Day 171, 22 December 2012. Val D'Isere, Les Alpes Francaise. Yay! Made it. The ski train is simply the best way to get from wet old London to blue sky, sunshine and mountains of snow overnight. Departure from St Pancras went smoothly - though if anyone plans booking this trip themselves, book carriage 1 or 2 or anything less than 15 - because the platform is MILES long and ski gear is VERY heavy. 'Nuff said. Both so tired that we actually caught a fair bit of sleep on the train in chunks of an hour or two at a stretch. Must have looked cute under our snuggly Eurostar blankies with eye-masks and earplugs and blow up neck cushions. Note I said cute - not comfortable. Arrived on time into Bourg St Maurice. Pretty little station - stone, snow, mountains, hordes of skiers. Even had our first, so very French, experience of the whole trip (and that includes a week screeching around Paris). There was a bus at 7 am up to Val D'Isere. The train arrived 5 minutes late at 6.41. They must have been surprised and caught off guard by a scheduled train turning up at the scheduled time, because only 2 people were selling bus tickets. In any event, there was no way the bus warden was letting our luggage on the bus until we had tickets. (Go on, imagine the most irritating parking warden you've ever met. Now imagine he's a touch on the short side... and only speaks English when it suits him... yep - that was the bus warden chappie). I finally got tickets and ran out of the station. Bus still there at 7.10 am. Luggage still on pavement. James still behind barrier. There was another couple in our position also and we could not fathom why 2 seconds could not be spent putting bags in bus along with us before it left. It became even more farcical when they opened the luggage doors to let a woman take a bag out. Anyway, the 8.15 bus it was. A whole other story. We were getting off a stop before Val D'Isere village - explained by one of the company staff to the (as it turns out) new bus driver. He sailed merrily past it and before we knew it we were two tunnels hence and in the ski village of Val D'Isere. Which is gorgeous - we know this cos we got driven around it twice - once going in and once on the way out, thankfully with a different driver who knew where we were going. But the delays were delightful in their own way because when we reached our hotel, Les Seracs in La Reculaz, the wonderful manager managed to have a room ready for us and restored our faith in the genuine loveliness of the French people when he encouraged us to have breakfast and relax. Then Sleep. The final frontier. And so went the day - read/nap/read more/nap more. God got his icing sugar shaker out and snow has been falling steadily since mid-afternoon. We ordered in pizza and watched a movie on the iPad. Bit like watching a movie in a Finnish sauna - it's all wooden walls, wooden ceiling, wooden cupboards. Just need to get the steam from the shower going full bore and we'll be there. Today's photo? the extent of our amusement and interaction with the great outdoors - saw this darling dog out our window digging with a vengeance. Suspect he left a bone somewhere out the back in Spring. He was onto his third hole before we broke away from watching. Given it's snowed for hours, you never know - could be a dog shaped snowball squirming out there in the morning. Off up the mountain tomorrow to Club Med Tignes at 6,800 odd feet. Experienced 24 hours of pesky altitude sickness once before and ensuring that never happens again by taking it easy today. Hang on. That sounds awfully grown up! Must work on that. Sweet Dreams from Vivienne & James - busy, flat out and loving NotBeingGrownups.