We started our day today with a terrific skype phone call with Moira and Clint. Technology is an amazing thing! They even have a video camera so we could see them while they talked. Given the sad events of this last week it has been fantastic to be able to stay in touch with everyone. We love receiving all the emails from friends and family.
Today was warm and a storm is apparantly brewing. Unfortunately our ski tour with one of the local guides was cancelled so we spent the morning on domestics and in the afternoon we took ourselves off to explore more of our local tracks. This afternoon we were accompanied by a delightfully friendly chocolate labrador. As we passed the last house in our village on the way to mountain pathway, he came bounding out "woofing" as if to say - "Hi! Like me to show you around? " And that's just what he did! We learned later from Liz that his name is appropriately "Coco". Coco was very patient. When we stopped to fiddle with our camera or to look at the view, he simply plopped himself down in the snow and waited for us. A delightful travelling campaign who we hope to meet up with again.
Our route took us up the hill behind our house and to the remote little village of Les Nants. The village consists of a small group of quaint mountain chalets which are obviously summer holiday houses as they were all closed up for the winter. We were interested to see ski touring tracks heading in and out of the trees all around us. We are looking for a "sneaky" way to access the ski resort without using the main telecabine. But the terrain is tricky. There are a number of deep gorges with streams flowing off the mountain. I could see us getting lost without too much trouble so we will take our time investigating our route!!
This afternoon was a our second french lesson. Below is a picture of Liz and her cute little side-kick, Muesli the kitten. A little ball of fun, Liz rescued Muesli from the local vet when she was absolutely tiny. Muesli has impeccable timing. Just as our concentration levels start to drop, she will provide a bit of light relief by launching herself "spiderman" style from a piece of furniture on to the curtains, chasing her tail or generally getting herself into mischief.
French is going to be a challenge! I mentioned the absurdity of their number system. Now we are learning about "conjugating verbs". All very well if you had learnt English grammar at school and actually know what all this means. The french complicate things further by running words together (called liaison) and having gender issues which affect the spelling and pronouncination of every word. Wish us luck!
We have however, learnt an important phrase for a bar or restaurant - "meme chose" which essentially means "I'll have the same". Helps us get out of ordering something for ourselves. Very useful!!
Liz and Rick kindly invited us to join them for dinner at a local restaurant that specialises in crepes..funnily enough it's called a Creperie!! A different style of eating, the crepes are filled with all sorts of different fillings. The menu is huge. The savoury crepes are made with buck wheat and the sweet with traditional flour. Graeme had one filled with steak and egg - I'm not thinking this would have been a traditional filling! Mine was filled with smoked duck and tomato. Going for broke, both Rick and Graeme ordered a dessert crepe. Graeme's was filled with chocolate sauce,coconut ice-cream and smothered in whipped cream. Liz and I looked on in awe at our men's gastronomic capabilities!
Outside the storm broke and heavy (but wet) snow was falling in buckets! We were pleased to be travelling home in Liz & Rick's 4WD as the roads were covered in heavy slippery snow.
Tomorrow we plan to do some more ski touring or hiking in the afternoon and over the weekend we will go to a nearby resort called Les Contamines on the otherside of our valley.
No comments:
Post a Comment