Where we've been...

We're back!  Have been skiing in France, practiced a little of my French.  For the 12 days we were there it was at least a little warmer (-7 to 0 C) than the week before (-18 to -5 C).  Who am I kidding, it was the coldest skiing holiday we've had!  Reminder to self: "don't visit Paris in winter".  Either walking or waiting for buses in -5 C when you've just left 35 C in Cape Town dampens the fun of being there.  Not having been to Paris before, did the Eiffel Tower:  up, walk once around observation deck, and straight back down, just too cold, and nothing much open.  The highlight was, after visiting the Science Museum (preferable to the shops, even if they were in the throes of winter sales!), we were walking back to a different Metro, and hmm,  what is THAT building, and those crowds of ladies leaving look suspiciously like ladies who sew, hmm.  Closer look, and it's "L'aiguille en fete" at the Grande Halle de La Villette.  DH says not keen to go in, so persuaded him to go and look a shops for "One Hour"!   I was in heaven!  It was bigger than anything similar in South Africa.  Flew around, and managed to find a stand with French fabrics (lots of american and japanese fabrics which I can get anyway) and in halting French, bought some.  (This was our third trip to France, and because we were in the mountains with limited transport before, hadn't actually found fabrics.)  Lots of embroidery, threads, fabrics, wools, and similar - most of the "quilts" on display were in fact crocheted, but really beautiful.

Skiing in Valmorel was more for intermediates, not for beginners!  But the village is just like the pictures!  L'appartement was a good 600m from the centre.  Although the slopes really high up were great, one has to ski back down, and the last 100-200 m of pistes were steep!   Managed 5 days before falling and pulling calf muscle, not long after getting off the chair-lift.  Felt like an hour (but was probably only 20 mins) to get skis back on, and then it took me all afternoon to slip-slide back down from 1900m to 1400m, and then walk back to l'appartement.  Still ouch! but at least no broken bones.

Took some hexagons to tack, but did them all on the train trip going!  Ah well, never mind, was able to read four books!

And some photos of my helper, I had just pressed this fabric!