 Poster: A snowHead
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@russ_e, @PeakyB, Same for me. Chrome/Mac no piccy, open in new tab shows piccy.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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^sorry folks I dont know why the photos suddenly not working - I haven't changed my 'method' though! Maybe @Admin might know why?
It actually tried to snow today
Somehow there was a slight and temporary change in the weather today with some clouds and a strong wind from the south / easterly. If it hadnt been so warm this would have brought some decent amount of snow but as it is it didnt (and won't) really deposit anything! So anyway it was a little weird not having sunshine!
So after a very long week at work and feeling knackered I was very happy that I got a very good nights sleep in. The kids were not too early this morning and were pretty calm so it was nice start to the weekend. By the time we got going it was about 1000 and the ice rink was just opening so we headed there for a family morning out..... all I can say is WOW it was busy.... the queue was about 20 people long for the whole 90 mins we were there - the rink was flooded! Anyway a good social as (apart from the tourists) virtually everyone we knew was there!
At lunchtime we had a nice family affair before Clare had a welcome little job - cleaning a friend of a friends apartment in this building that has just had some Parisians staying in it. So that was some cash in hand work for a few hours cleaning. Meanwhile I split the afternoon with the kids into two parts - they chilled watching something they wanted whilst I caught up on the ski racing on catch up - yay! .... then we had a monster hour long game of 'tickle monster' which basically is me chasing the kids around the house trying to tickle them - they love it - I'm knackered for the whole hour - 5 - 0 to them! Haha!
The evening I have managed to get some work done and we enjoyed a yummy Hu.Ski dinner and now some beers and Saturday night tv.
Dont mention the cricket result though - what a disaster!
Oh and also dont mention the ridiculous numbers of tourists we are still getting up there!!!!!
TTFN
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| Steve Angus wrote: |
| ^sorry folks I dont know why the photos suddenly not working - I haven't changed my 'method' though! Maybe @Admin might know why? |
I don't think it is anything you are doing wrong, they are just links to photos on Radio Val's website, that is how the web is designed to work.
Maybe people need to look at security settings in their browsers, perhaps they are refusing to load images from non-https links, or trying to switch to https and finding that the Radio Val server has a self-signed certificate.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@rjs, yes I expect it's a security thing where images from insecure http pages are blocked on Https - it could be a deliberate setting to protect the  site from being compromised.
Steve, as always it's good to read how things are going for you, and how much you manage to fit into any day. May things keep looking up.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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rjs - thanks
motyl - indeed - hope you are keeping well and see you at a bash sometime this century!!!!
All go
Well we have fitted in so much the last couple of days... yesterday Clare had the car all day as she had to take it to Chambery for her MRI scan on her knee. It looks quite promising but she needs more feedback on it.... so her doctor here upon seeing the results has prescribed physio and at the same time refereed her to another specialist to see whether surgery is needed. I dont (and I dont think Clare knows really what it all means) the true extent of what needs to happen will be known for some time yet.... its a mix of good and bad news I think!
Anyway that was yesterday and then today I left crack of dawn to give the car a bit of a clean (it was SOOOOO dirty) and then reinstate the back row seats (to make it the full 9 seats). We never use them therefore they are normally left out the car but getting them in and out is a real pain! So that took an AGE. So the car got to Moutiers and got its Control Technique done (basically the French equivalent of its MOT). This is all part of the process of getting the car into the French system - has been going on an awfully long time! So that was all done before mid morning and then since I was down the valley I collected a huge food shop to last us a few weeks. Got that back up and put away and then before you knew it the kids were getting off the bus and the start of Olivias playdate started!
All hell has now ensued with pizza's movies and they are now having an 'early' midnight feast before hopefully finally they settle down! Wish me luck!
The main news in Val at the moment is the relief that it seems that (for the moment and lets hope it stays that way) the case rates are falling - it is now down to about 150 cases per 100,000 and that is about the national average - it was only a few short weeks ago that we were the worst in the country at well over 1000/100,000! So thats good news.
The weather keeps on shining - OK its a tiny bit colder now but still (and has been for much of February) unseasonably warm. It has been weeks and weeks since it last snowed. The daytime temps are well up almost into double digits here in town but the sun makes it feel warmer than that! There is a small chance of snow at the weekend! We shall see!
This is the last week of school holidays in France and things are a little quieter than they have been the last few weeks. Still there are a fair few holiday makers around so we really hopefully will be 'back to normal' before too long.
The 'good' news (it may not be good news depending on what angle you look at it from!) is that the government decree to have all lifts shut runs out in a couple of days time (end of the week) therefore resorts like Val / Tignes and plenty of other high altitude resorts may push to try and get some of their season. This will revolve of course around lifts opening but only really French nationals may come and generally now we are into Spring the French dont come skiing so it will mostly be in vain!
Right kids being noisy again - must dash!
Goodness knows WHAT he was thinking but this French Tesla driver decided to try and ignore the signs and drive (yes drive) to the Col d'Iseran the other day - got as far as.... well.... about 10 metres of the 10km (or whatever it is) drive from Fornet to the Col before getting stuck and needing to put chains on and out!!!!!!!!!!!
TTFN
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@Steve Angus, best wishes to Clare, evolution hasn't served humans well with knees and we have this habit of taking up sports which put undue strain on them. (For what it's worth, having had problems all my life including a couple of significant ones, some years ago I realised that they happened a lot less once I was in my pre-ski exercise regime; I now keep that up 52 weeks a year).
And your stories of your children take me back. Those were the days when hoovering up crisp fragments after a "midnight feast" was the biggest worry - wait till they are teenagers!
Good luck with the ski lift prospect, I assume it is after the last half-termers have left and when the lift company know there is little income to earn.
Finally thanks for brightening my evening with that driver thinking his rich boy's entitlement included the magical ability to drive through snow.
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Why are you saying only French nationals can come?
In fact travel between most EU countries is allowed (not recommended), you "only" need a PCR test. So I can see the interest in opening until easter where operations at stations will be in full mode as people still wants to take some lifts and ski.
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@Steve Angus, Hi Steve, yes it sounds all go there.
Hope Clare’s knee gets sorted by physio. One of mine did, after being troublesome for a few years. The other knee, by coincidence, got put on the waiting list for a full replacement yesterday. Optimistically 6 months wait but I’m anticipating 12.75 months, to get me through next ski season. I had arthroscopy 5 years ago, which bought some time, but now it’s knackered. As you may know, there are snowHead experts like @Jonathan Bell in the world of knee issues and treatment, if you wanted information or opinions.
Targeted exercise and keeping weight down are a big help with knee problemd, if you’d like to break that good news to your wife 
The vain attempt to get over Col de l’Iseran in February is a classic. I thought I was stupid many years back when I failed to drive over the Col de Lombard in the southern alps, but it was late May. That was a long drive round to get anywhere 
Early midnight feasts? Best out on balcony, give them a torch, then leave the birds to clear the mess.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Steve Angus, hope Clare's knee isn't too bad. Andreas Alpine has bust his ACL, so anything can happen to the best of us.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Does anyone here know if the Altibus usually runs to Tignes on the first Saturday of the season at the end of November? The timetable isn’t out yet but I thought someone here might have used it before on that Saturday in the past?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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VolklAttivaS5 - No not usually - thinks like that normally start about 2nd week in December and then finish Easter weekend - so means first few / last few weeks of the official season are lost - normally and as far as I know!
After the wait....
After a busy week last week yesterday was another busy one shuttling Olivia to her snowboarding with CDS in the morning and then skiing in the afternoon (they have a flèche next weeks so she is getting sorted and ready for that!). Meanwhile we had one of Bens friends from school over for the whole day.... Dad is a TopSki mountain guide and has French clients all day and the mum has a couple of places she needed to turn around as amazingly they had more French guests. So anyway if it wasnt running around after Olivia here, there and everywhere all day it was Ben and the chaos following them about - haha!
Anyway by the time the day was over I was shattered!
Today we had plans to have a change of scenery and head down to the Plan d'Eau near Time. It is normally a Summer type place but what with the recent weather we have had we thought we could at least get away with a picnic and maybe a bike ride or something... unfortunately we had the shock of our lives at daybreak (at least the kids werent up too early!) as there was English snow outside.... aka about 2cm had fallen overnight of warm wet stuff and it was rather grey out there. The forecast was for a strong likelihood of rain at times down the valley! Ultimately we decided to have a chilled one at home... it turned into a very lazy day - movies on tv, skiing action and a family roast etc.... oh well!
So we move into another week and its back to the normal / normal!
See told you it had snowed...... a little..... that had melted by 0900 - but better than nothing!
TTFN
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@Steve Angus, I was thinking it didn’t. Ok thanks.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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Any local info about possible opening ski areas from 13th March? I read in someplaces a week ago, but any update since then.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| AlTom wrote: |
| Any local info about possible opening ski areas from 13th March? I read in someplaces a week ago, but any update since then. |
The ski areas have not been closed this Winter? I assume you mean the lifts opening up?
The way it seems to be 'working' is the government decree forcing lifts to remain shut expired this week. It comes down to each area to decide if the lifts will open and I dont think the Savoie have announced if that can happen or not yet. As a result there has not been an announcement. The other factor is that now all the holidays are open the viability of opening is seriously in doubt although resorts like Val / Tignes may turn up income as the season still has nearly 2 months to go here. As a result I think we are awaiting the decision but most people dont think the lifts will open - I can only speak for the feeling here in Val! Don't hold your breath.... opening the lifts at this stage in the season is a major issue as staff are not in position / trained etc either! I suspect they will remain shut but I stand to be corrected by an announcement.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Glorious
Unfortunately I am not going to be able to post a photo from Radio Val today as the website seems to be down this evening but needless to say by the title it was a glorious day!
Clare was up and out for a day of teaching English to the various groups of kids in town - two groups from Olivias class actually and one from the year below! So it meant yours truly was on Daddy day care. After a pretty relaxed start we headed to get the bus in the glorious sunshine to the snow front for a friend of Olivia's birthday party. Anyway I had forgotten the bus frequency has changed to once every 40 minutes so we waited rather a long time for the bus - doh! Anyway the party itself was fun - basically sledging in the sunshine. The relatively hard freeze overnight (the nighttime temperature has dropped the last few nights) meant the tobogganing run was somewhat slick! There were some crashes and tears but luckily there was not a serious injury but it was pretty lethal! So a little bit of sugar and running around in the fresh air was the perfect morning... for me it was nice to catch up with some friends I had not seen in a while!
After a couple of hours I decided to walk the kids all the way back home - tactical as I could check our post boxes on the way home and it would knacker them out even more! When we finally got home they were knackered and duly ate a huge late lunch and then the afternoon was a lazy one. Olivia did get her energy back and spent a while on her bar practicing her gymnastics which she loves. Ben played with his cars and we had a calm afternoon!
Clare got back later on and then it was time for bath and bed time! My time on daddy daycare continues tomorrow as Clare has to leave at silly early to get all the way to Chambery! She has her appointment with the knee specialist there tomorrow. She should be back at lunchtime to allow me to head off to Apex for my afternoons teaching! So basically its all on me to get the kids ready for school - arghhh!
So thats about that folks.
TTFN
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Steve Angus, Hope the knee specialist consultation goes well.
I know all the restrictions are a complete PIA, but Daddy Care days, when the kids are these sort of ages, will be looked back on as magical....and they fly by faster than you can imagine.
Enjoy being the superhero while you can 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| PeakyB wrote: |
@Steve Angus, Hope the knee specialist consultation goes well.
I know all the restrictions are a complete PIA, but Daddy Care days, when the kids are these sort of ages, will be looked back on as magical....and they fly by faster than you can imagine.
Enjoy being the superhero while you can |
Something about that has made me feel very emotional - thanks!!!!!
Yes fingers crossed for the knee specialist. Thank you.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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As in thanks in a nice way not bad way!
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@Steve Angus, was taken that way
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What is the weather doing
The Radio Val website is still down today and I have found out what the problem is. It seems a huge fire at the data centre in Strasbourg or something has disabled loads of French (and possibly international too) websites. So now I know!
The last couple of days have been work, and more work. It has been full on once again! I have been teaching loads recently so a little shattered this evening! I am not missing much outside though as the weather is pretty grey... one minute its blowing a gale, next moment sunny and next moment rainy - rather all over the place!
Clares trip to the specialist went well but she is seeking second, third and fourth opinions now from various contacts. I think she is going for major rehab and physio option as much as possible all things considered. The surgery route is not something she really wants to pursue so backing off that idea but that is one option for sure!
The resort is certainly much quieter this week and the poor weather is not helping pity 'stick' in town. This poor and unsettled weather is going to continue for at least a week so when we finally come out the end of this period of bad weather it will be late March and we will be on the final stretch into April and 'real' Spring can you believe it!
Cant think of anything really exciting to talk about this evening - little bit of writers block this evening so I will sign off for now.
TTFN
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Steve Angus, well England smashed it against India to win the ODI series!
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That was a big old fire at the OVH cloud data centre. It took down loads of websites including some of the French Government stuff.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@PeakyB, err that’s not even started yet 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@vipul,
[Quote] @PeakyB, err that’s not even started yet.
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You know it makes sense.
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So much snow !
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Cold
The last few days have seen the continuation of Winter, cold temperatures and a few flurries of snow... but certainly not like it was at the weekend! So the weather should continue like it is for a few more days and then we should have a return to Spring again - yay!
I have been absolutely flat out working and planning and we are just running up to the Easter holidays and I am certainly ready for that. Haha! Clare is doing lots on the English teaching side of things so that is keeping her busy! Yesterday was another busy day as Olivia had a friends birthday party and I spent a few hours with Ben so its all systems go! This weekend Olivia has a busy day at club on Saturday so it will be all systems go!
I can't believe it is now a whole year since the lifts closed - what a year it has been.
Seem to be having some writers block tonight and can't think what to write so I will sign off with a photo from Radio Val of them taking down the Xmas tree this week.... they have vowed it will return next year!
TTFN
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Steve Angus, don’t forget beer...unblocking even the most stubborn writer’s block for hundreds of years.
Have 10 beers and write the most creative blog that nobody else will understand 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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PeakyB - haha yes very true!
What a day...
Well after a couple of busy days 'in the office' and then a day shuttling Olivia around all over the place for club it has been made more bearable by the wonderful weather that has come back! The temps are still on the way back up into normal Spring weather but it is nice once again and should stay that week for the next week!
There has been a fairly large contingent of Parisians that have come down (and other French) when their regions have gone back into lockdown and before inter regional movement is banned but its not quite as bad as I thought.... thankfully!
Anyway we are really starting to look forward to putting the nightmare of this Winter behind us as it won't be long now until the 'non' end of the season comes around!
So with the wonderful weather we decided on a trip to Boisses and then into Tignes Le Lac for a family day out. I drew the short straw of doing the driving but hey ho. We set off with a friend of Ben's and his family from Les Boisses (well Clare, Olivia and Ben and the others that is) and they skied down the road to Brevieres where I met them 45 minutes later! They went via the ice cave on the road which the kids loved seeing and Olivia was a great big sister dragging the little ones by the poles when it got flat! Anyway they loved it and the nice weather on empty slope (singular) made it a great morning!
We then headed back up from Les Brevieres by car to Tignes Le Lac and a pic nic lunch and time in the playground followed by a walk on the frozen lake and a go on the trampoline they have set up finished off a perfect day.... the kids are shattered but content this evening! The good news is that Olivia is being a model daughter today thankfully - haha!
Not much else to report this end really....a new week starts and its 'same as, same as' for another week and thankfully case numbers in this part of France dont seem to be too bad so long may that continue!
I was very grateful that my step sister was able to get into see my mum in the care home yesterday and having been fully PPE'd up was able to go and visit her in her room.... it meant that the FaceTime call we had felt like days of old - which was nice. My mum continues to not be in the best of health but hanging in there - long may that continue!
So there we are folks.
TTFN
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi Steve, what was the outcome with the Fornet Gondola? Is it repairable after the the derailment in the storm earlier this season? Thanks.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Peter S, I’d forgotten about that. There must be a nice curvy route through the rocks to fit a long and winding button lift in? Always useful to have a back up to an ageing cable car and there’s much to be said for a bracing start to a January morning. 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Steve Angus, never thought I’d crave spending 45 minutes to ski from Les Boisses to Les Brev, but oh boy I’d take it today The ice cave well worth a stop and look.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Really enjoyed this thread, thanks for the insight into Val-d'Isère Steve. I've just took a gamble on a chalet from 11th to 18th December 21 hoping to get a sneaky early season trip in next year.. having never been to Val-d'Isère this thread has really helped build up an image of the resort and weather conditions - fingers crossed for everything!
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@Peter S, @Steve Angus, “what was the outcome with the Fornet Gondola?”
I’ve missed this: was it the Fornet cable car to the Signal or the less ancient but still old bubbles going up from Le Signal?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| Grinning wrote: |
@Peter S, @Steve Angus, “what was the outcome with the Fornet Gondola?”
I’ve missed this: was it the Fornet cable car to the Signal or the less ancient but still old bubbles going up from Le Signal? |
It was the gondola not the cable car.... so thats the '2nd' lift up FROM the Signal restaurant upwards.
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| Steve Angus wrote: |
| Grinning wrote: |
@Peter S, @Steve Angus, “what was the outcome with the Fornet Gondola?”
I’ve missed this: was it the Fornet cable car to the Signal or the less ancient but still old bubbles going up from Le Signal? |
It was the gondola not the cable car.... so thats the '2nd' lift up FROM the Signal restaurant upwards. |
Thanks for clearing that up, not that anyone’s been able to ride them... 
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FAQ
