It seems that this may become another bad skiing season; it has been too warm and it has not rained enough for the snow to accumulate, or it has come down as rain. This past weekend we took a chance and booked a trip to Briançon (with its elevation of 1326 meters it is the highest city in France) in Serre Chevalier valley in Haute-Alpes department. According to Nordic Serre Chevalier’s Facebook page the  Nordic skiing  tracks in Le Monêtier-les-Bains have been done daily and skiing conditions have been good. And we’ve been there several times in the past two years and like the area.

Saturday opened sunny and cold, and skiing was fantastic.  It was only interrupted by a Biathlon race in Oberhof, which we watched on a tablet in the car. Afterwards we took a quick stroll around the walled old town Briançon, La cité Vauban.

Sunday started equally sunny but much warmer. We were somewhat worried about the snow and the skiing conditions in the afternoon. Our concerns turned out right. The snow was wet and soft, and that was not all — we had very strong gusty wind that blew our skis and poles from under us. The uphills were struggle to the wind. Besides it started raining. We did just one loop, and then drove home.

In the morning before going skiing we had another nice stroll around the old town.

Finally, a few words about the apartment we stayed at in the old town. It is difficult to find a place with reasonable price in this region during the season but we managed to get this place for less than 50 euros a night. It is rented out by a British guy residing in the UK. There was no cleaning fee, but that meant we had to clean after us and rely on the  previous guests having cleaned after them. This included washing the bedding and towels. We brought our own to avoid the hassle, but entered the apartment with sheet and towels hanging to dry all over the place. And the apartment was not cleaned properly, especially the dishes — we found dirty forks stowed in the cupboard, not just almost washed but clearly not washed at all, with all the cheese and spaghetti sauce on them!

The apartment was small even without the laundry hanging around. And despite three electric heaters it was cold for one of us. Luckily there was an arcade game that gave him enough exercise to keep him warm 🙂