Took a couple of days and 8 trailer loads to clear Pont of all stuff (mostly junk) left behind. I sanded and re-oiled the kitchen worktop, most of the rest of the work I'll leave for the next trip here.

On Friday evening a trip to see Justin, Emily and the twins (only Justin was working very late and I didn't get to see him). I did some magic for the girls - sawing the lady in half and the ripping up a piece of paper then magically restoring it trick. Then they gave me several puppet shows with the glove puppets I bought them for Christmas.  

We built a spaceship with a viewing window for the "kitten and puppy go to the moon" show. As well as playing twister.

 A bit of squash for both puppets to look out of the spaceship window together

Today I was a bit late getting up but decided to get into the hills to try and stretch my back which was sore after the loading, twister and some minor tree felling for John. It's been warm and much of the snow that fell in late December has melted. The official Meteo France snow bulletin said there was patchy snow until about 2000m, so I decided to take snowshoes rather than skis. I headed up to Col de Pause (1527m) but had to walk from 1180m as the track was too snowy. There was plenty of snow from about 1400m certainly enough to ski - I continued all the way to Cour Vic (2119m) which seemed very hard going. Very hot in the sun and I stripped naked to the waist for the last 300m or so. Should have taken the skis! 

 View of Valier from the col below Cour Vic

Looking back to the hairpins climbing (eventually) to the Port d'Aula