Visiting Ollie and Raphaële in Gréolières

A friend of ours from out glorious years in the UK, Ollie, had come down for the weekend with Raphaële, his lovely girlfriend, to do a bit of skiing in Gréolières (where his globetrotting parents have a house – or two actually).

So when we got the invitation to join them, we accepted without hesitation. Off we went, Friday night, down the Vallee du Loup, to Gréolières. It’s a very nice and dramatic drive, with some gorgeous views over the valley. Gréolières is a typically picturesque village, and refreshingly un-touristy (considering there's a ski resort just up the road).

Once we got unpacked, we headed over to Ollie’s uncle, who also has a house in Gréolières, for an aperitif. After we’d stuffed ourselves with some gorgeous Spanish sausage, and started feeling merry after a couple of Americano’s (a cocktail of Campari and Martini – and something else I think?), we headed over for a delicious dinner cooked by Ollie’s mum. After a most filling Daube (a beef stew), some tarte Tatin, and a fair few glasses of Bordeaux red wine, it was well and truly time to go to bed (we did, after all, want to do some skiing the next day as well…).

We got up pretty early the next morning, drove up to the ski statrion called Gréolières-les-Neiges, got our gear rented, and managed to hit the slopes before 10 AM. The skiing was great – the snow was perfect, the sky was blue, and best of all, there were very few people on the slopes (compared to our recent trips to Auron and Valberg). We were expecting worse, since Gréolières is the closest ski station to the coast, and school holidays had also just started… We were also treated to some great views from the Cheiron (the highest point at the ski station - at about 1800 meters) all the way to the sea – apparently on a really clear day you can see all the way to Corsica, apparently.

After a light lunch (an Entrecote with fries, and apple pie for me, I mean that’s light, right?), we carried on in the afternoon. It was a lot busier now than in the morning, but we still managed to find a couple of relatively skier-free slopes

After a nice after-ski at Ollie’s place, it was time to head back to Cagnes (since we had a housewarming party to get ready for – more about that later…). It was short, but sweet. Big thanks to Ollie, Raphaële and last but definately not least, Monique!