The French aren't that bad at skiing. It's the queuing for the ski-lift, not being annoying and not pissing off that psycho English chap which some idiot equipped with two metal poles with spikes on the end where they suck.
Mind you, the quality of the police cells around the resorts tends to be far better than the crap you get in Britain. I never once got shoved in a cell that stank of piss.
I snowboard, and I love it. I live in New Hampshire so there's quite alot of people that ski/board around here, as well as the people like MrCrotch that come up here for the great mountains. I haven't gotten to go yet this year though(And its starting to piss me off).
Skiing is boring, go up, go down, rinse and repeat accompanied by bad food, bad music and loud and obnoxious families. I like langlaufen though, like hiking, but faster.
I have skied since I was able to, basically. However, my father's knee and ankle and back injuries caused us to stop skiing for 2 to 3 years. I just recently went skiing again for the first time. I've said I've lost about.. half of my skill. I need to keep skiing and build it up to the high Intermediate that I was at.
I ****ing love it, though. I live in the best place for it, too.