Les Gets

With all the rain and cold weather, we’ve had to spread our wings to prevent us getting cabin fever. First stop, Monday it must be Morzine and it’s ice-skating rink. Everyone barring Mark has a go; most getting around the ice with a reasonable degree of dignity by the end of the afternoon (avoiding the toddlers zooming in and out of the grown ups legs at breakneck speed). The one child had a hockey player’s kit on, including helmet, and almost certainly a nappy underneath it all! Morzine is bigger than Les Gets, and has a raging river near the skating rink; perfect for kayaking although none passed by while we were there.

Tuesday, Cluses’ indoor swimming pool. Phillip was not allowed in, his baggy swimming trunks deemed too baggy for the sensitivities of the average Frenchmen. Michelle went in with the children; Jeanne-Marie, Phillip and Mark wandered into ‘centreville’ to find a cup of coffee. The centre of Cluses has nothing to write home about, the coffee places didn’t look worth a visit, so we made our way back to the pool, and found, ah, a MacDonalds. After picking up Michelle and the children we could went there for something to eat, and make use of it’s free broadband access.

Wednesday, still poor weather but clearing by the afternoon: Phillip’s downhill cycling debut, while Michelle took the two boys on a trip to Lac Lucerne, but this proved disastrous as Chris got carsick on the windy roads. We took the girls to Aventure Parc (in Les Gets) in the afternoon: and what a time they had! The highlight of their stay in the French Alps. There were cables stretched between tall pine trees, the girls were kitted out into overalls, and had a harness around their hips, with two clamps attached; one of these was to be attached to the cables at all times, as they were quite high up in the trees and falls would prove dangerous. They had circuits to do – Chloe wasn’t tall enough for the more difficult ones, but Gabi and Jaime did the tricky ones. They would clamber, tight-rope walk and swing from one tree to the other, sometimes sliding on the cables, other times swing into a large net, holding onto a rope.

Thursday, our last day in the Alps. We woke to good weather – almost clear sky, and just knew we had to go mountain biking. Not the crazy downhill stuff that Philip did, the gentle cross country ride in the mountains. We rented bikes and helmets (€18 for adults, €8 for children) and caught a cable car up the first hill and cycled down; with one fairly tricky section with lots of mud and narrow pathway. Then we cycled across town, went up the other cable car, and caught a chair lift even further up the mountain. It was a fair distance getting back, but found ourselves a way out of town and having to ride on the tar roads back down into town. The children handled the town roads like they’ve been doing it all their lives.

Friday; time to pack up and leave. We had to clean the house and left with plenty of time to spare, for Geneva airport. Fortunately we could follow Phillip and Michelle who knew the route, and then after a cup of coffee at the airport, a sad farewell to them. It was wonderful to spend the week with them; not sure when we will be together again! Geneva airport is very confusing, with French and Swiss zones; we had to hand the car back into the French zone, but checking onto a BA flight meant going through to the Swiss side and finding the departure hall. All very complicated – “Stop! Wait! Just stop panicking! Relax!” said Jeanne-Marie. “I’m not panicking! I am relaxed,” said Mark, “we just have to join this motionless queue for an hour before we catch our flight in 30 minutes!”

We got on the flight, Bridget and Paul’s VW Transporter was waiting for us at Valet Parking at Heathrow as arranged and Jeanne-Marie could drive us to Swavesey with navigator Mark following the careful AA printed directions the Hendrys had kindly left in the car. “After 0.81 miles, take the 3^rd exit at the roundabout, marked London North, M11” After 3 pages of roundabouts, 25 miles of stop-start traffic, and 3 hours of time, we reached Swavesey.