Week 6
Day 36: Sunday 19 April 2020
The thing which really makes me chuckle about the piste bashers is that piste bashers are called ‘dameuses’, and piste bashing is called ‘damage’!
In normal times, during the ski season, they work their magic in creating a firm deep base of snow on the pistes. This in turn ensures that we have good quality pistes to ski on, and that the pistes survive in times of snow scarcity and long into the spring when the snow off the side of the piste is starting to melt away.
This year, we are lucky to have had plenty of snow, and we could easily have skied in Sainte Foy in the week after the normal end of season closure. This of course, this season, is purely academic.
Today, ‘les dameuses’ have been wreaking real damage on the pistes (clearing the snow away), rather than ‘le damage’ grooming! (When learning a foreign language, we call this a ‘false friend’ when a homonym means something different in another language).
Day 37: Monday 20 April 2020
Me and my body had a chat today. My body says it’s tired and needs a rest from trail running. But I like my trail running, and I like those happy little endorphins coursing around my system and filling my veins with their little bits of hormonal happiness.
Alas, my body has a valid claim, so we’ve come to an agreement. My body gets a few days rest, and I get to do more yoga. This it turns out is a win win result, as the yoga confirms to both of us that we haven’t been doing enough stretching. Cue, lots of groaning.
Day 38: Tuesday 21 April 2020
We are now officially in the off season. In normal circumstances, all the visiting holidaymakers would have gone home. There would be a diminishing number of seasonal workers and year round residents tidying up and putting the rental accommodation to bed until next season. This has largely been done already.
But why? Why close Sainte Foy in mid April when the pistes are still skiable, the sun is shining, and there is a different type of mountain experience to be enjoyed? If someone fancied a more leisurely skiing holiday, with fabulous scenery, longer days, the chance of better weather, then now is the time. Ok, if you’re the type who wants to ski from the first lift to the last, with optimal snow conditions, then by all means come here earlier in the season, but now can be, and is today, fabulous in Sainte Foy!
This might become reality. At the hustings meetings for the mayoral elections on 14 March, Yannick Amet, (who was subsequently elected as mayor but unable to take up his position officially due to the lockdown), said that his team wanted to extend the season by two weeks. The suggestion was that next season would be 12 Dec to 24 April. However, until the new mayor and his team take up their positions and make their decision, we won’t know for definite.
Day 39: Wednesday 22 April 2020
This afternoon I took some time out of my not very busy schedule to spend a couple of hours lounging in the comfy cushioned furniture on the balcony, just contemplating the world. I can vouch for the meditative enormity of Mount Pourri as an aid to contemplative thought. Feeling super relaxed now.
Day 40: Thursday 23 April 2020
There’s a saying in running which goes “Whether you run 1 mile or 100 miles, the real journey all happens on the inside”. Your journey is like a choose-your-own-adventure novel that is tailored just for you, and the same could be said for one’s journey through lockdown.
I have been Zoom chatting to my friends, and lockdown really brings out their inner character. How they have chosen to spend their time and what has become important to them, provides interesting insight to their inner soul. I like my friends!
Day 41: Friday 24 April 2020
I watched Atonement tonight. A brilliant film, but very sad and not necessarily one to watch when you are hermitted away in lockdown world.
After the credits had finished rolling, and still slumped in the sofa, I started watching the news. America’s President Trump came on and had me laughing out loud in no time at all. He’s bonkers, as mad as a box of frogs. Even the late great Terry Pratchett couldn’t have written the lines he comes out with!
Day 42: Saturday 25 April 2020
Tonight, I partook in a virtual dinner party with some ‘Zoomed-in’ friends. There is a slight inefficiency in everyone cooking a full meal for themselves, but on the upside, we had a whole bottle of wine each! In fact, in a world where time is losing its relevance, ‘the length of time it takes to drink one bottle of Haut Medoc’, works very nicely as a measurement of time. I’m thinking that once a week this must be ok?
