Goodbye to "Le Refuge"

Well that's it for us. Just over 5 months in the French Alps and we begin the long journey home via Australia.

Our thoughts are in a whirl as we scrub "Le Refuge" from top to bottom. But before we know it, it's 3 o'clock and we are dropping in the keys to Liz and saying our final final farewells to her and Sue who has dropped by. Tears from Liz as we hug our delightful friend, neighbour and ever so patient french professor and say "au revoir".

It is rather fitting that our final memory in Europe is of being lost in Geneva as we attempt to deliver the car back to the French side of Geneva Airport. We'll have mixed emotions about our dear "Penny" the GPS who has been diabolically unhelpful on occasions.

The list of things that we'll miss about living in Europe is long:

• The endless powder snow that was the hallmark of the 2008/2009 season,
• spectacular vistas of the European Alps;
• cheese....although we may have overdosed a little
• abundant and affordable red wine
• french bread, patissieries & charcuterie
• the sound of the beautiful french language
• and most importantly the friends that we have made along the way.

Our time in France has been a dream for so long, we still can't quite believe that it's actually come true. As we are now on the threshold of entering the real world once again, we will have to get busy and inspire ourselves with thoughts of our next adventure.....!!

What's the French Word for BBQ?

I will admit, that after 5 months of a carefree existence, today, we experienced a small dose of that pesky emotion - STRESS! After much dispute about the weight of our ski bag, we borrowed Liz's scales to confirm that it was indeed, hugely heavy at 34kg!! There was no question, unless we lightened the load, we would be paying excess luggage. Back again to Madame La Poste for 2 more boxes! Not quite what we had envisaged.

2/The French Get Together - a BBQ in the late Spring Sunshine

2/ Geraldine, Bertrand and their baby boy

This afternoon, Rick & Liz had kindly invited a few of our local french friends for a casual BBQ in the late afternoon spring sunshine. Joining us were Bertrand, Geraldine and their gorgeous baby boy, and Christophe and his young son - Taos, Gavin & Sue and their "fur baby" Winston.

It was a lovely relaxed afternoon as we enjoyed a delicious array of meats and salads. We're not quite sure whether our teacher, Liz was proud of efforts to speak french or cringing in her boots! Graeme and I find that we can generally get our message across with a bizarre mixture of language, charade actions and arm waving! At least Christophe was used to our tortured attempts at Franglish!!

We are still struggling to come to terms with the reality of going home. We keep saying it, but our time in France has just gone so quickly. In the blink of an eye, the wonderful winter we have enjoyed has disappeared and been replaced with a sunny and balmy spring. All around our village, the crocus, daffodils and tulips abound. There is a feeling of frenetic energy as all the building projects around the village spring to life after the dormancy of the long winter.

3/The "fur babies" - Winston and Biggles

As the BBQ discussion turns to visiting NZ, I wonder how many of our Araches friends will actually make the long journey. Only R&L have been there before and truly know how far away it is. We have observed in our short time that France has many attractions. Compared to so many other European countries, there is still a feeling of spaciousness here. With so many climates and different environments, it is easy to understand why the French are not renowned international travellers.

We'll have to wait and see!!

4/ The Gang - R+L, G&S at the end of the night!

Let the Packing Begin!

Hmmm, time to start the dreaded task of packing. It is amazing how much "bidule", "truc" and "machin" (our 3 favourite french words for STUFF), we have managed to accumulate over the last 5 months. The miserly economy class baggage limit was foremost in our minds today as we began the daunting task of clearing Le Refuge of our detritus.

After discovering that it would be cheaper to pay Marie to personally fly to NZ with our skis, we have decided to rely on the old fashioned solution. La Poste!! Still frightfully expensive, especially if you do the conversion to NZ $. Nevertheless a check of the Lufthansa website revealed that excess baggage was charged at E30/kg...making La Poste seem positively reasonable.

A typical morning of hilarity ensued at our local post office as we endeavoured to work out the most cost effective and secure solution to our postal problem. Our charming madam La Poste was wonderfully helpful, but as always our "..orrendous francais" presented the usual confusions.

Eventually, everyone queuing in the post office helped us with translation as we searched for the right box, mailing option and insurance decision. It will never cease to amaze us how often the wrongly maligned french have come to our assistance when we are making a huge botch of things. Contrary to the popular opinion, we have consistently found our french locals to be wonderfully patient and helpful. Everyone from the bank manager to the fromagereuse, the apothecary to the publican has been very kind and welcoming to us. We have been humbled by the amount of help we have received over the last 5 months. It will certainly give us pause for thought when we return to NZ and hear someone struggling to find their feet in our little town.

This evening we have been treated to a delicious "slap up" meal in Chamonix with the usual anglo suspects. Part farewell for us and Dave & Sue who leave Les Carroz for a new chalet in Les Gets, and part celebration to mark the end of the winter season, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the golf house restaurant in Chamonix. The food was totally delicious and for France (fairly reasonably priced). Joining us were R&L, welsh G&S, irish D&S and also english friends of R&L - Tania and Brian. Tania is a physio and Brian is a builder working with Rick in the summer. Keen ski tourers, it's a shame we didn't meet up with them at the beginning of the season rather than right at the end. But that's been the way of things as the reality of our imminent departure is really starting to sink in.

Speed Skiing - You'd have to be nuts!!

1/ A nutty Speed Skier - check out the calf foils!!

Speed Skiing - you'd have to be nuts wouldn't you? Graeme and I, have never in our lives seen such a crazy endeavour....well hang on a minute, now we come to think about it, bungy jumping and zorbing in NZ is not that sane either? But here, in the Alps, going as fast as you possibly can ie., pointing your skis directly down a 1km steep slope without turning once, doesn't seem that sane to us.

But we were fascinated to watch these guys. Professionally sponsored with all the latest technology and aerodynamic equipment, these guys and gals took their sport very seriously.

2/ Check out the length of those skis!

The current speed record for men is 251.4km/hr and for women 242.59 km/hr. Yes folks, I am correctly quoting those numbers! That's faster than terminal velocity when you freefall normally (193km/hr). Imagine what a slip and fall would feel like at that kind of speed. Apparently, their worst injury is burns from abrasion with the snow. The mind boggles!! Here's some fab professional footage of both those world records. Here's our own spectacular footage on the day!!

3/ Trying to catch these speedy guys on film was just about impossible!

4/ Needless to say, the wax salesman was doing a roaring trade today!!

OMG - Verbier!

1/ Not even at the top yet! View to Mont Gele - 3023m

I know I said the same when we first visited Chamonix. But I will have to repeat the exclamation. Today we visited Verbier! OMG! It's one of the most amazing resorts we've seen in Europe so far. To be fair, we didn't make it to the 3 valleys, in France, but this resort was impressive. I can't remember the stats but I think there is about 400 - 500km of groomed trails across 4 valleys. The infrastructure is amazing. Brand new lifts, gondolas and telepheriques everywhere. You can smell the money in this town. It is definitely a home to the rich and famous. I mean to say, we passed Richard Branson on the chairlift this morning!! Apparantly he has a little shack here!

2/ Huge infrastructure - 150 person telepheriques!

But the attribute that most excited us was the vast area of backcountry that appears to be available from the resort. While it's glaciated at over 3000m, the terrain looks to be a lot more mellow than the Chamonix backcountry which generally requires serious mountaineering and climbing skills.

There are also a number of "intineraires hors piste" that are promoted by the resort. Well sign -posted, they are generally accessible with only a short tour from the lifts.

3/ At the summit. Mont Fort 3330m! Behind - Verbier backcountry. yum!!

In the last week of their season, Verbier was definitely in wind down mode. Only about a 1/4 of the mountain was open, so we managed to ski just about all the lifts. At 3000m it was still firm packed powder, while lower down it was Australian powder - ie., slush. We didn't mind. The sun was out for most of the morning with the heat cumulous cloud only building in the afternoon.

We spent a great deal of our time on the sides of the runs gazing at all the amazing off-piste available! In fact, we spent a lot of time with our mouths open, gaping in astonishment. Having met John Falkiner, the ex-pat Aussie who guides here, we couldn't help but think he has chosen the most perfect place to be a mountain guide. Verbier's terrain, its height, the infrastructure and the wealthy clientele must equate to good business for him.

Today, there is also a FIS World Speed Skiing Championship race. Having never seen anything quite like this, we were fascinated and spent a good part of the early morning watching these madmen hurtle down the slope. More about this with pictures in a separate post!

4/ The Speed Skiing Course from the top of Mont Fort!

What a shame we didn't get to Verbier earlier in the season. We had free tickets, but somehow time ran out? Relaxing with a glass of wine & enjoying a most delicious mountain lunch, we began making a list of all the things we "wished we'd done". That's Pandora's Box for you! Once you've had a taste of what Europe Alps have to offer - you want more!!

Oh well at least we've made it to Verbier today! Aren't we lucky?

The Last Snow..and the World is a Very Small Place

1/ & 2/ Graeme enjoying the last powder run of the season. Not bad for 20 April?

Last ski at Les Grand Montets, Chamonix today. To celebrate the occasion, Hughie ("the weather god") turned on some boot-top powder for us. Actually it was a day of 2 seasons, winter at 3300m - 2800m and spring below 2800m.

When skiing in Chamonix, never forget to pack the goggles! It might be fine and sunny and positively hot at the valley floor. But as we experienced today, at the top of the LGM cable car (3300m) it was still winter with driving snow and a strong easterly wind. But what a treat! Once off the windblasted top lift station we enjoyed about 500m boot-top powder before the mountain remembered it was April and the snow turned heavy and wet. What a way to end our skiing in Chamonix! Thanks Hughie!!

2/ Andy getting amongst it. Aaaha..that's what I do with the right leg?

But the classic Oxley moment came during our 3rd visit to the top of the LGM cable car. After climbing down the steep stairs to begin our ski, we were approached by an older English chap who started to make conversation with us. Edward was skiing on his own and asked whether he could join us for the run down the glacier. Warning him that we were no speed freaks ( I suspect he knew that already and he'd picked his targets well) we invited him to join us.

The Pointe de Vue (and our Oxley variation) is a huge glacial run. With a few rests along the way it usually takes us about 30 - 40 minutes. Ed, a Chamonix local, was keen to show us a couple of his variations. As we made our way down the mountain, we learned that his daughter was currently on her way to NZ and later that his sister was also a "kiwiphile" and have visited many times, with Wanaka being her favourite place.

We also learned that he was friends with Ken & Pat from Ireland who we had met on one of our first trips to Chamonix.

4/ Andy & Ed...what are the chances?

One more stop along the mountain and the circle of coincidence continued to close. Ed, explained that his niece, Stephanie had done a winter of cross-country training in Wanaka, and that his sister, an Alexander Technique teacher, had seriously contemplated moving to Wanaka. Alarm bells started to ring in my head. I knew this lady. "Your sister wouldn't happen to be Hilary Cook would it?" Mouth agape, Ed couldn't believe the coincidence. I explained that Hilary Cook used to stay with us Te Wanaka Lodge.

How small is this planet?

Our Last Day Skiing with Teste Family

1/ Hubert & the Racer - Camille!

A fitting end to our stay with the Teste Family. We shared their first day of the 2008/09 season in December and we were thrilled to enjoy their last day too.

It is closing day for Les Carroz, Samoens and Morillon but the Teste Family decided to ski at Flaine, where the snow is still good. A little top up of snow 2 days ago above 2000m meant that we were still able to have some fresh tracks off-piste. Amazing.

In typical Teste family style several high speed runs on the groomers were mandatory for Hubert (with his shadow Camille hot on his heels) before we were able to tempt them off-piste for a run in the Ger. Serious spring snow greeted us but we enjoyed a couple of runs to say goodbye to our favourite part of the Flaine resort.

Back at the chalet we tucked into a delicious BBQ lunch with the family.

I suspect that Graeme and I, are a disappointment to Hubert & Marie. Our french is still atrocious! But we blame them!! Their english is too good! To make jokes and really have a two-sided laugh, a common language is a must.

We hope that we have inspired them to make the long trip to NZ some day. Hopefully if the NZ$ stays low it will be affordable. But since living here, I can understand why the French are such reluctant travellers. Their country has just about every type of climate imagineable. Beaches, serious mountains, rolling countryside and exciting cities with history, art & culture at every turn. New Zealand and Australia are lovely but I think it would be hard to truly impress the French. We'll have to wait and see!

2/ Team shot: Teste Family & "A&G"

Big Black Holes and Antique Grafitti

1/ Looking out through the cave entrance to L'Arve vallee below

We should have gone skiing, we admit it! There was even a little dusting of fresh snow at the top of Flaine this morning and sunny skies. We can't quite believe that we are dragging our feet!

But we did manage to get ourselves motivated and off the couch after lunch and go exploring in our area. Today we visited a cave network in the cliffs just below Araches, the climbing areas near our village and then over to the historical village of Samoens for a late coffee.

Every time we drove up the winding mountain road to Araches, we had noticed, what appeared to be some large caves in the side of the cliff. Today, we decided to take a look. The track to the foot of the cliff was well defined and the climb/scramble up to the entry of the cave was well defined. I mean this is France after all! There were handrails and helpful ropes everywhere.

2/ Andy at the entrance to the "serious cave".

The caves turned out to be massive. Meeting a nice french lady and her son, we learned that at the rear of the cave was an entrance to a well defined underground passageway. It is appears to be open to the public even though there were serious warning signs everywhere. It takes 2 hours to scramble through the cave network to "pop out" somewhere further up the road. Obviously it was fairly straight forward, as aside from a small head torch, the lady and her son were not carrying any other specialist gear. Typically, my "part wombat husband" was excited to explore these caves further. Not me! I will give most things a try - bungy-jumping, sky diving, ice-climbing, but crawling around in a big black hole is definitely my limit. I was content to just make myself dizzy with vertigo while looking over the edge of the cave entrance to the valley floor about 400m below us.

3/ Awesome - Antique Grafitti

Sorry, as an antipodean, decipherable grafitti from 1783 is pretty exciting. I mean that boat-load of petty thieves that I claim as my forebears, hadn't even landed in Sydney Cove at that time. I know that Europeans don't even bat an eyelid - they've been graffitti'ing for centuries. But think about it. 226 years ago, Joseph was standing up here in the cave looking out over the valley just like me. Was he a tourist? Or was he sheltering here against the weather or enemies? Or perhaps he was here to watch a hot-air balloon flight? Apparantly 1783 is the year that the Montgolfiere brothers first publicly demonstrated use of the hot-air balloon.

After successfully managing to dissuade Graeme from any ideas about crawling further into the hole, we climbed back down and strolled back to the car along the forest trail. The earth is well and truly coming back to life after being asleep under its winter blanket of snow. Shining bright green in the sunshine, the vegetation is so different from the dark green shades of NZ and the grey green and brown palette of Australia's forests.

A Sad Day and A Change of Plans

R -L - Nicholas, Uncle Rob, Michael, Andrew, Phil & his sons.

It's been a sad day and a quiet one as we recover from the news that we have lost another friend.

Uncle Rob, although not an uncle by birth, has was truly an uncle to Graeme in terms of the part he has played in the Oxley family life. For for nearly sixty years, Uncle Rob and Auntie June ("the Turnbulls") have been friends with Graeme's parents. And Graeme has had a friendship with their son Andrew, ever since his mother took him to meet the newborn Andrew when Graeme was only 18 months old.

There are so many stories, long standing tales and family legends which include Uncle Rob. Sharing a passion for cars, particularly MG's and Jag's, Graeme and his father always had a strong connection with Rob and his son Andrew. Uncle Rob, was a dynamic man. Life was to be lived at full pace, whether at work in his professional life or behind the wheel of a car.

Graeme will miss Uncle Rob dearly. As, of course, will his parents who have lost one of their dearest and closest friends.

Rest in peace, Uncle Rob. May the dear lord have a nice shiny MG TF awaiting you!

********

Today, was also a day to make some changes to our plans. There is no question in our minds that we would like to be back in Melbourne to support Andrew, Auntie June and Graeme's parents through this time. Fingers crossed that we will be able to change our flights and arrangements easily.

All About Eating

1/ Yumm! Dry stale bread & smelly fish!

The weather has finally changed & it's raining heavily outside. While the temperature has dropped it's still not snowing at 1000m, but we can see that about 200m further up our hill, the trees are being dusted with snow.

A perfect day for eating and taking a rest from skiing!

For lunch, my dear husband pulled out 2 food items that he had insisted buying during one of our very first Carrefours shopping trips. I warned him that he would hate the Biscotte and questioned why on earth he would want to buy some sardines. In our whole married life, I don't think I've ever seen him eat a sardine! But no, Graeme was adamant. He knew they were both going to be delicious and couldn't wait to tuck in! Hmmm. Really? Since then, after one experimental taste of the Biscotte, the open pack has languished at the back of our pantry along with the can of sardines.

But today, the Biscotte packet arrived at the lunch table. He decided to use them to make croutons for his soup. Out came the sardine tin too! But somehow it still remained unopened. Graeme has vowed to eat these sardines before we leave...hmmm...11 days and counting.

2/ Our dinner game score suffered from a lack of appropriate napery!
A ripped half of kitchen paper towel didn't cut the mustard I'm afraid.

And tonight was our return dinner party with the Irish couple - Dave and Sue.

Way back in January Irish Dave & Sue invited us to a delicious dinner at their chalet. But since then, due to a combination of their busy winter season at the chalet and our hectic social whirl in February and March, we have seen very little of them over the winter. Feeling incredibly guilty, it has taken us until now to return the favour!

But the pressure was on. We had to put on a good meal for our Irish guests. D&S's meal was delicious and after being introduced to the UK reality TV Show - "Come dine with me", we had awarded them 10/10 for their dinner party.

Ours was a simple menu: -

• Smoked salmon & herb fromage canapes,
• NZ Roast Lamb with figs & roast vegetables accompanined by spring green beans, and
• Fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries with Oriellettes Glace and vanilla bean ice-cream.

A couple of weeks ago, Rick had been out shopping and had found a big leg of (affordable) NZ lamb and bought it for us. Since then we have been waiting for an opportunity to roast it! Of course, we first offered to have our kind procurers, R&L for a NZ roast lamb dinner. Politely declining they explained that they had bought 3 or 4 legs themselves! We were going to have it for dinner with Hubert & Marie last weekend, but they had just consumed a BBQ Cote de Boef for lunch that day! So our dinner party with D&S, & G&S was a perfect opportunity.

Graeme & I were surprised when Welsh Sue confessed to having never eaten lamb. A reformed vegetarian, she explained that the lamb in Wales was typically boiled, grey, smelly and really strongly flavoured. She bravely tasted my lamb and proclaimed that it tasted totally different than anything she could remember from Wales. Perhaps Sue had been eating mutton, or hogget rather than true lamb. Even D&S, said that the flavour was much more mild than what they were used to.

We did the lamb proud! There was very little meat left on the bone after we had finished with it...or red wine in the house, for that matter! And somehow we managed to eat the dessert.

And the score? Well I'm excluded from casting a vote, but I suspect, while the meal was well received, the lack of proper napery caused points to be deducted? A scrap of ripped kitchen paper towel, doesn't really impress - does it?

3/Irish Sue, Welsh Sue, Cheeky Dave & Gav

Col de la Portette

1/ Looking at the Col de la Portette (2354m) from the western side.
It's just to the right of Graeme's pack in this picture.

It was my turn to choose the ski tour this morning. Col de la Portette, sounds good, don't you think Graeme? Yes, that's the one you didn't want to climb.....well yes, you will need to climb it this time!

Seriously hot this morning, with a change predicted for later in the day, the snow was rapidly becoming rotten. We had chosen to climb the eastern side of the Col which at the same time 3 days ago was OK. But today, the heating process was occurring far more rapidly. It was touch and go stability-wise and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been far better to do this tour in reverse, ie., climb up the still frozen western side of the col and ski down the sunny face still early in the morning.

We made it to the Col, just in time and celebrated our climb by texting Pick in NZ to wish him Happy Birthday and to celebrate the occasion with a run down the western face. His reply "Whoohoo - glass of red 'n hand!" We are sorry to report, Pick, it was a terrible run! I think you would have described it as "frozen elephant snot!". Steep and lumpy, it was survival slide slipping and speed traversing until we found some spring corn on the more southerly aspects. We dedicated these far more pleasant runs to Pick instead!

2/ Refuge de Plate - 2032m

Arriving at the Refuge de Plate around 11am, we encountered a family group of Brits with a guide. The matriarch and patriach of this family group were wonderfully inspiring. Well into their 70's with touring gear from the same era, they were doing a fine job. They have an apartment in Flaine and come out every year for skiing and summer walking. It is my fervant wish that Graeme and I are still ski touring when we are their age!

The Refuge is only open in the summer although it does offer emergency winter shelter. Climbing up the ladder to the attic, we felt immediately at home. A few candles, mattresses and blankets. The attic interior reminded us very much of a NZ DOC hut. West facing this Refuge would be an awesome place to watch the sun go down!

3/ Inside the winter room of Refuge de Plate

Surrounding the Refuge are a number of other huts. Collectively called the Chalets de Plate, we are not sure what they are used for? According to the Refuge website only one farmer still grazes sheep here. They refer to extra accommodation in tents set up on the terrace. Woe betide if you are accompanied by a canine or you're a snorer, according to the website - you'll be relegated to the tents!!

4/ The Chalets de Plate

There is endless summer walking in the Alps! Graeme and I could imagine walking for months visiting all the little refuges along the way. With no heavy tents or cooking equipment in our packs - how good would it be?? Aaah, the temptation to stay longer....!

Stopping for a quick lunch on the climb back to Flaine, we were back in the resort around 2pm.

Despite passing the older English couple before and again after lunch, we were so impressed by their fitness and stamina. It was a long hot climb in wet snow. They did so well! Little did they know our motivation....

Graeme and I raced each other up the last 200m or so, in anticipation of our now customary Panochet!

A Rendezvous with Daniel at Les Contamines

1/ Graeme & Daniel

We met Daniel at Les Contamines in early February. He was a lovely man who was trying to learn to telemark. Since meeting Daniel, he has called us a couple of times to invite us to stay at his house near Annecy. Unfortunately, every time he rang us we were about to head off somewhere, first to Slovakia and then Livigno. To be fair we were also a bit reluctant to go off and stay with a bloke we had only met for a couple of hours and could hardly communicate with.

But we decided to trust our instincts and meet up again with Daniel. The easiest place for us both seemed to be back at Les Contamines, the resort where we had first met. Daniel knows the resort well and we still have free tickets there.

2/ The Lunch Gathering

Our meeting with Daniel is remarkable in that he really does not speak English and we really don't speak French. As you can imagine our whole day was full of hilarious miscommunications and widespread reliance on Franglish.

Even more challenging, the idea behind the day was for Graeme to give Daniel some telemark lessons! We'd double checked with Liz some key phrases we could use - "flechez les jambs" , "poid egal" and "regardez on ba la montagne"!

It was so hot today and the snow turned very quickly. Our best skiing was done mid morning before "la neige devenir comme souppe!" Along the way, we learnt quite a bit about Daniel. We knew that he was separated and that he has 3 sons, David, Jeremy and Timothy, who are all grown now. He also has a little grand-daughter.

Graeme can't believe how so many people feel the need to "unburden themselves" to me. In the past, without any prompting on my part, Te Wanaka guests would often reveal the most random "dark secrets" to me. I have no idea why? I've checked my forehead to confirm there's no tatoo saying " Tell me all!" or "I am your confidante". But suffice to say, Daniel too, felt the need to share his dark secret with me today while riding the chairlift. There was nothing lost in translation, but the wonderful thing is that after a hard 3 years, he now has a second chance at life and is revelling in the opportunity to re-establish his relationship with his 3 sons.

3/ The cadeaux! Daniel presented us with a pen and little key ring.

By lunch-time both Daniel and I were pleading with Graeme - "On n'a plus les jambs!" (We have no more legs left!). Kindly Graeme stopped the lessons and we enjoyed a healthy lunch of pomme frittes in the sunshine. [The budget is starting to get pretty tight!!] Over lunch, Graeme pulled out his map of the area and were were able to establish exactly where Daniel lived and where he worked. He lives in a little village called Le Villard in Parc National Reg. du Massif des Bauges. And he works as a remontee mechanic at a tiny resort called Margeriaz.

Lunch was a long one. We all seemed to have lost enthusiasm for tackling the "souppe" again. But we wanted to get some photos and film footage of Daniel skiing, so we managed to have a couple more runs before we called it a day.

It is always surprising how you can still communicate when you have a common interest. We had a really fun day with Daniel and we are pleased he persisted with us. We wish him well for the future and hope that we can keep in contact with him.

4/ Not the best shot of Daniel telemarking. He did much better avant midi! But to be fair! He was skiing in "souppe" and like me - "Il n'a plus les jambes!!"

Mountain Train Journeys & Dining with Bovines!

The Mont Blanc Tramway - in summer (not my photo).

There's still snow now!

Tragically, today of all days, our camera's memory card decided to die. So there's no pictures to accompany a pretty good sort of day. I'll do my best with a few words and some photos from the internet.

After 83 days of skiing, despite the glorious spring weather, we've decided to take the day off and do a "touristy" trip on the Mont Blanc Tramway. Leaving from Saint Gervais -Le Fayet, the tramway heads up into the mountains. Another French engineering feat, it climbs steeply (24% gradient) up to the Les Houches/ Saint Gervais ski area. The views of the St Gervais /Les Contamines valley to the west and Bionnassay Glacier and Chamonix valley were, as always, breathtakingly beautiful. Admittedly we had seen these views before while skiing at Les Houches earlier in the season, but we were pleased to see that the Les Contamines resort, where we are headed tomorrow, still looks to have good snow!

Coming from Australia, a flat land, dominated by beaches and deserts, the mountains of New Zealand were always something special for me. But now, having lived with the dramatic scenery of the European Alps for the last 5 months, I think I may have over played their beauty in the past to our european Te Wanaka guests. Especially for the French, Swiss, Italians and Austrians, our Southern Alps must actually seem quite "ho-hum". NZ's, wild weather and lack of infrastructure is also a double-edged sword. While the lack of "people pressure" and feeling of isolation is appealing to some, the inaccessibility of our mountains make them daunting and possibly, quite boring to the average person. Certainly there are no "telepheriques" and access to the high mountains in NZ is reserved for the seriously fit and skilled mountaineer or those with enough money to afford a helicopter. There are few "mountain-top" restaurants or places to stay of a european standard in our mountains.

I guess the reality is, that unless there is a huge shift in population, there will never be a european level of infrastructure in NZ. For such a tiny country, the NZ Department of Conservation and NZ Alpine Club does an amazing job maintaining all the tracks and huts we do have. Let's be thankful for that!

Dining with Bovines!
Returning to Araches in the evening, we joined Rick & Liz and their friends, Simon, Carol, and their grown children Jo & Andy for an interesting dining experience.

Jo has been staying with R&L for 4 weeks during the season. She's a delightful girl and gives Liz a helpful hand running the chalet during the busiest periods. We've skied with her and enjoyed meeting up with her again and getting to know her family.

Back to that "interesting dining experience"? Travelling to Samoens, about 20 minutes drive over the hill to the valley parallel with us, we arrived at a fully operational farm yard. The cows were still in their winter shed. Pigs, dogs, chickens were everywhere. The strong smell of silage and hay filled their air. Our shoes were quickly covered in mud, straw and cow poo, as we strolled through the shed making the acquaintance of all the cows, who, were soon to be our dining companions for the evening!

Tucked into the corner of the shed was a glass room. Set up inside were two long country tables laid with red gingham table clothes and baskets of bread. Every night of the week during the winter season, the hard working farmer's wife prepares a traditional Haute Savoyarde feast for her family and 15 other paying guests! Much of the ingredients are produced on the farm, sausages, cheeses, meats, and vegetables are all grown on the farm or sourced locally.

The fare is seriously hearty and the quantities ...well even Michael Phelps (the swimmer) may have had trouble finishing the servings of Tartiflette, Diot (Sausages) and Pottage (plate of meats). Add to this home made pate, basketloads of crusty bread, green salad and dessert and we were starting to have waistlines resembling the girls chewing their cuds outside.

Such a wonderful and unusual dining experience. We wondered if the cows outside in the shed appreciated the continuous comings and going? I imagine it would be excrutiatingly boring to be locked up in a shed for 5 months every year and some human entertainment each night might be quite fun for them. We wondered whether the farmer moved the cows around so that each had a turn at the window to watch the funny two legged creatures feeding? The bovine obsessed cartoonist, Larson, would have a field day with this dining venue.

What a shame our camera decided to malfunction - oh well C'est la vie!

Really Getting to Know our Backyard

1/Flaine Backcountry

After our quick reconnaissance yesterday morning, we were all packed up early and ready to explore Flaine's big back yard - The Desert De Plate. This is a huge horseshoe shaped valley dropping away to the north. The peaks enclosing the valley are in the 2500 - 2700m range and their slopes are mainly, E, N & West facing, making it an ideal area for ski touring.

My fears of a really unstable snowpack were allayed yesterday and it looks like we'll have the opportunity to do many different tours during our remaining days here. Also today, while still warm, the intensity of the sun was tamed by some thin high cloud. This should further reduce any wet slide problems!

Our first ski tour in this area was with Christoph (our funny french guide) back at the end of January. In contrast to the conditions now, back then we were skiing powder snow all the way to the valley floor!

Spring skiing is great fun. Generally fairly low avalanche risk and if your timing is right, you get some great skiing on spring corn by late morning.

Today's tour took me to the Col de la Portette (2354m) for a look over into another south-west facing bowl. From the Col, I could see a cute summer Refuge - Chalets de Plate. I keep referring to this part of our tour in the first person... because it seemed that there was some reluctance on the part of my "learned leader" to make the climb. On reaching the Col, I was very surprised to find that Graeme still had the contents of his pack strewn out on the snow.

Fortunately, the Oxleys are equipped with some very handy walkie-talkies. These are perfect items for being able to politely inquire of your partner, "What the @**!, are you still doing down there?" Even more polite banter continued as he advised me to come back down again as his planned route had changed. Hmmmm!! How kind of him to allow me such a wonderful opportunity for extra exercise. Graeme can be considerate like that!!

2/ The breath-taking cliff and views to Mont Blanc.

Well at least my dear Graeme's alternate plan found some great views and good spring corn. Skinning up again to the edge of the mountain ridge, we were able to look over the sheer cliff to the towns in the "l'Arve" valley - Passy, Servoz and Sallanches. We could see the busy Chamonix autoroute with it's massive viaduct winding it's way through the narrow valley far below us. To the SE, Mont Blanc dominated the horizon.

We'd made good time and despite the good views it was too early for lunch. And besides which, spring skiing is all about timing. The snow for our run back down was in perfect condition. Still firm with a lovely layer of "cream cheese" corn snow on top. With the heat of the day increasing rapidly, all could change in minutes.

Wooohooo! Of we go! Down for our picnic. Here's the footage!

3/ Understandably given the Col debacle, I had rights to first tracks on this run!!

4/ That was nice!

And the best part of a European ski touring day? The cold Panache (Shandy) after the long, hot skin back into the resort around 2pm. Actually, if I think about it, a cold Brewski from the back of Pick's truck after a similar TC tour - ain't half bad either!