Well, it’s been a while since we were up at Col des Gentianes to see what’s been going on with the new restaurant. Last time we went up there (click here for the photos) it was just starting to look like a big circle on the ground.

But as usual Mike has been up there and generally knows what’s going on better than anyone, and he took these pictures a little while back.

As you can see it’s really taking shape and possibly won’t look as odd as we thought. And the story is there are toilets in the building – so no more freezing walks across to the lift housing if you need to spend a penny. (Although our local intelligence suggests the loos are the same ones accessed by a tunnel).

A green Igloo?

 

There’s even better news than a few toilet facilities though, as the whole thing is powered by wood pellets, which is pretty eco-freindly.

However, that’s not all, because the whole building is supposed to be carbon neutral. Which when you think about it is amazing – and a vital step by TeleVerbier to make sure that the buildings we put up in the mountains respect and protect the rather fragile ecosystem we’re plonking ourselves into.

But on the whole, a new restaurant in verbier is always popular with certain members of the team, so very good news indeed on many levels.

So, news just in is that Bruson goes ahead and work starts this week. Honestly.

The lift is going to get you from Verbier (Medran), down to Chable and up to the midstation at Bruson in less that 20 minutes – which is usually the time it takes to leave Medran and get on the bus if you’re heading to Bruson via Le Chable at the moment…

There’s a link to a little video (in French) by Canal 9 below – watch it even if you don’t speak french, the pictures are nice.

But it give us a little idea of what’s coming and what it’ll look like. According to the report building work starts today, and completion is for December 2013. And this time they mean it.

If you’ve never skied Bruson then frankly you haven’t lived, you can check out this post from a massive powder day last year…

We’ll get up there soon and have a look to see exactly what the work entails but any movement on this one is good movement…

(And if you want to see what the new lifts will look like, either click here or you can pop up to Medran where there’s a cabin on the roof. Yes. On the roof).

As predicted it snowed at about midstation last night, so the Savoleyres ridge and from just above Ruinette we’ve got a blanket of snow. Now, we all know it’ll mostly be gone by lunchtime but it’s a great time of the year when the first snow falls comes, and they gradually get lower and lower until it snows right down to resort.

But the temperature is set to dip over the next few days and it’ll be below freezing in Verbier when we all get up tomorrow for the first time since last winter. And who knows? Maybe just a little of that snow will stay if it’s tucked behind ridges and hidden from the sun…

Meanwhile, here’s what the webcams revealed this morning.

 

Last night the highlight of the Bagnarde calendar returned – namely the Raclette festival. OK, we could suggest the cow fighting is the highlight of the year, but that’s ages away so right now in Verbier it’s all about the cheese.

The whole thing is to celebrate the cows coming down off the mountain. A pretty big thing if you have invested a lot of time and money in raising and farming cows – a very traditional job round here. But even though we haven’t done that, we still help everybody celebrate through the medium of cheese. (If you’re desperate to read more, this should cover it all).

And speaking of cheese, there was more than just the melted stuff on display last night – the musical accompaniment could definitely be accused of being a wee bit cheesy too. They seemed to believe they were the Swiss equivalent of Take That, although I can’t imagine Gary Barlow adding a cowbell solo into any of his tunes. The chap playing the alpine horn in the style of a didgeridoo was also an interesting addition.

But despite all the songs sounding the same and the singer / yodeller / bloke in the bright orange braces getting desperately carried away and trying to whip the crowd up by grinning, it was yet another epic evening.

There were plenty of dairies and a new system of tables to order the cheese – which disturbed Ian and others. But it was great. I mean how can you get it wrong when you combine a million tons of raclette, a million gallons of white wine, and a million very excited Valaisanne? OK the frantic yodeller from last year was good (click here because the videos are brilliant), but it doesn’t really matter who’s on stage if you’ve got the key ingredients. And a table. Make sure you get there early and get a table.

I might have headed back for Toby’s wedding (which might or might not be a be an event you get to read about here on the blog. It really depends on the level of carnage and what Caroline says we can put online…). So I’m bringing you this from sunny Blighty.

But nearly as important as the impending nuptules of The Ginger Prince: it’s snowed again. Which means that winter is starting to raise it’s head again. OK, we’re still getting some toasty warm days but when the temperature dips we’re getting a dusting up top and it seems to be getting lower with each fall.

And as Facebook has been buzzing with the news we thought we should bring you a few pictures from the webcams (and remember, if you ever fancy checking out Verbier’s webcams, then check our Verbier webcam page. It’s quite good).

There isn’t any more predicted on the forecasts immediately (and if you like a good forecast you can find them all here) but if you cross your fingers and think happy thoughts we might be putting up more pictures very soon.

 

 

Yes you can. In a mighty Subaru if you happen to drive one. So Sophie and I had a little explore before tea yesterday, and we can’t help wonder that – if they ever finish the new lift from Verbier and Le Chable to Bruson, if we’ll be doing an awful lot more of exploring over here. It would certainly be very cool if they opened it in the summer.

Anyway, it looked like this it looked like this…