It’s hard to know how to define the ‘perfect week’.

For sure a perfect week will be different for everyone and I think it can depend a little bit on your perspective, so what’s happened beforehand is important. Of course it should include a bunch of good things plus one or two surprises thrown in for good measure and it should hint at good things to come.

By this reckoning, since arriving in Montgenevre, our week has been pretty much perfect.

After the previous weeks trials trying to reach the mountain, we eventually arrived mid-afternoon and although the Aire had been totally full over half term last week, it was emptying out and we were able to settle into our ‘usual spot’ overlooking the town and the sunset.

Having picked up our seasons ski passes in town, we couldn’t resist getting out for a couple of runs before the lifts closed and this year we took the time to properly celebrate ‘Arriving’ by opening one of the bottles of champagne that we’d brought on the way.

As we enjoyed the view, we realised we’ve spent more time here than anywhere else since we started travelling. It seems incredibly lucky that we can spend so much of our time in such a beautiful place doing something we love. The bonus is that it’s such amazing value too.

This year there are lots of Brits here, in fact as I write this I think there are more British vans and motorhomes than any other nationality which is kinda strange. I’m not sure who let the secret out? Happily, amongst them is Richard and Michelle, our friends that we met here last year and bumped into again in Bordeaux later in the year.

We got a couple of ‘finding our feet’ skiing days in and remembered some of our favourite runs and hot chocolate stops. It’s still pretty cold up here with temperatures about freezing during the day and as low as -13c at night.

Weather forecasting in the mountains is, in our experience, a pretty unreliable service. This week being what it is, that meant we had a couple of days of fresh snow fall mid-week which is for some reason always exciting but even more so when we’re in the motorhome.

Taking Merlin for the morning walk was brilliant; you could almost see the look of surprise on her face when she realised something was different about the ground. Then watching her joy as she bounds off like a deer through the snow, which came up to her belly, is really heart warming.

I got to break out the snow shovel (for only the second time ever!) to dig some space around the van before the big snow ploughs come in to do their job.

Then it was two days in the fresh powder skiing. Thursday was pretty overcast and still snowing but still brilliant but on Friday the blue sky returned and we had the place to ourselves. We spent the day with Richard and Michelle all having an absolute blast on and off piste, across the mountains. It must have been one of the best days skiing ever.

With the weekend forecast of wall to wall blue skies, the aire filled up quite a bit for the weekend. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen the resort as busy as it was on Sunday. Having been spoilt by empty piste’s all week, we decided to take the day off. Starting a lazy day with bacon baguettes we followed that up with an hour at the Spa for a swim and jacuzzi.

And next week? Well if the weather can be trusted we’re due up to 45cms of fresh snow and our friends Eddy and Alex are hopefully popping in.

Perfect.

Hope your week has been good too.

Sally, Toby and Merlin