Sunshine and Students

After finishing work early and moving to Val Thorens, I went back to say good bye to Courchevel in style, at the End of Season Ball. Style that did involve a shirt and tie, but also jeans and high top trainers. So at least while sat at the table we all looked pretty smart. I think it was fair to say the ball was not a formal affair, as one table even came dressed as a chain gang. It was nice to see everyone for one last time, and although I was happy to be in a different resort, there had been some sweet times in Courchevel.

 

I did have to go back once more, as I miss-timed the delivery of my new laptop and had to return to my old apartment to collect it. Doing a round trip of the Three Valleys can be pretty tiring on a slushy spring day, but doing while carrying a big parcel was a nightmare. It did bring a few strange looks for the lift operators though, and I probably needed the exercise.

 

 

We had a few sweet nights of partying it up in VT, but after Jason and Ambre left I was pretty much on my lonesome. This wasn’t a bad thing though as for the first time this season I managed to get some regular days in the park, and hopefully improved a little.

 

There was one last drinking session left though, as the legendary apres ski bar, Folie Douce closed its doors with a three day event. The final day saw a free air bag session, jib park, sky divers with wing suits, the usual champagne spraying, insane drunken skiing and cheesy euro dance music. Some old friends from Courchevel even made their way over for one last apres session. I was in bed by 10 o’clock, but woke up in a bit of pain and with broken snowboard. Thankfully that’s all that was broken!

It was pretty awesome that Val Thorens had the last snow-park open in France, and the final week of the season saw an invasion of Dutch people wanting to party hard. So the resort was in full swing right until the 8th of May and for the final weekend the park hosted a big freestyle competition. Not that I entered, but it was cool to hit all the new features and watch some awesome riders.

 

After back to back seasons It was nice to soak up some sunshine, which there was plenty of in Valence. To compliment the plentiful sunshine, I enjoyed some awesome French hospitality with bucket loads of cheese eating and red wine drinking.

My week with Ambre started with us stealing some cherries from next doors garden and riding her mum’s new lawn mower around the garden. Things got even more mature when I started cannon bombing into the pool. This level of maturity continued on my brief return to the UK, where after a quiet week back home I headed to Newcastle for Evo Fest. It was a sweet reminder of how good student life is, and a stark reminder that I can no longer keep up with a load of 20 year olds, not that I will stop trying!