Tramway du Mont Blanc aka a ski train

One of the many ski areas in the valley where we live when in France is Les Houches, the resort is not connected to any of the other ski areas, although over the years lots of discussions about linking it to others have gone on, like linking Les Contamines to Saint Gervais lots of talk but never anymore than that.

You can access Les Houches either from the village itself via one of two cable cars or from Le Fayet and Saint Gervais via the Tramway du Mont Blanc. The tramway is definitely the cooler way to do it.

The line was started in 1906 with the first section opening in 1907, work then continued until the current end point was reached in 1912, plans were drawn up to extend it further but World War I put pay to any further expansion.

In the summer the line runs to Nid d'Aigle, well actually just short of the refuge that bears the same name, although in the last year funding was agreed to extend the line the remaining 500 or so meters so the terminus is at the refuge itself. In the winter months the terminus is Bellevue as the line above that sits in an avalanche zone.

That said even in the winter you can clearly see the line of the railway beyond the winter terminus.

The last two stations on the line which Nid d'Aigle is one are the only two stations over 2000 meters in France. That said it is the highest cogwheel railway in France and some 85% of the track requires cogwheel.

Steam power was used until 1956 when the line was electrified (11Kv at 50Hz AC for those interested) and the trains used since then have just been replaced for the start of the 2022 winter season and very nice they are to, ski racks included.

For the technically minded the line itself is 12.4 km long with a gauge of 1 meter, the average gradient is 15% maxing out at 24%, would make an interesting summit finish for the Tour de France, definitely an Hors Categorie climb, if of course you could ride it.

Even if you don't ski the train ride itself is worth a ride as the views are stunning. You can see Aiguille du Midi and Mont Blanc itself, whilst enjoying a vin chaud.

Les Houches is also known for Kandahar (green in name only) ski run which drops 870 meters in 3340 meters in length it is one of only two runs in France used for the Alpine downhill cup. It typically takes the racers around 2 minutes to cover the course.

At the start of the season the resort of Les Houches is generally quiet as are the trains so we took the opportunity today to head up on one of the new trains from Saint Gervais along with the dog.

Despite having passes that cover Les Houches we don't often get upto it, what I will say is it is looking tired and is in need of investment from its new owners, Compagnie du Mont-Blanc, hopefully having just invested in four very nice new trains they'll now invest in the resort itself.

Dog walking

One of the challenges of owning a dog is fitting your lifestyle around the dog, don't kid yourself it is about the dog fitting in around your lifestyle, they are like having another child.

We've had our curent dog now for over two years, it was September 2020, we were on our third rental property, our niece from the UK was over trying to do her 6 months in a Spanish speaking country as part of her degree in the middle of COVID.

Our niece was supposed to be traveling somewhere further afield, but as that was not really an option she opted to come spend time with us and our daughter (her cousin) in Spain, they are roughly two years apart in age.

One of the things she wanted to do was volunteer at one of the two large animal shelters around Marbella, she went to AAA, literally the first day she was working at AAA a 3 year old blonde Labrador is brought in. She WhatsApp'd my wife with the message "Auntie Lu, look who came in today" with an attached photo. At that point the ending was inevitable.

The following day my wife went upto AAA and I got WhatsApp'd a photo of her hugging this blonde bundle of fun who at the time at one of those doggy hooters on because he'd got a wound on his leg which he wanted to lick.

Two years down the road Buddy despite all his challenges of being a rescue dog has become part of the family. We have often wondered what he ever did to become a rescue, he is so easy going, always wants to be with his "humans", wherever he goes he gets called "guapo" he gets lots of attention paid to him which he needless to say loves. Sure he barks but he is a dog and he only does it when he feels his family are being threatened, we don't really need a doorbell as he's at the door barking before anyone gets chance to ring it.

The challenge with a rescue dog is you never really know what you are getting, but I can honestly say we couldn't have wished for a greater find.

In those two years has traveled over 14.000km by road, visiting France, UK and Switzerland, despite his reservations he's got used to leaping in and out of cars going from place to place, we've also discovered both the French and Spanish are far more relaxed about where dogs can go.

Who knew you could take your dog to Ikea or Leroy Merlin?

With us both working and despite me working from home there are days when he needs someone to walk him or one or both of us go away for a few days and flying him is really not practical.

When we lived in the UK we were fortunate to find a fantastic company called Petpals who looked after our previous dog in just these scenarios. We've found the equivalent in Spain called Halcyon, how times have changed we now have a WhatsApp group, every time he goes out with them we get inundated with photos and videos of him out with other dogs. Doggy daycare in Spain is very different it even comes with a pool.

And when he's at home despite him having multiple dog beds he's happiest either on the sofa or on our bed it is fair to say.

A good dog walking and sitting company is worth it's weight in gold for sure.
 

Christmas Market Season

Christmas markets have gone from being a German thing to being a far more European wide thing. The other weekend we were in France for opening weekend of the ski season, sadly skiing on day two was stopped by the weather (low cloud) and skiing by feel is no fun on day two when you have five months of the season and it is frankly not worth the risk.

Instead we headed to Annecy, a very beautiful town sitting on a lake surrounded by mountains and the largest town in Haute-Savoire. The lake has a cycle path all the way round it and a number of stages of Tour de France have started in the town and at least outside of the winter months we can drive to Annecy and I can cycle home over a couple of Cols. At this time of year whilst those roads are generally open as one of them goes to a ski resort it is too cold to do the ride.

On that Sunday not only did we have the Christmas market but the normal town market runs as well so plenty of things to look at and eat. It is of course traditional at these things to drink Vin Chaud and as we were in Haute-Savoire indulge in Diot de Savoire (known as a "Dio") sandwich, essentially an upmarket hot dog using a piece of baguette. 

As is typical there is always plenty of other food to go around as well.

Christmas markets have found their way all across Europe even Malaga offers some form of Christmas market. We would have gone this year, but sadly the thirty days of rain we get on the Costa del Sol has decided to coincide with the part of December prior to Christmas and todays rain was particularly tropical in terms of ferocity so our trip to Malaga for said lights and market was postponed.

Jardín Botánico - Histórico La Concepción, the Christmas lights

We discovered these last year, it is a walk thru the botanical gardens on the north side of Malaga, it is still somewhat strange even after three years with daytime temperatures that can get up to 15-20C to walk round a Christmas light show. You also have some great views over some of Malaga.

As we commented on the other week when we were at a well known Swedish furniture store and they had a display of outdoor garden furniture or setup for use over Christmas.

They have a different theme every year, this year was all about the journey of the three kings, which is a very specific festival in Spain, it is Epiphany and marks the conclusion of the Christmas season and return to work / school for Spain. Schools in Spain and typically closed for three weeks at Christmas only opening after Epiphany, which is January 6th. Lots of offices are essentially closed as people tend to take time off to be with family.

The light show opens at 1830 and if you ever want to go my advice would be book for 1830 slot as the car park fills up quickly.

Last year the temperature had starting dropping to below 10C at night and it was actually relatively cold, this year the rainy season had arrived, typically it rains around 30 days a year on the Costa del Sol, during November and March.  When it rains it does tend to rain "tropical style", the good thing about it is it fills up the reservoirs nicely and provides plenty of snow for the Sierra Nevada resort just outside Granada, which opened last weekend.

If anything the rain made some of the light shows more impressive and unlike the UK it didn't feel cold and damp, even in the rain it was warm. We were also planning to go on into Malaga itself to see the Christmas lights but with the weather we decided to head home and go out for dinner. We'll save those lights for next week. 

We are going to the lights in Windsor Great Park in the UK over the Christmas holidays we'll see how that goes.

Snow it begins

It is that time of the year, at least in Europe when the ski resorts start to open, a lot of the US resorts like A-Basin already opened several weeks ago, they get a materially longer season, opening as early as October and closing on exceptional years as late as July 4th! I've actually ski'd July 4th weekend in Colorado.

Typically resorts in Europe start to open the beginning of December and the last ones close end of May although the higher resorts are often skiable before and after these dates.

It is often forgotten the wide range of ski resorts in Europe for example the most southerly ski resort is just outside Granada in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the south of Spain where the temperature regularly exceeds 40C in the summer, it climbs to 3300m at the top of the skiable area. In the Winter the temperature in those same Sierra Nevada mountains regularly drops below -10C even before the windchill.

Spain does have other weather extremes Madrid is another example of similar temperature swings, where we live it never gets low enough to result in even an air frost in the Winter. We are a couple of ours from the Sierra Nevadas so in theory we could snow ski in the morning and water ski in the Mediterranean in the afternoon.

Typically the highest ski resort in Europe is listed as Val Thorens which rises to 3230m, so there is a case to say that the Sierra Nevada resort is not only the furthest south but also the highest. In fact on the published list of top 10 highest resorts in Europe the Sierra Nevada resort is not even listed.

This last weekend we got to ski at Grand Montets at the top of the Chamonix valley in France the top of which is 3275m (also higher than Val Thorens), this same last weekend the Sierra Nevadas along with the likes of Val Thorens also opened. Interestingly Grand Montets is also not listed in the highest ski resorts in Europe so the list is somewhat broken.

Whilst I record my ski runs on Strava they don't seem to appear on the widget on this blog for reasons best known to the Strava widget.

Suffice to say only a small part of the resort was open but the second run of the day was an unpisted red with plenty of fluffy bumps, good start to the 2022-23 season. The first season without any form of restrictions or limitations for a few years.

Broken Brexit, UK gone crackers or is it lack of?

Again, no apologies for this one being on a topic that will touch a few nerves. Last week I went back to the UK for a couple of days on business, I also took the opportunity to sort out somethings for the few days we will spend back in the UK over Christmas.

One of the things I needed to do was buy some Christmas crackers as we are going to relatives to eat on Christmas Day and we agreed to bring the crackers, simple to do you'd think, oh how wrong I was.

Marks & Spencer, history when we lived in the UK said they were good, and the local one in the La Canada shopping centre here in Marbella stocks them already, they are of course post Brexit significantly more expensive in Spain than they used to be. As I needed them in the UK, why not buy them from M&S in the UK. Seems sensible, you would think.

So off I went to M&S at the Meadows, aside from Christmas shop being a lot smaller than I remember, as apparently most things were on-line order only I was told "Oh sorry we have run out of crackers". "Why?" I asked, well since Brexit it seems supply chain problems exist as elsewhere in the world is less hassle to deal with, particularly the EU. So I can get M&S crackers in Spain and ship them to the UK, but not in the UK. Bonkers.

So I moved onto the next store, literally Next at the same shopping centre, a similar story, although to be fair I haven't tried ordering them to Spain, but essentially the same supply chain issue exists in the UK.

On the way back I had to drive past Sainsburys at Watchmoor Park, success lots of crackers, so picked up three boxes of the Habitat ones as they seemed the closest to my original intended purchase of M&S ones. OK at the self checkout apparently my purchase needs approval, for two reasons it turned out, crackers are treated like fireworks (the "bang" is the problem so I was told) so the over 18 check applies and you are only allowed two boxes, because of supply chain issues. These days I laugh when someone asks me for proof of age. "Why?" (related to the why was I only allowed two boxes) I asked for the third time and got a similar story as I had in both M&S and Next. So I bought my two boxes, went out and bought a third box ten minutes later after a quick coffee in Starbucks.

My first experience of supply chain issues directly attributed by the store to Brexit was summer 2021 when I foolishly wanted a cucumber on a Saturday afternoon in Morrisons only to be told since Brexit if you want this stuff at the weekend you need to come on a Saturday morning. Since then I have come across this numerous times and now it has decided into a crackers situation...

Rubbish and recycling

This is I'm sure another contentious topic but it sparked out of debate with some business colleagues, all expats last night whilst we were discussing some business opportunities, we also got side tracked onto house moves, renovations and ultimately disposal of waste.

One of the things we've all noticed on our trips back to the UK is fly tipping, we still get UK TV here and regularly there are stories of fly tipping investigations and how much disposal of fly tipped rubbish costs and ultimately a prosecution, but at what cost?

So we evaluated three different countries and the infrastructure in place to determine why as a general rule you don't see uncontrolled fly tipping in either France or Spain.

Where our son and a lot of our family live in the UK you get bin collections from the house each week in combination of green (general waste), blue (recycling but only very specific things, for example not all plastic), blue basket (glass), brown (garden, which you have to pay for) and grey bucket (organic). Outside of that if you want anything you have to goto the local tip, your vehicle must be registered, it is by appointment and you have to pay to dispose of certain things, like paint cans.

Now France, no doorstep collections, everything is taken to communal bins (never more than a few hundred meters away), they are emptied in rotation pretty much everyday of the year. Bins are in three categories, grey (general waste), green (glass) and yellow (recycling, metal, plastic and cardboard/paper, no sorting required and no problem with the wrong type of plastic). Local dechetterie in France, vehicle has to be registered, for private individuals everything is free, for business there is a nominal "per load" fee of approximately 15€, oh and no appointment necessary. You don't pay to dispose of paint cans, oil, plasterboard or anything like that, our local dechetterie has probably 15 different skips and the local staff are always on hand to ensure that everything goes into the right skip and are very willing to help sort stuff.

This is just the opposite of the UK experience where everyone hides things to get them into the general waste to avoid paying extra and the local staff stand over you policing you.

Finally Spain, very similar to France, grey (general), green (glass), blue (cardboard) and yellow (metal and plastic) communal bins emptied on rotation. As for the tip or punto limpio, no car registration, no appointment, lots of skips and helpful staff, plus at our local limpios there is no fee even for businesses.

So to be fair you do get what can best be described as controlled fly tipping in both Spain and France, it is not uncommon for people to leave things by the communal bins they no longer need, a desk, a microwave and then it mysteriously disappears, usually collected by someone and recycled / reused.

No one in France or Spain expects door step collections, rubbish doesn't pile up and the repair, reuse, recycle culture is made easy, none of this the wrong type of plastic in your blue bin. I'll confess when we lived in the UK I got fed-up with sorting plastic and it all went in the recycling bin.

Cultural norms like an expectation of doorstep collections need to change for the whole repair, reuse, recycle culture to actually work. The solution is not to goto biweekly doorstep collections as that just results in unsanitary rubbish building up at peoples accomodation and frankly more uncontrolled flytipping. 

Spain and France also have this recycle / reuse culture, we recently purchased a duplex apartment on an Urbanisation in Neuva Andalucia and as part of that we wanted to update the three bathrooms we had, now my experience of doing that in the UK is the plumber comes along and says we need to rip everything out and start again. The approach in France and Spain is very different the culture is how do we build on what we have. It extends to reusing materials as well, for example we replaced a shower tray, the plumber broke up the old one and used it as hard core for the base when combined with concrete for the new one, result was the amount of rubbish we actually threw away was greatly reduced and it saved money. 

Many other examples of exist, but the overall point is cultural norms have to change maybe Brexit combined with the state of the UK economy overall will drive some of this change.