Best Restaurant Of The Alpes

So to Tuesday, and its sunny skies all round again. In keeping with the previous days we head off for the Pied Moutet as it seems that we have established that this is by far the easiest way to get to the snow. At the top we warm up by seeing who can get to the bottom first and Karen and Gary thankfully appear to be suffering no ill effects from the previous days encounter with the snowboarder.

About half way down the Vallee Blanche run I perform my most spectacular wipe out of the week!! Well that will teach me for trying to be clever and show off. As I’m coming down the slope I see Rob Toy in front of me with his monkey on his head, and just as I’m passing him at sub warp speed, I shout across “good morning” and promptly catch an edge, causing me to go ass over tit in a cloud of snow and flying skis. When I eventually come to a stop, Rob skis sensibly past me and returns the greeting. Do I feel stupid or what? Well if you can’t make a complete ass of yourself from time to time, especially when skiing, then life would just be so much duller.

Following this jolly little episode and after everyone has had a good laugh at my expense, we spend the rest of the morning back on the main resort side with some more great skiing, in particular on the Signal run. Eventually we start heading back to the resort as we plan to lunch at the Kanata restaurant on the Pied Moutet. As we are making our way towards Les Cretes, Gary suggests we give the blue run Thuit a go as we haven’t skied it yet. So we set off and just a little way down the slope, but to far down to change your mind and go back we come across a sign warning you that the slope is particularly icy.

Well, they weren’t bloody kidding. The run down was horrendous, patches of soft snow and then suddenly you hit hard packed ice that you just could not see until you lost control. Not the most enjoyable run of the week by far, But I suppose if you want to be a true mountain man or woman then you have to take the rough with the smooth. At the bottom we all berate Gary for his poor call and suggest he thinks carefully before he come up with more wise ideas

Things pass pretty much uneventfully from here and we find ourselves at the Kanata restaurant. At first we sit ourselves down outside and the table is laid by the waitress. The owner of the restaurant suggest we might like to sit inside as there is a nice fire going, but we decline and ask if he could take some group photos for us instead. He duly obliges and even manages to ’accidentally’ take one of himself. A couple of minutes later the chill does start to set in and we swiftly move inside where we are the only people in the restaurant. What a diference from all the packed ones on the main side of the resort. We settle down next to the fire and spread ourselves out with jackets, gloves and rucksacks scattered around, and our host puts some more wood on the fire and it is all very pleasant and cosy indeed!

By now we have ordered and are sipping away on vin chauds when the food starts to arrive. Rachel, Gary and myself have all gone for the special of moules, frites and beer, and a huge bowl of chips is brought out for us to share. Karen and Les have both opted for an omelette and Steve the plat du jour, which all come with salad so a huge bowl of salad also arrives. Next came an equally large pot of steaming mussels, but this was not for sharing as it was swiftly followed by 2 more. I can honestly say I have never had some many mussels before and they were delicious, of course I ate them all, and for €13 it was exceptional value. The omelettes were also of grand portions and I’m told just as tasty. Naturally the beers and vin chauds were going down quite well also.

After the meal, which was quite some time later, the owner insisted we try some of his home made Genepi fire water and he disappeared into the attic and came out with Perrier water bottles. Well it certainly was not spring water in them as the liquid was cloudy with vegetation in it! He poured 7 small glasses as I think that out of politeness he felt he had to join us. Anyway, in unison we all down this liquor in one, having now tasted it I think that’s the only way to drink it, its certainly not a sipping drink.

Once we had sorted ourselves out and paid the bill we got ready to leave when another 7 glasses of Genepi were produced. Again these were downed in one but this time it tasted a lot better. I think with a bit more practice one could get to like this stuff!! But not today or we would never get back to the hotel, mind you bearing in mind what was probably waiting for us for evening meal that would not have been a bad thing.

Back outside in the mountain air I think we were all suddenly hit by a feeling of extreme mellowness as we all promptly sat down in the deck chairs to take in a few of the suns remaining rays for that day. Whilst sat in the chairs we were joined by a very friendly if some what scruffy dog who took great delight in chasing and catching lumps of snow and ice that you threw for him. This dog seemed so taken by the amount of attention he received, especially from Rachel that he wanted to come with us as we eventually skied off. At this point Rachel, who appeared to be the most mellow of all of us, made some comment along the lines of “why would you need a boyfriend, when you can have a scruffy dog and a rabbit?” and I think she was referring to the battery operated type rather than a fluffy bunny called Flopsy!