Today was our final full day in Tignes and we planned to make the most of every second. Drawing the curtains of our chalet, we were greeted with the best weather ever! The sky was clear, there was no wind and the slopes looked so inviting.
After a hearty breakfast of eggs, meats and plenty of English tea, we headed back out to meet our SkiBro instructor, David.
Now, one of the main reasons we had David today was to help us ski across the mountains to Val-d’Isère. I’d never really done a cross-resort ski and I was so excited!
Today was even better than yesterday! The slopes actually felt pretty quiet too, which I always love. For me, I’m not really keen on skiing busy slopes. I get flustered; confused (not that it takes a lot) and a lot more nervous for some reason.
Thankfully, today was relatively calm and having certain runs almost to ourselves felt totally special.
After heading out on the runs (with a few falls, naturally), we’d worked up a proper appetite.
As David was guiding across to Val-d’Isère, we decided to stop off at Le Panoramic, a restaurant we’d heard lots about.
Perched 3032 metres high, onto of the Grande Motte glacier, Le Panoramic was a toasty respite from the wintery conditions outside. I honestly thought we couldn’t get any higher, but to get here we took the Funicular from the slopes themselves.
By the time we arrived, the clouds had begun to settle and the weather seemed so much more chilly. This, along with the biting hunger, made us hop right inside the restaurant.
As soon as we got in, I could see what all the fuss was about. It was a cosy retreat from a day of skiing and the food smelled incredible.
We whipped off our ski boots, popped on the restaurant slippers and went to find our table.
Resisting ordering everything on the menu, we went for their grilled meats that have become pretty famous here.
Plus, their mashed potatoes is just heaven, it was the perfect mix of creamy and buttery.
Honestly, I could have eaten a bowl of it to myself.
By the time I’d stuffed my face silly, the host came over and mentioned something about a dessert table! Yup, an actual table filled with homemade desserts. Now, I might have been stuffed but I always save a little room for pudding.
Without even skipping a beat, we took the lead of our host and headed straight to these legendary dessert tables. Just around the corner was every kind of pudding ever, all made in house.
Straight away, I had my eye on the lemon meringue! Growing up, an older family friend used to make us a lemon meringue on special occasions, it always fills me with the nicest memories and it quickly took me back to that spot in my life.
For some reason, I always associate food around periods of time, and this lemon meringue was a heart-warming reminder of that moment.
As we began slipping our boots back on, we heard a few grumbles in the distance. No, it wasn’t my tummy, but actually the resident St. Bernard (y’know, the dog from Beethoven – the movie).
He’d wandered over to say hello and we couldn’t resist having a little play. He was so friendly and placid, a total gentle giant.
With a hefty amount of slobber on our hands, we decided to head back onto the slopes. I feel like I’d been licked to an inch of my life. 🤣
By this point, David (our SkiBro instructor) guided us back down and over the mountains towards Val-d’Isère. Being totally full, we decided to head on the easier slopes and just enjoy the views as we skied down.
Within an hour or so, we’d made really good progress and found ourselves outside La Folie Douce in Val-d’Isère.
It was pumping and looked totally cool! That being said, I knew we need to get down the slopes as David had to leave us, so we decided to make our apres ski somewhere else instead.
After saying our goodbyes to David, he guided us straight over to Cocorico for a few hours of apres ski fun before heading back to Tignes.
After a few honey and liquor hot toddies (still no idea what they called them) and a few beers the live music had started!
It was so much fun and they knew exactly how to work the crowd! Within minutes, we were all dancing and singing as the snow began to fall.
By the time the flame throwers started, ski boots be damned – I was pulling moves on that dance floor that I had no clue were even possible wearing ski boots (I think part of the credit had to go to the surprise Jaegermeisters Yaya had ordered for us).
As our dancing got progressively worse, we decided to leave with our dignity in check and head back toward the chalet.
Thankfully, our chalet team at Black Diamond were on hand to pick us up and whisk us back to Tignes which I have to say, makes all of this soooo much easier! It’s just the best feeling, having someone on hand to deal with all the logistics so you can focus on having fun. 😉
The skiing and food today had been incredible so far, but the latter was about to get even better.
Our chef (in the chalet) has prepared a Kaiseki Japanese tasting menu to eat in our residence, of which I was particularly excited!
After sorting ourselves out, we headed to dinner with the gang and started the night with bubbles and plenty of nattering. In fact, I think it took a lot to shut us up (probably helped by the bubbles).
Our course consisted of sushi rolls, bonito and kombu scallop sashimi, smoked teriyaki duck and lashings of wine pairings.
It was immense.
By the time pudding came – doughnuts, plum wine and lychee jelly, we well and truly stuffed… for the second time today!
We had the best and totally fun time in Tignes, but our trip seemed to go by so fast.
I suppose that’s the thing about holidays when you have the best time, they just seem to go by in such whirlwind of fun, leaving you wishing you could stay for longer! 😀
Tignes was everything I’d hoped it would be and have given us even more reasons to want to return here very very soon!
Check Out The Very Best Of Great Britain!
