La Neige?

November 20, 2005. Today, being Sunday, we decided to go for the proverbial “Sunday drive”. The ads in the local paper, the Var Matin, have declared that ski hills are opening on the 10th of December, a mere three weeks away, and, needing to get the lay of the land, we headed to the hills to suss things out.

There are some very good ski hills nearby, we are told. Isola 2000, north of Nice, close to the Italian border is supposed to be the closest, biggest hill. Not pretty, apparently, but as the name suggests, a full 2000m at the summit. Others in our village also have talked about smaller, but even closer hills, good for family ski outings. With map in hand, we set out to find, Gréolières des Neige and L’Audibergue.

The thing with France, (among many “things”) is that in the mountains, the roads only look, and sometimes are, wide enough for one car, with, undoubtedly, no barrier on the edge of the road/cliff. This sets the stage for some fierce stand-offs, which can last an eternity until either you, or the other driver backs down, and backs up. (If the other driver is French and male, odds of winning the stalemate are heavily in his favour.) As well, the colour of the road marked on the map may tell you that the road is wider, but you have to look at how much the line is squiggling to come close to figuring out how hair-pinned and death-defying it is. So trying to decipher the best way to get someplace, does not necessarily mean choosing the road on the map that looks the shortest.

After a particularly heart-stopping drive we found the ski domaine, L’Audibergue, and decided to picnic on the side of the ski hill. No snow yet, but found that the nearly 1000m climb in elevation from our house to the hill, had dropped the temperature a ton. Hannah in bare legs was not pleased with the chilly picnic, a far cry from the balmy picnic in Nice last weekend!

As for L’Audibergue, no ski chalet, pro shop, equipment rental, or daycare. Only a little “caisse” in the middle of the parking lot where you can buy a lift ticket, and two little restaurants at the foot of the hill, filled with the usual French Sunday lunch crowd, enjoying the crisp fall air and a glass of just-released, Beaujolais Nouveau.