Summer Reset - Part Four

Hi everyone, and welcome to Part Four in the Summer Reset blog series, direct from Méribel again. Finally that non-stop heat has moved on, I guess similar to the UK. We've had some overcast weather, with a little bit of rain ploppage as well. The vegetation for the moment has turned from crispy brown to a sensitive green. Having said that, we are back to some more wonderfully sunny days which are a little more comfortable. And the night time temperatures are lovely and fresh.

My wife Harriet has arrived and we went for a hike up to the Lac de Fées to stretch the legs, but also to have a picnic up there. And we spotted some myrtilles ripe for picking. It's weird because for several days last week I've been rattling down some mountain bike trails, but noticed many human (clothed) bottoms pointing my way and wondered what on earth was happening. You can't take your eyes off the biking trails for much longer than a split second, so I couldn't work it out. This would explain it! Myrtille plants are quite short, growing to not much higher than ankle height, hence people bending over to pick the berries, and pointing their bums at me!?! By the way, picking flowers, plants and berries in the Tueda Nature Reserve (where Harriet and I saw these plants) is forbidden.

Yet another lovely alpine experience. The other day Harriet was keen to use the summer ski lifts before they close this coming Friday. She has been working from home off and on, so we are trying to prioritise her spare time. Harriet wore hiking boots for the ski lifts, and I wore mountain bike shoes (for riding Herbie my mountain bike). We ascended together, I mucked about with Herbie for an hour, then we met up at Le Corbeleys for a coffee before lunch.

Le Corbeleys was as authentic as ever, and also quite familiar, yet so different in this summer environment. I recognised the patron from winter visits, although I don't think he recognised me out of my ESF ski instructors uniform.

Anyway we couldn't hang around for long because the St.Martin ski lifts close over lunchtime, and we had to make sure we got back to the Méribel valley before this deadline. I wonder what the St.Martin lifties do for lunch? Do they bring their own dried sausages and cheese from home, or rush to Le Corbeleys for the Plat du Jour?

Some silly plonker sliced his finger last night whilst cleaning a mandoline slicing thing. So I'm not quite sure how soon I'll be able to ride a mountain bike again. But the ski lifts close at the end of the week! Harriet has a couple of days off work before Friday, so we need to come up with a plan. Right, I'll leave it there, I might try a last minute sunset shoot this evening. Live. With. Passion. Martin.