupid knee. We caught the shuttle bus to Plagne Centre and had a look to see what we could see of the pistes there, in case it was worth my visiting there for different slopes. Unfortunately, it was difficult to see the pistes from the town, as there were so many high buildings and I wasn't sure how we could get to a nice looking piste from the bus stop, without a very long walk. There was a very interesting looking Saturday market in the town centre which I hoped to see round, but the shuttle bus seemed to stop running quite early so we played safe and jumped in to the one that appeared and gave the market a miss. We just did our shopping in the supermarket when we got back to our village. Still, it had been an interesting ride and an opportunity to see more of the beautiful scenery with dark green pine forests on the slopes and white peaks entirely surrounding us. Taking pictures through the dirty bus window wasn't entirely successful though - and the tall pines which line the roads have a habit of jumping into the picture just as you click the shutter.

I'm not sure how my knee is getting on. It is still quite swollen and, though walking is OK, climbing stairs is painful.