Airstream ski resort tour leaves London and heads to the Alps
Passports – check
Ferry tickets – check
Euros – check
Alpine Maps – check
Vintage american caravan – check
Trepidation – CHECK
With no more time for procrastination, prevarication and even palpatation… we left the safety of our sunny Surrey camp site and headed for “In’jin country”
this way there be dragons
Actually the road to Dover sea port was pretty uneventful, but it still felt like we were taking our life into our hands… as we headed for nearly four months in an untested vintage caravan, on an uncharted route, via un-booked campsites, to visit largely un-opened ski resorts…
… Jimmy slept through our trepidation with the certainty of someone who knows that, whatever transpires, it’s not his problem.
All we Brits need is a good queue to take our mind off things
Fortunately there is no real managing of a road trip and, once you’re properly on the road, any fear and foreboding is quickly submerged by the rhythm of travel.
Like ski holidays, road trips can be hard going but mostly road trips are fun – especially if you’re 19 months old, or travelling with someone who is.
Though he’s been in his PJs and sleeping bag for 2 hours, Jimmy is not taking any hints re sleep
On the ferry we all start to crash…
Jimmy sleeps on daddy, on ferry, en route to France
… I’m trying to keep the wheels on with a LOT of coffee but…
Jimmy sleeps on daddy, who sleeps on the ferry, en route to France
… coffee is no longer working … I even tried taping a hedgehog to my head but, as you can see, even that didn’t work.
Normally mummy can’t sleep with daddy’s driving but, add 2.5 ton caravan, remove 40+mph velocity… and she’s gone.
Iddi sleeps en route to alpine ski resorts
lost in france right-click link & select “open in new window” to listen to Bonnie Tyler cheese-classic “Lost in France” while reading.
Since the sno-mobile is a very big “rig” we sleep in French truck stops, but are careful to only stay in the busy service station car parks – not the un-manned picnic stops. We’ve heard scary things about those pretty little picnic stopping areas – lovely for lunch by day, but prone to highway robbery by night. Aparently thieves have not been deterred by the fact that people are asleep inside the caravan they are breaking into… and even driving away with!
not the most glamorous start but we’re quickly meeting French truckers – some of them might ski
I won’t bang on here about the roads. the driving style or the exorbitant motorway tolls – I silently repeat to myself that they are not “wrong”, they are just “different” as my Franglais slowly starts to return amid much gesticulation. On the thousand or so mile journey down to the French alps, we slowly begin to adapt.
Jimmy hasn’t really noticed we’re in a different country, but is pretty put out by all the sitting down, as we eat up the miles.
Where ever I keep my toy box… that’s my home
And then the road starts to fade into the background and thoughts turn back to the 30+ ski resorts we’re going to visit in the Swiss and (mainly) French Alps… as we arrive in the mountains.
its not snow capped, is not great weather, but we’re here… in the alps
Next: first week in a French campsite – thank heavens for the Dutch!
(for now, check out our ski holidays and ski resorts guide on sno travel and sno mobi)
