It was breakfast time on the second day of our skiing break in Alpe d'Huez and my four-and-a-half-year-old daughter looked me in the eye before announcing: "I don't want to go skiing today, mummy. I don't like skiing."
I almost choked on my pain au chocolat. She had appeared to enjoy her first half-day's skiing at the French resort and she loved the afternoon Kidzone club with the other children. In the weeks leading up to the trip, she had been very excited about going skiing.
A few minutes later we had returned to our hotel room to get ready and she had changed her mind and decided that she really did like skiing. Then we were on our way, a 10-minute walk to the bottom of the shark-cage ski lifts where she was met by John, the English arctic ranger, who delivered her to her morning lesson with a group of around 10 other English children of the same age.
Every day the children were brought down by the ski guides and taken for lunch. During the afternoon they went to a Kidzone club, at another hotel, where the age range of the children was between four and 10-years-old. They read books, coloured in pictures and played with the other children, before I picked her up and took her back for tea at our hotel.
On the final day, I arrived early to find the children were out sledging in the snow near the village church. My daughter was happily munching on a piece of cake with a group of 10 children - all of a similar age.
She was tucked up in bed and fast asleep by 7pm every night, thoroughly exhausted from all the fresh mountain air. On the final day we went to the bottom of the piste and I attempted to coax her to ski through the hollowed out middle of a fibreglass polar bear. "It is fun," I said. She was happier still to be led around gentle slopes on her little skis, holding hands with her mum. "I can ski," she said with a big grin on her face.
Alpe d'Huez, one of the largest resorts in France, has a great range of skiing and off the slopes, there is an outdoor heated swimming pool and an ice rink in the centre of the resort. You can ski to the village of Oz en Oisans (at 1350m) or soak up the alpine charm in the villages of Vaujany, 100m below, or at Villard Reculas. For advanced skiers, the Sarrene, a 10-mile long black run, which is reportedly the longest piste in the Alps, starts from the top of the Pic Blanc. In total there are 236km of pistes in the area and the resort boasts sunshine on 300 days a year.
Unfortunately for us, there hadn't been much snowfall in Alpe d'Huez before we arrived - in fact it had rained the previous day. It was noisy skiing - icy and very challenging for a fair-weather intermediate. I spent most the first day falling over and nursing a bruised derriere.
I also felt helplessly out of control and a bit grumpy. In places, lower down the mountains, there was vegetation poking through the piste amid the sheet ice. A fierce wind further whipped away the meagre snow cover. No matter how hard I dug my skis' edges in, I seemed unable to gain control. "You need to use your edges more," one of my friends in the UK helpfully told me in a text message.
We went on a chair lift across a gorge, known as the "scare lift" because of the spectacular drop on either side. It looked absolutely terrifying and didn't help my mood. Halfway down a red run, the air turned blue with expletives as I refused to move. It goes against all your body's natural instincts to speed up when encountering ice as you feel as if you want to throw down the anchors and grind to a halt.
Sebastien, the ski guide, and other members of the group, looked on in bemusement as I loudly bemoaned the lack of snow and my rubbish skis. Later, I realised there was nothing wrong with the skis.
On the second day, another instructor, Nicolas, patiently showed me over and over again how to position myself to overcome my fear of ice. "Don't lean back and attack the slope," he advised. My confidence began to increase. By day three, the last day of the trip, I had finally found my ski legs. "Attack the slope," I repeated to myself out loud and skied happily through lunch to maximise every last moment.
There was still not much snow but the conditions were a lot less icy and the red runs didn't feel as difficult. I had finally regained my confidence and was starting to enjoy skiing, almost as much as my daughter.
Way to go
Thomson Ski (0870 606 1470) offers holidays to Alpe d'Huez from £435, staying in the Club Hotel Les Cimes. Price includes return flights from Gatwick, transfers and accommodation with breakfast, afternoon tea, and three-course dinner with complimentary wine on six nights. Free and reduced places for children aged 2-11 years are available all season when sharing a room with two adults. Direct regional flights are available from 12 regional airports at a supplement.
Childcare prices: Creche and Kidzone: half day from £89, full day including lunch from £165, ski school escort service from £39, lunch and lunchtime supervision from £49. The Kidzone is open five days a week between 8.30am and 5pm.
