Les Arcs

Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France | January 2020

Getting there: 26 hrs on a bus from Scotland to France

Days of Skiing: 7 glorious ones

Elevation: 10,660 ft

fresh snow + air as crisp and clean as newly laundered sheets
beer, bailey’s chocolat chaud, cigarettes, carrot soup (see below), melted raclette, powerade, the list could go on…
the adrenaline rush of going full speed down an open slope; floating at peak elevation above the clouds; exhaustion
après DJ sets & chants of “SAS get naked”
(playlist at the bottom of the page)

What is the French version of a bump in the road?

A road amidst the bumps.

One of my fondest memories is when we took a wrong turn and accidentally skied into a road in La Plagne. There is a vast difference between European and American ski slopes. Where a resort like Vail would have had this run roped off or signposted, in the Alps, the whole mountain is up for grabs — even the pavement. For the entertainment of all the spectators on the nearby lift, we had no other choice but to remove our skies, crawl our way down, and wait until the traffic of passing cars dissipated to safely cross the road. I may or may not have peed my pants laughing.

The Miracle Soup

One day I was dragged on to the ski mountain with one of the worst hangovers I have ever had. My friends and I trekked all the way from Les Arcs to La Plagne which meant that I was either forced to put up with it or make a very unpleasant hour-long journey to get back to the room. We stopped for food and I could only muster up the courage to order soup, everything else sounding not only unappetizing but impossible to consume. To my surprise, half a bowl of carrot soup later, I was an tearing up the ski slopes. The transformation was shocking and so I give you….