Chris, Melle, Homer and Roxy on Tour

  So we decided to leave Super Besse, we felt we'd skied all we could there with the adverse conditions and limited open slopes, plus we were also somewhat chasing the blue skies we'd seen on the Luz Ardiden Insta page.  We set off on a beautiful blue sky day which meant travelling was enjoyable.  First stop of the morning was in the tiny village of Lorlanges, south of Clermont-Ferrand for a quick coffee, my favourite part of the day, at the local bar tabac.  A great little place where the monsieur proprietor was friendly serving us coffee as if we were locals.  The bar also served as a local bakery and restaurant. Villagers came in to collect cooked meals and bread and of course a couple of retirees came in for a beer and to chew the fat.  I'd seen the bread price list on the wall and so Chris went to collect a baguette to buy lunch...whoopsie, he got a sharp, 'No vendre', so I guess the sign was an old one and Chris had picked up the bread ready for diner...

Super Besse! So, the rain stopped and out came the skis.  We were very enthusiastic to get onto the slopes after 12 months and enjoyed investigating this new ski area whilst getting our ski legs back.  One of the things I noticed was  trees were  deciduous not fir and quite a different landscape to the Alps we know. This was possibly because we were at a lower altitude in Super Besse.     We also noticed how many families were here not just to ski but to 'winter holiday'. Even in the roughest of weather from the day before, many families were still out enjoying the resort skiing, sledging or riding down the mountainside on the luge coaster - a hardy lot!  We didn't ski for as long as we normally would as visibility was compromised due to the lighting and conditions, meaning skiing was quite challenging. However, on the second day the clouds cleared and we enjoyed blue skies and sunshine!  We were treated to beautiful scenes at the t...

 So, we’ve got started on our latest adventure and it’s been interesting already to say the least.  You try to plan for every eventuality but, of course, you just never know what’s going to happen.  And that’s a learning point right there, to prepare your best but then to just go with the flow.  One of my favourite sayings at the moment; One of the hardest things to do though is to be patient to let the way become clear, and when at home like lots of people I tend to try to fill every waking moment being useful and moving things forward.   As a result, I tend to get frustrated when things don’t happen quickly or I don’t get a response from someone.   But, of course, I realise, especially when travelling that it is often in the quiet moments when you’re just pootling along that things happen.   Maybe because it’s then that you give other people time to respond and do things?   I think this is because we often can’t do things completely on our own, ...

 Phew! After a few hectic days packing, cleaning and spending time with family and friends we’re finally off on our adventure! It took approximately 6 hours to pack the van and 10 hours to get the house ready for Airbnb. No complaints but you realise how lazy you are at keeping your house clean and tidy when preparing it to let out 😏 🤣 This is just our clothes! We’ve had to carefully select which clothes, shoes and coats to take as effectively we will be in ‘winter’ and spring seasons when we ski in the Pyrenees and fiesta in Seville. As you can imagine this has been very hard for Chris to decide what to take 🤣 We are very excited for this trip as it will be a true tour through France and then southern Spain. This is us something I’ve wanted to do for a while, I’ve had a love of Spain since a child having spent many holidays in Spain and the Canary Islands. I love the language, the food and the culture and can’t wait to see the ‘Spanishness’ of those southern cities and countrys...

  Yep that’s right, after much thought, actually not too much thought but a fair bit of consideration we’re getting ready for another adventure. Lots of friends and family have been asking us since we got back from The Alps last year, ‘what are you doing next’ and that has been great encouragement, thanks.  We've enjoyed being back in Shropshire and doing a whole variety of work and travel things too but we've itchy feet for another big trip and so these are our plans. Last year we loved living in a traditional alpine environment, not just a skiing resort but a place that had history and nature and to be honest I wasn’t sure we’d find anything better than Samoens and the Grand Massif area.  It's definitely an area we want to return to someday. But the real aim of this trip is to visit Spain and particularly the southern cities of Andalucia. Granada, Seville, Cordoba, Ronda and Almeria have all been on Melle’s wish list for almost as long as I’ve known her, which is ...

One of the aims was to experience and learn so this blog tries to capture and share this….. Not to worry so much.  Over the years I think I've become more anxious and anyone who experiences anxiety will recognize that it's an unpleasant and debilitating mental condition.  I'm not talking about not worrying at all - worry has it's place in helping us to survive and thrive but when it constantly wakes you in the night with fear and stops you from enjoying life it is pretty horrible.  While we were in the Alps I had my anxieties from Homer breaking down, freezing over and just generally not keeping us warm to driving up and down the thin and winding mountain roads.  We were also on a budget and so worrying about money could also become and constant thing if not careful.  All of these things could potentially limit the adventure and I was aware of this from the very start.  But what I came to realise was that the difficult times passed and while I was away I li...

Eye Candy 👁️   One of the best things about our trip was the ‘eye candy’ - no not fit ski instructors or cool boarders but some of the natural viewscapes and buildings we saw in the mountains of France, in Switzerland and Belgium.  I have so many photos to share and have put them into a couple videos on our YouTube channel  https://youtube.com/   ‘Scenes’ & ‘Architecture’. But here a few of my absolute favourites 💯 😊 Architecture I was blown away by some of the mountain chalets we saw, like something from a picture book or Heidi film! I particularly liked the traditional wooden ones but also some of the tasteful modern structures too.  Pretty chalet, Sixt-Fer-a-Cheval Munot fortress Shaffhausen, Switzerland Newer chalets, Samoëns Outer village, Samoëns Traditional chalet, Sixt Annecy The 13th century buildings in Annecy were great to look at, with their colours and unusual shapes.    Grenier, Sixt-fer-a-Cheval  Greniers were built to store ...