Last night we enjoyed a delicious evening meal at a very traditional Savoyarde restaurant, called Les Molliets. It's actually located on the ski slopes of our ski resort, Les Carroz, but can also be accessed by car. It's a wonderfully atmospheric restaurant. A converted cow barn, the walls are covered with historical skiing equipment and traditional farming implements. But it's a "blokey" place. There are no women. The owner & his son wait on you, his male chef prepares the delicious Savoy cuisine and another fellow serves you a drink at the bar. I suspect that even the obligatory "restaurant dog" that wanders through the place begging food, is male!
Don't even ask what time dinner finished! The French live life to the full and while the conversation flows, so does the time!!
After a killer early morning French lesson, (seriously, climbing Everest has got to be easier? ), we headed to Flaine to meet up with the sister of our Wanaka friend, Lucy. Georgina and her husband David are staying for the week with their 3 children, Sam, Katie and Charlotte. We enjoyed a fun afternoon diving through the trees with all the family and then later in the afternoon, taking a high speed tour of the slopes with young Sam as our guide. Great fun!
We also had an opportunity to see a bit more of Flaine. Poor old Flaine. Built in the 60's it was state of the art - a brand new ski village. Unfortunately in 2008, the village has all the architectural charm of Russian concrete housing apartments. But, like the ugly girl with the great personality, Flaine makes up for its less than beautiful exterior with a warm and friendly personality. Flaine, seems to go out of its way to make families and kids welcome. It is superbly set up with a village centre square, where kids can toboggan, ice-skate, play on equipment & play in the snow, while the parents look on from the comfort of a cafe, bar or restaurant. Kids are King as far as Flaine is concerned. It's the Cardrona business plan all over, keep the kids happy and the parents will keep their wallets open!!
We're off to Chamonix tomorrow, but we will try and catch up with Georgina and her delightful family before they leave this weekend.
In our own village, Christmas is in full swing. We had Christmas carols last night and on Christmas eve, Santa Claus arrives by sled and departs in a hot air balloon. Very exciting! Tonight, the snow carvers were hard at work, creating magnificent snow sculptures in our town square!
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