Well, our plan, or rather sort of plan, was to stay here for a week and then go back to Les Gets. However within three days the funicular (new) was up and running, although minus the Lisa Stansfield voiced English translations which always brought a smile! All good, although not sure the white leatherette seats were the best idea.

New funicular (minus Lisa Stanfield)

The trails were great and the weather also, a good 10 degrees warmer than Les Gets, so the up shot was we stayed put.

Whilst here there was the Pompiers ball plus Bastille day, celebrated with many pyrotechnics.

Bastille Day Fireworks

Managed a few walks in between the bike riding and wished we could have stayed a bit longer.

It’s a lot hotter walking than riding

Top of Aiguille Rouge (3200 m)

All packed up now ready to head back, out for a final meal and drink and looking forward to the next time!

Packed and ready to go!

Back in the Alps in what seems to have become an annual event! No real plan this time apart from booking a journey out and back.

Decided to head for Les Gets first, always a bit hit and miss as there is only one campsite and you can’t book. Two spaces left when we arrived so took the one under the big tree to get some shade, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Just as night fell the owner came across and said that there may be a big storm during the night and if the wind got up it may be best to get out of the van in case the tree came down! Great. The German guy next to us realised that the tree was in fact hollow and not very stable, so he decided to move back in his pitch a bit, although we couldn’t see that was going to save him as the tree was 15m high. We just decided to stay put but set up in  a way we could move quickly if the wind got up. Of course nothing happened but we decided to move pitch in the morning, as more storms predicted!

First pitch Les Gets

Up in the hills

End of the day

Balanced diet to fuel next day!

Hit the trails the next day with a short cross country route. The campsite is located halfway up the side of the valley but luckily there is a lift that takes you to a point a couple of hundred metres above the campsite so it’s downhill home, as opposed to a 300m road climb. You can imagine our shock when we caught the lift to read the sign that said due to the World Cup downhill the lift was closed for the rest of the week.

Les Gets (didn’t spot the showboating!)

We knew the World Cup was on as half the people in the campsite were doing it and we had the idea of sticking around to watch. However a 300m climb at the end of every day didn’t sound appealing, so we decided to head across to Les Arcs for a week and go back to Les Gets when things had calmed down.

The journey from Les Gets to Bourg had a great detour – lots of hairpin bends on narrow roads. We arrived at Bourg to find that the funicular to Arc 1600 was closed and for a short period of time we thought we had traded a 300m climb at the end of the day to an 800m climb at the start! As it turned out there is a replacement bus service, how British is that? Complete with bike up lift, although the ‘queuing system’ is very French!

Set up in Bourg