Ollie's birthday in Gréolières

Olivier and Raphaële were visiting Gréolières again this weekend, the occasion being Ollie’s birthday. Naturally, we could not pass on the opportunity to celebrate this great event, so up we got early in the morning, jumped in the car, and set off.







The plan was to start the day with some skiing, so we drove up directly to Gréolières-les-Neiges (which is, according to Ollie at least, the most beautiful ski resort in France). Having rented our ski gear, we met up with Ollie & co, and had completed our first run before 11 AM (pretty good going I reckon, considering my head was still a wee bit sore from the cognac last night…). We had a good ski session, even if the conditions were not as good as last time (the snow was good, but ominous clouds covered the sky).

After a quick kebab lunch, we headed back for the slopes, but our worst fears were confirmed as the fog swept over the slopes… 

So the afternoon session was somewhat less exciting than the morning, although we did manage to do a couple of good runs… Ollie, avid snow boarder as he is, even did a couple of runs on skis (show-off…).After a nice after-ski beer at Ollie’s parents house, and a refreshing shower, I set out to explore Greolieres a bit. My tour took in the village church (which was first mentioned in 1079 and is of the typical Provencal style – whatever that means) as well as the half-ruined castle (apparently somebody tried to get it renovated but only managed to finish half of the job until the local population decided they didn’t like what the guy was doing to the castle – hence its current state).

Then it was time for the main event of the evening – the birthday dinner. After a nice apero at Ollie’s uncle (I once more had his speciality – an Americano) we headed off for the restaurant just around the corner for a very nice dinner (I had a deer daube, which was good but obviously not as good as the Ollie’s mum’s daube we had during our last visit!). After the dinner we went back to Ollie’s parents place where his dad brought out a bottle of Johnny Walker’s blue label – what a perfect way to finish off a great day. (Ollie coming up with excuses for not being able to finish the game of solitaire he started also provided great entertainment ;-).