mardi

Well today i had planned to sit outside on the steps of montee des Ecoles, looking down past our apartment, over the cobbled street of Grande Rue and up on to the snowy slopes of Arc 1600. But the rain has put an end to that idea. No worry, it should be snowing up top - freezing level is probably around the 1500m mark again today.

We're now sorted and settled here in our small 'studio' apartment in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The place, about 25sqm, came furnished and pretty cheap. It fills what was once a gap between a building of 4 apartments and a dance hall. It’s amazingly soundproof. The kitchen occupies about a quarter of the space and is well equiped with stovetop, bar fridge, sink, crepe-maker, lettuce spinner and coffee drip-o-lator (now retired in favour of a wonderful stovepot, thanks Soph!). Im sitting at, I guess, a breakfast bar, and I can count 18 wine corks lined up against the wall to my left.

The bathroom takes up about another quarter and has the things you'd usually expect to find in a bathroom. The shower, oh the shower, is Amazing. Our experience with showers in France to date has been quite shit actually, so the unbelievable shower that we have here is quite the highlight of the setup.

The rest of the space serves as the bed/lounge/dining/store room. There is a couch, cafe table and chairs, low store-box-thingy, a window and the door. One wall is completely cupboards and bookshelves – very handy. The couch unfolds in to the bed, and theres enough room left over to accommodate the skis, the bikes and me on the floor when Sophie came to stay.

The apartment is on montée des Ecoles, just off the awesome and pedestrian-only Grande Rue. We inevitably stroll the Grande Rue every day. Firstly, turning right and up hill to our favourite boulangerie for a fresh baggie each morning, the woman there having to wipe here fingers of fresh framboise to handle our baguette, pas bien cuit. About twice a week we’re in our favourite café opposite the boulangerie. Inside with petit café or vin chaud, theres either the cat to stroke or the furry dog pausing at your side for a bit of a cuddle.

Left down Grande Rue theres the usual French assortment of shops – café, pharmacy, optometrist, pharmacy, bar, pharmacy, newsagent, pharmacy,… The bottom end of the Rue ends at the cheese co-op and the Mediatheque. We’ve only been to the co-op once so far, but intend to make it a regular. Its daunting asking for a slice of cheese from a wheel about the size and weight of a car tyre. We’re inside the mediatheque though each of the four days a week its open. Po is speeding her way through their amazing collection of BD’s, while we’re both delving into the CD library for solid gold like: Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Peter Tosh and Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra.

Its now 2-days-less-than-a-month to go until the official opening of the ski season at Les Arcs. Thanks to the Bourse Aux Skis here at BSM the other week (good, but funnily not as good as the Cooma ski sale), we’ve now enough gear to see us through the 5 month season. Plus I am now the proud owner of a fluro yellow one-piece. Made in Paris apparantly. Actually I reckon I’d fit right in on the streets of Paris with this tight yellow number, such is the state of fashion there. Oh yeah it’s a snug fit. Not quite as snug as the Gibbon in his one-piece, but I’ll be thinking twice about getting in a tuck down the KL.

Also, if anyone would like to post themselves over for a bit, our address is as follows:

M. Jarrad Needham
21 montée des Ecoles
73700 Bourg-Saint-Maurice
FRANCE
ph: +33 6 71 85 52 87