Ski Week 2009 et Semaine de l'Humour de Risoul

Semaine de l'Humour de Risoul 2009

People often wonder why we ski in Spring. All through Winter you see families in the school leaving on long ski weekends while we stayed put.

Skiing is an expedition when you have to pack for 5. I cannot bear the thought of packing and vomiting my way up and down a mountain - for a weekend. It has to be for at least a full week, I've decided (and I like deciding).

I am the only person in this family who do not rejoice at the mention of skiing. I ski out of devotion to my family - since there is not much shopping to be done in most of the ski stations. As such, I prefer to ski when there is sunshine (I'm from the equator after all), when the days are long (so as to be able to see better) and when there are fewer skiers around (less stress).

The slopes seen at 8pm from our hotel's terrace

The beginning of Spring is perfect for skiing - if you know where to go.

The French Alps habour some of the most wonderful ski stations in the world. In the last few years we've skied mainly at Flaine and at Risoul 1850 - both stations with almost unfailingly important snowfall.

At the bottom of the slopes

Risoul 1850 is situated in the Southern Alps in the Hautes Alpes-Cotes d'Azur region. It is part of the 2nd largest skiing domaine in France (together with Vars). At 1850m-2750m, you usually find snow even in April. Not to forget sunshine and never-ending slopes.

The Babies are crazy about skiing. And they ski really well for their age. They were doing mainly blue and red slopes this year and we brought them to the very top of the mountain where you normally do not find many little children. Baby Boy especially has no fear. I am needless to say the slowest in the family and spent my time freaking out behind the kids. The Babies passed their ski exams with flying colours, of course. I was told by my ski instructor that it would be best if I repeat Class 2 next year. As if I would dare to join Class 3 (very advanced) in any case...But if you have to know, I usually whine when I am at the top of a slope but once I'm on it, I'll just ski whatever its colour. And I didn't fall nor feel tired this year, mind you. Power Plate and better technique helped. Yeah!

Baby Boy with his medal (Flocon/Snowflake) and cert

The Babies' room

The village of Risoul from April 5th till 10th hosted a Semaine de l'Humour and the free one-man stand-up shows (comedies) all took place in the auditorium of our village-club (Touristra-Leo Lagrange). Fancy not having to cook any meals all week-long (different theme every evening e.g. North African, Savoyard etc) and at 9:15 each evening we would dump the Babies at the Mini-Club and then saunter to the auditorium to catch a show.

Top of the slopes

La Messe de Merri opened the Festival. He's quite famous in France but I'm not too hot about him. What I really enjoyed were Jean-Francois Cayrey, Ali and most of all, Les Bonimenteurs. God, I nearly died laughing. Those 2 guys were really good, creative, knew how to involve/engage the audience and I would love to catch another of their shows soon. You know what they say, laughter's the best medicine. Just what I need.

Cherry on the cake - we stopped by a supermarket in Briancon on our way back to Italy and went crazy over all the good stuff we could find in France but not in Italy. Spent nearly 300 euros on we-do-not-know what. Couldn't open the car boot until we reached home.

And we also had Chinese for lunch. Like Hub said, even the Chinese food in Briancon tasted better than the ones you usually find in Modena. Restaurant Au Pekin (25 rue Centrale, 05100 Briancon, Tel : 04 92212422) is run by a Teochew Chinese from Thailand. Good nems, Saigon soups, Thai Fondus, a decent Poulet au Gingembre, Porc Caramel (yummy) and tim sum. Not cheap though but everyone's happy.

We didn't snack too much on this trip. Bought some organic chocolate cookies from NaturaSi before we left and nobody wanted to eat them. Hub said that's the beauty of organic food. It tastes so bad you wouldn't want more of it and yet you are willing to pay alot for it because it's all part of the psyche.

So well, that's our ski week for you. Now it'll be a few long weekends in the South of Italy throughout Spring followed by Summer in Singapore. Am I glad winter's finally over - for now.