24 - Just scraping by - Bagnères de Bigorre

 Wednesday, 20 December 2023 - La Mongie ski resort

Sure enough, those weather folks called it: I awoke to the sound of snow plows and a silky curtain of snow in the air.  That snowshoe guide yesterday was right about recommending against a hike in the snow, visibility is poor so there really wouldn't be much to see.  

So my activity of choice today is more skiing.  I kept my equipment overnight in the hotel's locker room featuring boot heaters, so that saved time in getting to the slopes; not that I was in a big rush, yesterday made it clear that I'm not ready for skiing from lift open to lift close.  I did need to swing by the billetterie to recharge my lift ticket, though rather than simply recharge the one from yesterday, I opted for the "Flex" card which adjusts the rate based on which lifts you use.  I asked for the Flex because I don't see myself doing any blue trails today, with lower visibility I'll just be sticking to the green trails and save myself €6.  This decision was validated when the very first thing I did upon exiting the kid's carpet was run into a fence pole and fall over 😅

I can see some sunshine back there!

I think "Humilier" is a typo/autofill for "Hu" but now I'm wondering if I offended the lady at the ticket booth.

I put in a couple hours of the carpets and téléski lifts to benefit from some of that new fallen snow.  I went over the Baby slope until I'd beaten that Baby into submission, of course, but that time I was fairly tired and hungry.  So I made my way back to the village and popped myself down for lunch.  

I was successful at this restaurant of ordering raclette for one person!  I ate a little too well for this meal and had to rest at the table another 10 minutes before I could get up 😂  Oddly, the raclette cheese wasn't nearly as salty as I thought it was going to be - in fact, I found it didn't have much of a strong flavor aside from a general richness.

The first scraping!  Pretty neat to slide the heat lamp to control the rate of melting.

I feel like I did some damage to the cheese wheel.  

After my raclette and a coffee, I could see that the snow had let up; so I made my way back to slopes.  While the snow might have stopped, there were definitely some low hanging systems around and though the sun was shining, the wind picked up and kept things very cold.  After another hour or so, I realized that many of the green trails I was doing were becoming quite icy; so I packed it in early while I was still having fun.  

Just when you thought all was clear...

I noticed several cross-country skiers and snowshoers in the afternoon; snowshoeing up a ski slope doesn't seem all that fun to me but maybe the view at the peak would be worthwhile.  Still, that'd be a long trek down too.

With my afternoon, I returned my rented gear (only 50€ for 2 days, not too shabby), removed the snow from my car, repacked my suitcase, and hit the hotel's spa/sauna where I encountered 4 guys on a business trip for Nicholas Feuillete champagne.  We exchanged some niceties but I couldn't follow along while they were talking business amongst each other.  

Dinner was at a restaurant I hadn't been to yet, where I ordered another tartiflette (this one was made with reblochon cheese).  I didn't expect it to be so large, so it's a good thing I had some company for moral support.  Kinda interesting that the French seem pretty ok with dogs inside places, albeit I've only ever seen super well-behaved dogs indoors so maybe they're just good at knowing if their dog will do well.  This dog's name is Soap; the waitress told me that he knows he's too cute.