Chamonix Apres Ski Report: 6th February 2013

Patriarchal pearls of wisdom aside, my point is that if rain stops play on the hill, as it has done a few times recently, it only serves to encourage play of the apres-ski variety. This happened to be the case over the weekend when Saturday's rain turned to snow overnight and Sunday dawned bright and clear. Leaping out of bed early, we headed over to Flegere bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, keen to get on that first bin ahead of all the powder hungry hordes. The golden rule with Flegere on a powder day is to get there before 9am or don't bother; unfortunately someone (OK, me) forgot their lift pass and by the time we had gone home for it and back to Flegere it was 9:30am and the lift queue was trailing across the car park. Not fancying a mammoth wait, we hightailed it over to the far speedier gondola lift at Brevent and were up in a flash. Unfortunately so was the rest of Chamonix and the avalanche risk was so high that not many of the higher lifts were open, you can be far better prepared than us by checking the lift status before setting out.

And so Plan B was put into action - cut our losses and hit the apres early with lunch at Le Lapin Agile. Between 3 of us we tucked into a platter of 4 different cheeses, a selection of cold meats, salad, relishes and fresh bread, washed down with a bottle of lovely Italian red wine. Although Italian-owned the Lapin offers a diverse wine list that's hard to beat, alongside good quality French and Italian wines they've also featured guest tipples from Uruguay, India and Iran amongst other places. They also do the best hot chocolate in town as well as free tapas every evening from 6:30pm, no wonder the lapin is such a happy bunny!

After our fine feast we ambled over to MOÖ Bar in time to catch The Blind Poets playing a live set; they've just finished a 4 night run in the guest slot and might be back later in the season. MOÖ Bar has got off to a flying first winter - live music and/or DJs most evenings in the busy front part of the bar while the seated area out back is a bit more chilled for those who want to grab a bite to eat. Tonight's live MOÖsic comes courtesy of Ray Gavin all the way from Chicago, starting at 5pm.

The Blind Poets weren't the only special guests playing on Sunday; just over the road at Chambre Neuf two talented young lads from Les Houches braved the noisy sweaty crowd to join No Limits on stage for a rocking rendition of Highway to Hell. The Lopez brothers, Thib aged 17 on guitar and Pierre aged 13 on drums, did themselves proud and went down a storm. Musically they were more than up to the mark, but they didn't manage to put away quite as much beer as Ulf and the guys - they're learning from the masters of apres-ski though, so it shouldn't be long before they're downing jugs in between songs!

We've had more mixed weather this week with a fair bit of fresh snow falling last night, so it looks like there are more powder days on the horizon... and more reason to celebrate afterwards! Top places to quench your thirst this week include South Bar tomorrow night where "Backflip" will satisfy all your house, bass and melodic techno needs; the Pistey Boys will be returning to their roots on Saturday with not one but two live gigs at MBC, starting with an apres ski set at 5:30pm and then returning for another bash at 10pm, check out their swanky new promo video for a taste of what they're all about; Le Vert is excited to welcome MC Akil from Jurassic 5 on Monday for a night of alternative hip-hop, tickets cost 12€ or for 25€ you can also enjoy a three course meal beforehand; Espace Olca in Les Houches is hosting a triple whammy on Tuesday with Puppetmastaz, Son of Kick and Pop & Skred playing a special one-off concert, tickets are 18€ in advance or 20€ on the door.

And that brings us back round to next Wednesday, when I'll be back with more unmissable nonsense! Until then keep an eye on our What's On calendar for all upcoming events.