13th January. The Best Skiing for Five Years But Not Today.

Not only the best skiing but the only downhill skiing at all since about 1985 in my case.

The previous day queues for tows extended as far as the eye could see on account of all runs being complete and the remarkable sunny, windless and crisp weather.

Today queueing was much reduced, the situation had been normalized like the weather, horizontal rain and sleet.

Young D. who was being 'introduced' to snow sports for the first time kicked up a bit of a fuss, first of all about the tightness of his plastic boots in much the same way the accused might have reacted to the Inquisition's copper equivalents during the pouring in of molten lead.

Isabelle didn't hire any boots, skis or sticks having been emotionally scarred by an 'introduction' to downhill at a similar age.