Sud: c'est le Nord!

My title was the banner headline of our regional newspaper this Friday: 'The South - it's the North!' And so it seems at the moment... We woke yesterday with quite thick snow on the ground, and it carried on snowing lightly all day.

In the afternoon we took the dog and our sledges down to the Coulée Verte, where an abandoned farmhouse sits at the top of some good slopes.

We were on our own at first, although the marks in the snow showed that another family had already been sledging there in the morning.

The longer we stayed, the more people joined us. Even though we live in a warm area of France, the Pyrenees are so close that nearly everyone has skiwear and snow equipment. Some teenagers began to build a ramp for their snowboards.Ben and I went skidding and tumbling down the slopes on these little things - the boys have learned to call them 'skeletons' from their 'Mario at the Winter Olympics' game. Lots of screaming and spinning ensued!The boys had their big plastic sledges, and had many races. Raja won every race she joined, but we think she was cheating!When her fur began to clump with snow, I brought her home and threw another snowy log on the fire.I heated up some soup and bread rolls, and when the menfolk returned we celebrated the temporary arrival of The North!