5th April

Last day of skiing at La Mongie Bareges for the 2009/2010 season.

Steve and I decided to go skiing on Easter Monday and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the snow, we had a good mornings skiing followed by a long lunch down in the resort of La Mongie, sitting outside looking up at the pistes and snow capped mountains. Beautiful!

Spring has sprung and there are flowers everywhere. The primulas on our lawns were beautiful and I didn't want Steve to cut the grass, he held off as long as he could but he cut it on Monday afternoon when we arrived back from skiing and before we went out for a ride on a tandem that we had borrowed from our friends Patrick & Claire. Steve said that the grass was getting too long and he couldn't leave it any longer but he did leave me a circle of primulas on the lawn in front of the hot tub, so I still have a pretty patch of flowers.

We have a weekly Line Dancing class being held in our games room led by Sylvia. It was decided it would be a good form of exercise for body and brain. It is a lot more energetic than it looks on the TV and I have trouble remembering which dance is which until we start dancing,it is coming and we can do a few dances reasonably well now. But we all fall about laughing when we start a new dance as we think, No way will we be able to do all those steps.

MARCH 2010

We have had some really nice guest to stay over the last couple of months from different parts of France. Solene & Ash from Paris were staying with us on my birthday and although they had come for the skiing which wasn't very good they were quite happy doing some mountain biking, I took them up the Lesponne valley on the mtb/vtt route to Chiroulet, the weather was perfect for the ride and on another day Steve and I took Solene & Ash over to the Lourdes valley and we rode on the MTB/VTT route up and then down either side of the river, the ride was enjoyed by all.

On Steve's birthday we usually go skiing but this year it had to be the day after on the 9th, we had a great day's skiing.

FEBUARY 2010

Steve and I managed to get some skiing in up at La Mongie Berege especially when our friend Jon Lucas arrived with son's Tom & Ollie for 4 days skiing over the half term holidays. It was great to see them again even though Jane wasn't with them on this visit but as Jon, Jane & Ollie were over the last week in October for 5 nights, Jane had here French fix then.

January 2010

'DEEZARK' is fully booked for the week of Sat 17th July - Friday 23rd July which is the ETAP & TOUR DE FRANCE week.

ETAP du Tour Mondevelo
Pau - TOURMALET Sunday 18th July

STAGE 16 - Tuesday 20th July
Bagneres de Luchon - Peyresourde - COL D'ASPIN - TOURMALET - Aubisque

STAGE 17 - Thursday 22nd July
Pau - TOURMALET



FLIGHTS - It is great that we are getting more airlines flying into the Pyrenees.

RYANAIR - Stanstead to Pau Jan-Dec
Bristol to Pau April-October
Stanstead to Lourdes (Ossun) - Dec-April
Luton & Birmingham for the ski season
Biarritz to Stanstead - Dublin - Birmingham

BMibaby - Edinburgh to Toulouse - April-October
- Manchester to Toulouse - April-Oct
2010 - Manchester to Lourdes (Ossun) April-October

EASYJET - Bristol & London Gatwick to Toulouse


In the middle of January Steve had to make a mad dash driving up through France to go and visit his parents after an emergency telephone call from family members. After a 36 hour journey he finally arrived. Spending the next 4 days assisting his parents.

I flew over to the UK days after Steve's mad dash to the UK, to visit my mother who had been in hospital for 2 weeks just before Christmas. Although she wasn't as well as she had been when I visited in November she was a lot better than I had expected.

On route from Stanstead to the north I called in and stayed the night at my cousins Katherine & Bill's just outside Cambridge. They were both very hospital as usual and it was good to see them both again.

OVERVIEW 2009

After a very slow start with both the B&B and Steve's building business. We put it down to the economic climate. People were just hanging onto their money and not committing to new projects or holidays. Things picked up by the beginning of June and we ticked over quite happily till the end of the year

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PARTY FUN

NEW YEARS EVE PARTY 2009

The Theme for our party this year was 'A Hoedown'.

We had a couple of practice nights for the line dancing, which was more difficult than it looks, I thought that when you had managed to put the steps together into a routine you were almost there but that was before you had to put the steps together with the music that the problem started. I am sure that lots of practice is necessary before everything comes together. The practicing was hilarious thought.

We had around 70 guests all of which had dressed up as either Cowboys, Cowgirls, Indians and Liz and I as Saloon Girls.

Steve had organised some games for the evening with a western theme which got very competitive at times which made them very funny to watch.

We welcomed in the New Year twice both French & English time.

It was good to celebrate the coming of the New Year with friends but it was just a bit sad that all our friends in the UK who used to come to our New Years Eve parties over the years weren't there to celebrate with us.



HAPPY NEW YEAR
To all our friends and family who are reading our Blog.