I began my skiing trip in the French Alps sitting in the plane in Stansted airport for an hour (plane was delayed). It figures that the one flight I actually cared about arriving on time (I had people meeting me) was running late. We finally took off and I spent the short trip worrying about how I was an hour late for my 1st meeting with any of my relatives. I arrived, grabbed my bags and headed out to arrivals, where I was met by my aunt Clare and my cousins Emily (3 months older than me and the only cousin on either side my age) and Una (turning 18 in April). My cousins had just flown into Lyon from Rennes (also in France), but instead of waiting 1hr for me, they'd had to wait 2hrs. Oh well, these things happen.

Clare drove us from Lyon the couple of hours up the mountain to the ski resort/village where we would be spending the next week, St Jean d'Arves! This place is wicked! There's mountains and loads of snow and real French chalets made of wood with triangle roofs...(alright alright I'll stop, but it is cool). So we go up to our apartment and dump our stuff. Granny's there (by the way, all family mentioned in this post is from my mum's side) and she gives me a hug. She's the same as I remember from 7 years ago. Steve (Clare's partner), Morgane (15yrs old) and Alex (9yrs old) are all there as well. I've never met Steve or Alex before so it was hellos and hugs and etc all 'round.

It's almost 11am and Steve, Morgane and Alex leave for their skiing lesson. My aunt Joan (mum's youngest sister and only 12yrs older than me) arrives back from her lesson for lunch. I've been talking to her via email for a long time so it doesn't really feel like 7yrs since we last met. After lunch, Clare and Joan take us new arrivals down to get our equipment (skis, sticks and ski boots). Then Joan took me down to the snow...

Hellllp! There's really no way to learn to ski except getting on your skis and just giving it a go. I'd missed 2 lessons already (they start on Sundays) so Joan was going to try and give me a few of the basics so I could join Tuesday's session. No.1 - learn how to stop. This is really the most basic thing, and really hard! Beginners generally start by trying to slow down, and then throw yourself to the ground when you want to stop. And I was no exception. But progress was made, and eventually I learned to stop (do I hear cheers)!!! We took off our skis and traipsed back up to the apartment. Once there, I found Emily already in bed (this was going to become a habit) and I decided to copy her example. After all, I'd only had a a couple hrs sleep in 48 (+jetlag) and I had a skiing lesson to get up for in the morning.

Tune into the next post to find out all about my 1st week in France and how I was hailed the next Olympian downhill skier (well...maybe not...but close!)