"Puy St Vincent" a Puy-Saint-Vincent Travel Page by katiecoos

The first time I went skiing was when I was 50 years old. My sister and brother inlaw have been skiing for several years and persuaded me to go with then. I had a few lessons on a dry ski slope before I went. We went to a little place called Puy St Vincent, in France. When we all gathered at the bottom of the ski lift on the first morning of our lessons, there was a bit of confusion and misunderstanding with the Ski School and I ended up in the wrong class with the intermediates instead of the beginners class. Needless to say it was a bit of a hair raising experience and fell over several times,grazed my chin but actually come down the mountain still in one piece.

The year we went was also the year when France and Austria had some very bad avalanches and there were many people killed. So I was a little bit worried before I went.

Never having skied before I cant compare with other places, but I do know it is a little known place to the British and quite a small skiiing area, but very beautiful.

Our apartment was at the bottom of the piste, so no travelling on buses first thing in the morning with heavy skis. Just have breakfast and walk out of the apartment and you are on the slopes ready to go.

The local people and very friendly and they have a nursery and ski school also for the children.

I just love the break in the middle of the day. Hot Chocolate, French Bread with lots of butter and cheese and a nice little snooze.

Notice the flash sunglasses, they were borrowed along with everything else, ski jacket, ski bottoms. The next year I went to Isola 2000 with all my own gear.

This was taken at the end of the week. I was feeling lucky to still have all my arms and legs. After such a bad start to the holiday I must say by the end of the week I could ski down blue runs and easy reds and was quite proud of myself.