I'll say this first: for me, this hasn't been an easy week. A fairly big crash early on day one shook me badly. It left me with minor aches, but the real damage was to my confidence, which I reckon was set back two years.
Suddenly, terrain which I'd previously have lapped up looked daunting; my technique regressed from confident and fluid to tentative and awkward. Even on easy pistes I felt disconnected; the more nervous I became, the more I caught edges, struggled to make turns and generally scared the crap out of myself.
After twice muddling through a tricky off-piste itinerary on days two and three, my mood reached a low point on our first 'away' trip on day four. Sainte Foy is small, beautiful and gloriously quiet, even in a busy holiday week - but its snow seems more vulnerable than the bigger resorts nearby, and you can ski the best of it in three days.
Sunny skies and warming temperatures made Tignes our choice of destination. Lugging skis down the hill from chalet to car and driving to another resort seemed a bit too much like hard work to me, but everything worked smoothly and we were on the slopes by 9.30am.
We know Tignes well, having skied there in 2009 and again just a few weeks ago, and I hoped that familiarity would restore my ailing confidence. But it was not to be: a sunny French school holiday week meant a perfect storm of all the things that wind me up about skiing in France: overcrowded slopes, needlessly long and disorganised lift queues, crowded restaurants, mediocre overpriced food, third-world sanitation. I worked on my technique and made some headway, but had thoroughly lost the love. By 3pm I was dragging myself from turn to turn, lagging well behind the others, willing the day to end.
I seriously considered sitting out day five, but pulled myself together for the trip to La Plagne. It wouldn't have been my choice - I didn't much like it when we crossed the valley from Les Arcs on our 2010 trip - but resolved to ski better. Andy, our resident snowboarder, had rejoined us following a ski lesson the previous day; on skis he's a relative beginner, so there'd be no gnarly off-pisteing. Probably a good thing.
I still don't like the place - samey and overcrowded - but my technique and confidence was starting to return, and the others really enjoyed their day. An overdue trip to the big supermarket at Bourg Saint Maurice lowered the tone somewhat, but we were buoyed by the thought of skiing on quiet slopes on Saturday while everyone else was stuck in traffic jams.
And so to day six, today. A third day trip, this time to Villaroger, which is directly across the valley, clearly visible from our chalet in Sainte Foy. It's a tiny outpost with just a single chairlift and - this morning - four cars in the car park. But that chairlift and the one that follows sweep you over the ridge and into Les Arcs - still my favourite of the big French resorts.
And at last, this morning, the flow was back. I didn't attempt anything particularly challenging - days of warm sunshine and no fresh snow has hurt conditions, particularly off-piste - but the awful disconnected feeling had evaporated. Even more importantly, I was enjoying it again. Even the culinary low point of the week (cold beef, oozing blood, smothered in sauce strongly reminiscent of dishwater) failed to dent my rediscovered good mood. And not a moment too soon.
And that's it. Odyssey 2013 is done. It's fair to say that it hasn't all been rosy, but it's had its moments. I make no secret of the fact that I consider France inferior to Canada in all things skiing, and nothing in 2013 has changed that opinion. We enjoyed our week in Val d'Isere, but the only reason for us to return is YSE, the excellent tour operator/chalet company.
Even I won't blame France for my struggles this week; of all the resorts we've stayed in, small, perfectly-formed Sainte Foy is easily the most beguiling. It's like a mini-Whistler in many ways, and I'd certainly return. We've been very lucky to have the use of a superbly-located and equipped chalet which has made life off the slopes a pleasure.
I wasn't wholly sold on the idea of driving to other resorts for day trips, but although lugging our gear up and down the hill was a bit of a chore, by and large it's been straightforward and has added real variety.
So. Time to head home and put away the skis for another year. I'm not entirely sad at the prospect. We've seen a lot of snow. I'm ready for longer days and (hopefully) a touch of summer sun.
