Megève Mont Blanc bike race

Posted on June 5, 2010 by admin

I’m racing on Sunday in the Megève Mont Blanc cycle race, basically a whizz up and down a few of the local cols – about 2500m worth of climbing.

There’s a choice of races in terms of difficulty and I’m plumping for the middle one as I’m still struggling with my training after feeling out of sorts last week. The Virtual Competitor on the Garmin is a major help, though, and me and my cycling mates are hooked on it.

You can race against yourself on a route you’ve previously done, brilliant for pushing yourself on days when you don’t have a training partner, and you can swap routes with mates so that you can race one another. Then, to see it all in glorious technicolour, you can upload to GPSies and trace your route through the mountains in 3D.

Posted by Chris

Posted in Cycling - Cyclosportive & Mountain Biking | 3 Comments

Col du Petit Saint-Bernard into Italy

Posted on May 28, 2010 by admin

The Col du Petit Saint-Bernard is now open so we’re looking to take the motorbikes over the top and into the Aosta Valley (Italy) this weekend. Today and tomorrow look dreadful, weather-wise, so Sunday might be the only window.

Last weekend in the Ardèche Gorge was great and the kids absolutely loved the canoeing and camping. I thoroughly recommend it – you take your own camping gear and stick it in waterproof barrels (proved their worth when we capsized) and you set off down the river and pitch camp when you fancy. There was a good variety of gentle paddling and some frantic rapids (where the capsizing occurred). Next time we might start higher up the river and take a longer run at it.

I did the bike race with a friend, a 2500m vertical climb over 135km, and all was going fine until the final, uphill section where I got horrendous cramps. Had to get off the bike to writhe around on the side of the road for a bit, which kind of spoiled my race, and I’ve not felt all that clever for the rest of this week, which is not good as I need to keep training for upcoming races.

Posted by Chris

Posted in Motorbikes - Enduro Biking | 2 Comments

Bikes, tents and canoes in the Ardèche Gorge

Posted on May 21, 2010 by admin

Got back from holiday to find it snowing! Bit of a shock after a week of Caribbean sunshine but good to be home. We’re off to the Ardèche Gorge this weekend for the first bike race of the season. It’s 135km with a bit of vertical thrown in. We’ll be camping and doing some canoeing too, so hoping for good weather…

Posted by Chris

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New photos of Chalet Pèlerin development

Posted on May 14, 2010 by admin

We have updated the gallery showing photos and plans of Chalet Pèlerin – see link (gallery is at bottom of page). This gallery has a full-screen option (click small icon to bottom-right of the gallery) – the most recent shots look stunning in this mode.

We have made excellent progress on the build, with the roof lauzes going on and a lot of landscaping work and tree planting.

Chris is away on holiday with the family in the Caribbean this week – not sure what he’ll make of a water ski but we feel confident that he’ll find something more dangerous to do than sun bathing.

Posted by Dom

Chalet Pèlerin

Posted in Chalets, Le Miroir | 4 Comments

New interior shots of la Côte d´Aime chalets

Posted on May 7, 2010 by admin

We’ve added some new interior photos of la Côte d´Aime chalets to the website, two of which are now occupied on our Try-Before-You-Buy offer. Please see our updated gallery on this link

la Côte d'Aime chalets

la Côte d'Aime chalets

Posted by Dom

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Summer activities & cycling camps in the Alps

Posted on May 2, 2010 by admin

The pistes in Val d’Isère and Tignes close after this weekend and we had great skiing right till the death. Spring is underway and Summer is just around the corner, and there is plenty to do (even if you’re not building chalets) with walking, white-water rafting, canoeing, sailing, mountain and road biking, rock climbing, zip-wire adventure parks, paragliding, horse riding, fishing and golf.

Cycling in the Alps

The three chalets run by our sister company, Harwood Enterprises, will be open this summer and available either for exclusive use, or by the room, on either B/B or H/B basis:

Chalet Merlo (6 bedrooms, sleeps 12, fully catered) – www.chaletmerlo.eu

Chalet Pecchio (4 bedrooms, sleeps 8, fully catered) – www.chalet-pecchio.com

Chalet Emily (3 bedrooms, sleeps 6/8 self-catered) – www.chalet-emily.com

The Chalet Merlo guys are also really excited about operating specialized road biking weeks for keen cyclists in association with Bethel Cycle of Connecticut this summer.

The camps are aimed at both serious riders who want to tackle some of the famous ‘cols’ featured in the Tour de France and also riders who prefer a more leisurely pace and fewer steep climbs.

The first week from 11-18th July is fully booked, but they have places available on the second week, 18-25th July – please refer to the website for full details: www.chaletmerlo.eu/cyclecamp

Posted by Chris

Posted in Chalets, Cycling - Cyclosportive & Mountain Biking | 3 Comments

Randoneé on Les Lores, Val d’Isère

Posted on April 26, 2010 by admin

Had a great day with my daughter on her first randoneé outing. We skinned up Les Lores in Val d’Isère and got a good set of photos – link to the gallery

Les Lores, Val d'Isere - ski touring

At the top of Les Lores

Posted by Chris

Posted in Skiing | Leave a comment

Eco-friendly Geothermic heating – Le Dauphine

Posted on April 16, 2010 by admin

We were featured in the eco section of le Dauphine newspaper this month. They had heard about the installation of the geothermic heating in le Miroir and wanted to do an article as it’s such an unusual thing in France.

There’s a link to a translation of the article in our News section – http://www.frenchmountainproperty.com/news-pieces/le-dauphine.html

In other news, my daughter won another ski-cross race in La Rosiere – the last race of the season. As a treat (that’s how I’ve sold it to her) I’m taking her on her first ever randoneé outing this weekend.

Posted by Chris

Le Dauphine eco article

Press clipping of Le Dauphine article

Posted in Chalets, Le Miroir, Skiing | Leave a comment

planting and powder

Posted on April 9, 2010 by admin

I didn’t think the amazing powder we had last week would be topped before the end of the season, but it was. The two best days this season were on Easter Monday and Tuesday. Absolutely brilliant skiing.

It’s spring skiing this weekend and we’ll be doing randoneé (ski touring), so that’s skins on the skis and lumping it up the mountain. It’s also the last weekend of kids racing. My daughter won a big ski-cross competition in Les Arcs (that’s the mental racing down a bumps-and-turns course that made such an impact at the Olympics). Her prize was tons of great ski gear – so she’s all set for next season.

The great weather has allowed us to fly on with the landscaping around le Miroir chalet, part of the work was planting cherry and fir trees.

Posted by Chris

Posted in Chalets, Le Miroir, Skiing | Leave a comment

Powder Burn

Posted on April 2, 2010 by admin

The last week has officially seen (for me, at least) the best powder of the season. Last thursday I was cycling in shorts and a summer vest and then the snow arrived in earnest.

Took a group of skiers plus one snowboarder out in the couloirs over the weekend and the powder was so good that by the end of it the snowboarder had converted to skis – result!

The group was the first corporate ski trip we’ve had at Chalet Merlo for some time and it was a great success.

Posted by Chris

Posted in Cycling - Cyclosportive & Mountain Biking, Skiing | Leave a comment