A day off the slopes today. The skis needed waxing, the apartment could do with a clean, we'd run out of food and we should be doing some more french practice....and the real reason...us old folks had tired legs after 6 days straight skiing!! Pathetic..! We know! But we were comforted also by the fact that the sun disappeared this afternoon for the first time in nearly 3 weeks!
We have our first dinner party tomorrow evening with Rick, Liz, Gavin and Sue. I had heard many times that these Brits love their Indian food and so I thought somewhat naively that I might try an Indian curry night. Wrong! India was not at any time a colony of France and the curry is definitely not a cuisine here in the Haute-Savoie. We have spent almost everyday this week pursuing "leads" to procure some good authentic curry, pappadams and saffron rice. You would think that I was asking for a banned substance from the horrified reaction I received whenever I asked someone where I could find some Indian curry ingredients. Of course, there is always a slim possibility given my limited French, that I was actually saying something truly grevious!!?
As a last resort, today we travelled about 30 minutes down the valley to Bonneville (an industrial town - not recommended) after I had found an entry for an Asian Emporium in the yellow pages. Emporium would be overstating the grubby little shop that we found. Staffed by a surly Vietnamese grandma who appeared to speak neither french nor english we had our pick of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese delicasies but no Indian. And so...I have accepted defeat....for the moment and it will be good plain old faire tomorrow evening. To be honest, I think Graeme is quietly pleased. He's a little sceptical about my ability to cook up an Indian banquet!!
Today's french observations
Well of course there's that whole French aversion to asian cuisine thing. But today I also learned two new things.
Firstly, did you know that a conductor of an orchestra in France waves around his "baguette". Not only is a baguette a long crusty french bread stick, it's also a conductor's baton. Riveting stuff heh? I particularly liked this piece of trivia as I have a very clear mental image of a wildly animated french conductor who slashes the air just a little too hard with his baguette and showers the first violinists with bread crumbs!
Secondly, I have learned a terrific french expression. I feel that I could hear it from time to time...particularly on a chairlift. The expression is "Tenir la jambe a qeulqu'un" which literally means : - To hold someone's leg. However its real meaning is to "bore someone with endless conversation or to corner someone!!" Perhaps I should rename my Blog - Andy, tenir la jambe a quelqu'un!!
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