Our second trip to La Plagne this season was a very social affair due to the presence of our friends the Alabasters, including Elisa's sisters Christa and Samia, and the Tcherdakoffs. It was also a rather odd vacation for us, as Nick missed out on the week due to school work.

Though we were missing Nick, we had a great week nonetheless. The conditions started off quite balmy, with highs on Saturday and Sunday of 14C at 2000m. The result of the warm weather was the snow was very soft and the skating rink was unusable. However, the conditions improved on Monday, and by Tuesday is was quite chilly and the conditions had become icy at low levels.

Alexandre managed to get out of ski school, due partly to the excess demand for lessons at his level, which made him extremely happy. Andreas took lessons for his Deuxieme Etoile, and while he just missed passing (which would have been a spectacular result given his age and given none of our other kids accomplished it on their first tries either), his skiing skills improved massively thoughout the week and by the end he was mastering difficult red runs. Katie split her time between skiing and snowboarding (she received all new equipment for both at Christmas), and her skills at both were impressive, doing some difficult off-piste skiing with Kevin and getting quite solid on the snowboard.

Social activities began by celebrating Kate's birthday on the Saturday of our arrival at our favourite restaurant, L'Arlequin. We spent the first three evenings watching the X-Men trilogy with the Alabasters. On Wednesday night we enjoyed a raclette dinner in our apartment, followed by a raucous game of "Donkey" that nearly sent Katie into an asthma attack from the laughter. We also got to know the restaurant Au Bon Vieux Temps at the bottom of the Golf piste in front of our building, where the adults went out for dinner on Thursday night. That evening started with walking/sliding down the piste to get to the restaurant then beginning with Tequila Sunrises and finishing with La Grolle (http://www.sports-sante.com/index.php/cocktail-savoyard-recette-de-la-grolle-savoyarde) and then climbing back up the piste to return to our apartments. As always, we also repeatedly enjoyed the restaurant, L'Arlequin, where we appreciate the hospitality of the owners, Georges & Monique.

We also caught up with Theo and Caroline, who own & operate the outdoor skating rink of Aime la Plagne, and we are very hopeful they continue to enjoy success to ensure the rink remains open and operating for years to come (it was closed for the first 5 years we started going to La Plagne).

Check out the plan of the pistes at La Plagne and the connected Paradiski resorts here http://www.paradiski.com/skiplan/skiplan.htm.