Today is Simone and I's 8 year anniversary together. So many adventures including this one and many more to come!
We began our day with breakfast in our hotel, which was surprisingly really good. It was actually the best cup of coffee I've had in France! We headed out to hire our boots and skis and hit the slopes.
It's amazing how quickly you can pick something up again after not doing it for a long time. We started on a few easy green runs to get our confidence up!
It was foggy in the morning and cloud kept sweeping across the mountain.
However the higher up the mountain we went, the clearer it got and the views and vast expanse of the valley revealed itself slowly. It was breath taking. 
After lunch the fog had lifted and cleared. Skiing on the mountain was bliss, the sun was shining and the whole valley lit up. You could see for miles!
After skiing the whole morning we stopped for a break and some lunch at Rhodos station. The food was average canteen like grub but the view and atmosphere of eating on the mountain was great.
One funny thing we saw in our morning of skiing was a couple with their two dogs (German short haired pointers), skiing down the mountain, with dogs running in toe behind. Crazy!
France is such a dog friendly place we've discovered. We've seen people on the metro, on the Eurostar train, in cafés and restaurants and now on the ski slopes with their dogs. Sims loving it! Although we both did wonder if the dogs were cold!
After skiing for a couple more hours Simi was getting sore legs so she headed back to the room for a rest. I was getting tired too, however I was getting more and more confident and wanted to ski more to take advantage of the conditions.
I headed up to the crest of the Meribel and Courcheval valleys (2 of the 3 valleys). The view from up here was stunning and skiing down, whilst tough, was pleasurable. It's like being on top of the world!
As I was on my own now I did things at my own pace (which is fast when it comes to skiing). I enjoyed being able to concentrate and not concentrate when I wanted to.
I stopped for coffee and cake and then headed leisurely down the mountain for my final run of the day.
It was a satisfying feeling getting back down, as my thighs were starting to give way and affect my skiing towards the end. My relief was short lived however as the short 250m walk back up the road to our hotel was still ahead, and whilst it was only short, in ski boots and with aching muscles, that quite frankly hadn't been used for a while, it was tough.
What's more the 2 flights of stairs up to the room when I got to the hotel were even tougher. It was like I was a challenger in Gladiator. When I got to the room I crashed through the door and flopped onto the bed, where I didn't move for 10 mins. Sim told me she did the same but didn't move for 20!
We watched some of the Olympics. Simone couldn't believe the downhill skiiers that jump and fly 100metres in the air. Quote of the day from her, "if that was me doing that, I would literally sh.t myself in mid air" - haha.
For dinner we headed out to the Michellin rated "Le Plantin" restaurant down at a meribel village. The place is not very busy, with only 4 people and a dog (yes I know, even dogs are allowed in Michelin rated restaurants) were drinking wine at the bar (oh...the dog wasn't drinking wine though).
The food was gorgeous. My entree of pumpkin soup was a rather dazzling event. First, a large bowl with foamed cream, cheese mouse and a slither of sausage was placed in front of me. Then a waiter poured the soup over it, the foamy cream bubbling up into the soup. Rather impressive, and yum too.
Our mains were very meaty, sim had a fillet of beef and I the lamb, but the highlight was probably the 4 different scoops of sorbet that followed! Sooo yum!
We headed back via taxi and made small talk with the driver. Lovely guy. So far we've found most French people to be rather nice and very hospitable. The rumours of them being ass holes are unfounded for us!
Off to bed for us!
bring on the DOMS!!!(not)
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