Downhill all the way

Some kind of downhill mountain biking world cup was taking place today. We went up the Toviere lift - the boys with their bikes planning to ride down a blue run, and join a 12km green run to Val d'Isere, however they were diverted to avoid the race course and we lost sight of them fairly quickly. I was torn as to whether I should put one of our family holiday 'snaps' in here, or this picture which I love for the mountains, snow and the lovely colours and 'gear' that the competitors have…

Marina and I saw the boys off and walked across meadows to Tignes les Boisses, surrounded by wild flowers and literally clouds of butterflies that engulfed us, with the sound of cow bells from the slops echoing down the valley. What perfect Alpine heaven it was. We took the free bus back to le Lac where we found Ollie getting off the mountain bike shuttle - it seemed that the brakes had gone on two of the bikes. Marina and I went white thinking of our boys hurtling down those steep slopes without brakes.

Harry had been forced to fling himself off the track in order to stop. Ollie told us with relish all their near misses and the terror of cycling through pitch black tunnels on the road coming back with lorries racing past them - of course they didn't have lights as they hadn't expected to have to use tunnels. We sat and worried until all were back safely.

In the afternoon we did archery (Beewriter, I'll add the photos to the Extreme Tignes 2014 blipfolio folder so you can use your expert judgement to critique our technique). I scored a bulls eye once, but was pretty rubbish the rest of the times, although none of my arrows actually missed the target unlike some of my companions. The boys whizzed off for yet more football and the grown-ups were waylaid by the cocktail bar's happy hour on the way home.

This was our final day, off to pack for our 4am departure. It's been a wonderful holiday. Over dinner the boys all nominated the biking as their favourite activity, followed by football (really, we came to the Alps so they could play footie???). In the end Marina and I also voted biking as our highlight, but more for the sense of satisfaction about overcoming our fear than anything else. Mike, of course, had loved all the biking. They are already talking about coming back on their own one day...