A busy day today! We want to take a quick reconnaissance of the Flaine back-country, be back in Les Carroz by 11:30 to meet Rick for telemark lessons and then home for dinner with Hubert & Marie.
1/ Flaine Backcountry - Desert de Plate
It's been so hot here this week, that I am seriously worried about the stability of the snow pack.
There's been no frosts overnight and the freezing level is floating between 2200 - 2600m. There's a heap of natural wet slides around and I tossed and turned with nightmares about falling down Flaine rock holes or getting caught in an avalanche. I am driving Graeme crazy with all my fears and making it impossible for him to plan any tours! Who'd be married to me?
Compromise was a "dawn raid" of the Flaine backcountry. The deal, no freeze-up, no go! We were on the first telecabine from Flaine to the top 2500m at 8:45am. Looks like all my nightmares are groundless. The snow - she was locked up solid! All the holes are well covered but still easy to see. It was a slick, quick run down to the floor of the Desert de Plate but it gave us a much better idea of all the aspects and angles. Much to Graeme's relief, I am much happier about touring there now. Back up at the top of Flaine at 10:30 am for the lift down and back down the hill to meet Rick in Les Carroz for his first telemark lesson.
2/ Having a good look around Flaine backcountry in the early morning sunshine
Oh no! We've created another telemark enthusiast. After a nervous start, Rick picked up telemarking really quickly. By the second run he was linking turns and by the fifth run we had moved off the beginner slope to something steeper! Well done Rick. Graeme likes to think it's his tuition that does the trick. I'm not sure about that ....I am also his student. Rick's comment of the day. "I like it much better than snowboarding!" Well duh!!!???
4/ I'm not sure I should put a caption to this one?
This evening, I invited Hubert and Marie for dinner. Marie has been here for the week with the kids and Hubert has joined them over the Easter break. French children are on holidays again! Can you believe it? Two weeks in Feb, 2 weeks over Easter, 6 weeks July/August, 2 weeks Oct/beginning Nov, 2 weeks at Christmas. That's 14 weeks of holidays! If my calculations are right, that's 3 -4 more weeks than Kiwi kids get? Add to that, children in the Haute Savoie region don't go to school on Wednesdays - well there's skiing to do, after all!!
Conversation is alway interesting with H&M. Their english is perfect (unlike our abyssmal French), but I still think some things are lost in translation. Marie tried to tell me that French people don't drink that much. Using their family as the example, she told me that she and Hubert only have wine on the weekends. Hubert explained that he also never has wine at business lunches or during the working week. I'm not sure about this? We saw Hubert after a hectic week of wine-tasting (business trip) in the S-W of France. Do you think they are kidding us?
The other classic French observation arose because Hubert is now sporting a very nice new pair of bifocal glasses. They look very smart on him, although he is concerned that he can no longer see his feet clearly anymore? I reassured him that "feet aren't that interesting!" But the discussion about spectacles led us to a question about whether you have to have an eye test to get a drivers licence in France. "Well....no, not really. If you are wearing glasses in your licence photograph, then you can be fined if the police pull you over and you're not wearing them" explained Marie. "But if you don't wear your glasses when the photo is taken, even if your eyesight is poor, then there will be no penalty" Marie chuckles wickedly. "Silly French way, hey?" "No not really....it just explains so much!" I reply.
It was a late night as we delved further into the french education system, familes, working mothers, house design...so much to talk about...so little time.
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