The weather has turned glorious at last. We have been making the most of it and going on various favourite walks (more of those on another blog), but we decide to meet up with some old friends from Heinemann days (yes – that old) and to meet in our favourite ski rdv in France, Le Cremailleure.

In order to minimise the pain (for my poor legs!) we decide to drive to Les Crosets and take the Mosettes chair up and then walk down to the Lac Vert and along the ridge and down to Goat Village. We reckon it will take about 2 hrs 30. The route is shown in this map, from Pointe des Mosettes, down to Les Lindarets, and then we will walk back up the valley to the French Mosettes lift (route here shown in green) and take the lifts back up and down the other side. A very cunning plan.

Our early start means the Dents are towering above us in a haze as we start off, but the Lac Vert (so-called because of the algae) is iridescent and there are some pretty wildflowers too. Few walkers in our direction – the most surprising being a man with a husky carrying two panniers, like a donkey! No time for a pic as they flash by.

As soon as we cross over on to the ridge, where we join the GR 5 which runs from the Netherlands down to Monaco via our mountains, the path becomes like a motorway with oncoming traffic from Avoriaz and Chatel we assume. You can actually park in Goat Village and Les Lindarets so it’s not hard to access the mountains.

From here we have great views over the Avoriaz ski fields (taking care not to disturb the cows who, one man warns us, are likely to charge!)  and traverse under the Chaux Fleurie lift where we are almost mown down by velos which are hurtling down my favourite red run at breakneck speeds.

From there it feels like a home-run to Les Cremailleure (quicker on skis to be fair) where Caroline and Martin are waiting. 2 hrs 25 mins – not bad!

After a yummy lunch and much reminiscing (they live in Les Gets part of the year and cycled here, very impressive) we set off again, this time following the stream up to the bottom of the lift for our up and over. On the way we see a woman being stretchered off, though it doesn’t seem too serious. We see that our other favourite restaurant, Ancelles, is open so we are already planning another sortie over the border.