Autumn has arrived in the French Alps

In theory, I am led to believe, here in the Northern hemisphere Autumn begins around September22. This is the date of the Autumnal equinox, whatever that means. According to the reference in Wikipedia an equinox is  'when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the centre of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth's equator'. Right, cleared that up then.

Anyway, here is a photo from the back of ski Chalet Martin in Meribel le Raffort and taken today, 4 days after the start of Autumn. Equinox or no equinox, it is pretty clear that Autumn has indeed started, we can see the leaves are changing colour.

There are other changes we are noticing at the moment, notably the days and nights are getting cooler, and ....  the high peaks are starting to hold snow after recent falls. The snow line is still above the upper slopes of Meribel and La Tania, of course, but it does show promise for this time of year.

The 2012-2013 ski and snowboard season in Courchevel gets under way in a little over 70 days, Meribel and La Tania will be a week later. This is before the real Winter even starts which, as we all know, is December 21 - the date of the Southern Solstice ...