The drive back was pretty uneventful and we arrived at the ferry in good time for our 16.05 sailing, so were put onto the 15.20 departure instead, but that actually ended up being delayed by 30 minutes so in the end we didn't get back to the UK much before we had expected. Of course once back on UK roads the traffic was much worse than it had been in the rest of Europe, but we carried on arriving home about 7pm, tired but having had a very enjoyable trip. If we...

Today's leg of the journey took us through lots of vineyards, through the border back into France over the Rhine river and on towards Metz to Pont-a-Mousson on the banks of the Moselle river. Our hotel was in an old Abbaye and the room was enormous!! It was very dark and spooky going along the corridors to find our room as all the lights along the way were on sensors, which took a while to come on! We walked into town to have a look around and thought everywhe...

We arrived down at the Lido for Phil to register in good time, at about 8am and met up with Ben who had also just registered. We then had a coffee and waited till it was time for the boys to go on a boat across to the other side of the lake where the swim would start at about 10am. Like a good girl I stayed and looked after all the bags for them whilst they were away!! They both managed the swim really well and finished in a time of 1 hour and 8 minutes for a ...

Anticipating a long day's driving we made a relatively early start, having been told by Richard that we needed to help paint the outside of the chalet - so we did, as seen in one of the photos!! We drove along winding roads up through Le Biot and through to Chatel, then Morgins (no we didin't stop for a pie in the Tea shop!) and then onto the motorway along the Sion valley before ascending again on amazing winding roads up and over the Simplon Pass, 2005 metres ...

After a leisurely start we drove up to Avoriaz which we haven't actually done much before, then turned left and down into Les Lindarets, again along some of the runs we ususally ski. It was fun identifiying some of the runs although I thought some of them looked steeper and more scary without snow than when they do in the winter!! Of course we had to stop to go and have a drink in the Pomme de Pin and then it was on to drive through the Goat Village - what a bu...