{"id":4249,"date":"2018-12-08T13:44:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T13:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/pelerinage2016\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2018-12-08T13:44:21","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T13:44:21","slug":"tracks-in-the-snow-and-making-tracks-back-to-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psyctc.org\/pelerinage2016\/tracks-in-the-snow-and-making-tracks-back-to-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracks in the snow and making tracks back to the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s my last weekend up here, my train tickets are booked on Wednesday to take me from Aime la Plagne back to St. Pancras and thence home.  According to one of the skiing news Email systems I’m signed up to we’re forecast a metre of snow this weekend so I think we’re going to need more of this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View below me, a week ago (1.xii.18)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That was a corner I took very carefully yesterday on Cerise going down to the shop in Plagne Centre probably for my last time in 2018.  The road was a mixture of slush, meltwater but also rock hard ice and snow on bits in shadow (not that particular corner, but the slush was treacherous enough!)  London is going to be very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems time for a bit appraisal of the adventure so far.  I’ve been out here:
9.vi.18 to 24.vi.18
16.vii.18 to 14.ix.18
8.x.18 to now
So when I get back to London on Wednesday night I’ll have accrued 140 of the 183 days in France that I’d like to get in before Brexit day on 29.iii.19 (is there a real hope looming that we might yet not Brexit?   Down, down dangerous hope! Back to the point.)  So what have I achieved apart from the, nearly, 140 days?!  What marks have I laid down in the snow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My tracks on the terrace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oh dear, they’re pretty much invisible aren’t they?  They’re my tracks in pristine snow, that was already several layers’ worth, chronologically, out on the terrace alongside the apartment here a few days ago. The snow out there has ebbed and flowed over the last few weeks but never disappeared and is now about a metre deep across much of the terrace and I’d want salopettes (waterproof ski trousers) as well as my beloved winter walking boots to go out there now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe that’s not a bad metaphor: hard to see tracks, comings and goings superimposed (I like to tread in the same marks both ways) and themselves superimposed on layers with only the most recent visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n