Les Deux Alpes 2011

As I've mentioned before we cannot survive a winter in the Northern Hemisphere without a wintersport trip. None of our friends were keen to join us this year for various reasons. I thought it would be strange going 'on our own' but it was actually really lovely to have a family holiday with just the four of us in the mountains. Seeing the Alps from aeroplane window put a smile on my face, and when I saw the boys playing in the snow minutes after we arrived in Les Deux Alpes I knew it was going to be worth it!

We were very lucky to get a brilliant last minute deal with Mark Warner, the English equivalent of Club Med, a convenient yet fairly luxurious way to go on holiday on with kids. They take all the hassle out of your holiday and the staff are there to ensure that you enjoy yourself. Our typical day went like this: Wake up at 7am, breakfast at 8am, drop Nicholas at the Ski School and Daniel at the Toddler Club by 9am. Mom and Dad then had until 12pm to snowboard together before collecting Nicholas. Then lunch somewhere different every day followed by about an hour of skiing with him before heading back to the hotel. We collected Daniel at 15h30 after his nap so that we had some fun time with him too. Sometimes we played in the snow, sometimes we relaxed on the patio in the sun, sometimes we enjoyed tea and cake while playing a board game next to the fire or sometimes a combination of the above. The kids' supper was between 5pm and 6pm leaving time for a swim in the lovely indoor pool. That left just enough time to bath the boys, read their bedtime stories and put them to sleep before our dinner at 8pm. We had the option of putting Nick in the Kids Club after ski school and leaving both boys until after their supper but decided we rather wanted to spend the time with them. Seeing them have so much fun was really great!

With a slope right next to the hotel and a whole selection of sleds to choose from it was hard not to go sledding. At first we had to go down with the boys but by the end of the week they were happily zooming down the slope on their own. What great fun we had!

No visit to the snow with kids would be complete without building a snowman. The boys basically built this one on their own. We only offered a minor helping hand. I think it came out really nicely. They had loads of fun tackling the poor fellow afterwards too. The background was beautiful and the sun was shining so it was a perfect opporunity to take some portraits!

Nicholas was a superstar at ski school. He had one-on-one tuition in English. At first I felt that it was a pity that there weren't more kids in his group but I guess private tuition is always a good thing. He got on really well with his teacher, Michelle, and she made sure he had plenty of opportunities to have fun with the children in the French group. Towards the end of the week he was able to take conveyer belts, moving ropes, button lifts and chair lifts. He learnt to control his speed so that he could stop when he needed to and he became quite good at zigzags and s-turns. He even happily did hops every now and begged us to build ramps which really impressed me. Best of all was that he LOVED every minute of it. He was so proud of himself when he was presented with a badge, a certificate and report saying that he had graduated from ESF level 1!

Daniel loved our early morning trip across to icy slope to drop Nicholas off at Club Piou Piou. There's no wonder he didn't want us to drop him off at the Toddler Club after that. The staff gave him the Action Man award for always wanting be to outside. In fact it was hard to take off his jacket and snow shoes because he knew if he had them on he could go outside!

Dad and I really had a great time boarding together in the mornings. Actually 3 hours is just about enough for me these days. No more of that hardcore catching the first and last lifts anymore. We always ended up doing a mad dash to get back to Nicholas on time. The fastest way was to take this black slope back down to the ski school in the village. This is the top of it - quite daunting - it just disappeared!

As if the day wasn't filled with enough adrenalin we also visited the legendary climbing wall one evening. I would hate to see what these two little boys are going to be doing when they are teenagers. Enough to put their mom's nerves on edge I guess. Afterwards we went for a traditional Alpine supper. I didn't take any photos at the fondue restaurant but the boys loved all the cheese as much as we did!

Every day when we collected Nicholas from ski school we picked a different location for lunch. A couple of times we ended up in a cafe in town but usually we picked a different restaurant somewhere on the mountain. The one day we even had a picnic with some take-away burgers. Nicholas loved studying the piste map to see where we were and work out the best route for Dad to take back to the hotel. Ususally Dad won the race down!

The one day we ventured to the top of the mountain. It was lovely up there. With Mont Blanc in the distance the views were breathtaking. The snow is always softer and fluffier higher up so it made great snow balls. We took a short hike to an ice cave carved into the glacier which was pretty impressive. Nicholas got to chat to the mountain rescue guys about their job and all their equipment. And then we watched Dad snowboard off into the distance below until he finally disappeared. All in all it was an awesome excursion!

One of the nicest things about a wintersport trip is sitting on the chairlift soaking up the fresh air and magnificent scenery surrounding you. Les Deux Alpes is no exception when it comes natural beauty. I really enjoyed the variety of pistes, going so high up the snow was awesome even though a bit patchy in the resort, and although not my cup of tea the 'play area' was enourmous with something for all levels, it's even got the legendary La Grave beckoning on the other side of the top. So I think perhaps we'll do a return visit to Les Deux Alpes sometime!