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.

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

A Student Flat Farewell Party

1/ It started off well...Liz & Rick and their "Good Impression"

Things may have got a little out of hand last night. I'm not sure. It started off neatly and then deteriorated. The pictures tell the story!

Plans for another pasta meal last night were hastily scrapped after we scoffed a gigantuan penne dish for lunch in Courmayeur yesterday. A quick chicken stir-fry and a Carrefours fruit flan with ice-cream was the replacement. We were worried that Rick and Liz were going to be disappointed. But they confessed that, they too, had overdosed on a rich Savoyarde dish of bread, potatoes and cheese at lunch time. They were terrified we were going to treat them to a Kiwi version of a raclette ( another rich melted cheese dish)! Collective sighs of relief all around.

Entertaining at Le Refuge is a bit like partying in a student flat (except it's warm and more hygenic!!). Gav and Sue joined us for dessert after they had finished work. So it was a cosy eight around the kitchen table!

2/ Gav and his Rudolph impression.

I have no idea what we talked about but the wine and conversation flowed until well after midnight. A late night for us!!

3/ Sue and her "well we're not quiet sure what?" impression.

It was a bleary eyed quartet who greeted the sunshine this morning. After a professional packing job, the Wanaka'ites were ready to go. One last quick visit to see Rick and Liz and then it was back to Annecy for the TGV to Paris and then the long flight home. At least Leanne and Mike will get a chance to rest those weary ski muscles.

It was a sad farewell. We've thoroughly enjoyed their company. The time has just flown by. Here's hoping that a few more of our friends win lotto or throw caution to the wind and decide to visit!!

4/ Graeme and his "Village Idiot" impression!

Scarily this photo was taken this morning - after the party.

Big Night, Big Day. Skiphilia???

1/ An Owens/Lewis Gathering

As always a big night with the gathering of the Owen & Lewis clans. A delicious venison fondue with poached pear for dessert. There's a story about that poached pear, but the tale of the venison fondue is much more interesting.

Hunting is still a popular sport in the European Alps as attested by the abundance of outdoor stores all stocking an impressive array of knives, guns, (blowdarts?) and other weaponry. A french friend of Rick and Liz is a prodigious hunter and arrived this autumn with a whole haunch of wild venison for their freezer. Aren't we lucky to be sharing in the spoils?

Venison is a perfect meat for fondue. Sliced thinly and cooked quickly it's tender and totally delicious. Accompanied by an assortment of mustards, salad and a delicious potato gratin it made for a scrumptious feast. Fondues are fun meals. They force you to eat slowly and really savour the flavours. Both Graeme and I are guilty of "woofing" down our meals like they will be our last. With a fondue this is impossible. There is time for good conversation instead. Watch out, we'll be dusting off our fondue set when we get home!

I think Rick and Liz really loved the Bartons little gifts from NZ. A beautifully carved stone koru but even more significant were a couple lacquered stones they had collected from the shores of Lake Wanaka where they met on that fateful February day.

As the evening the wore on, the snow continued to fall outside. I could see that Mike and Graeme were getting twitchy. There was a lot of surreptitious glancing out the window by the pair. It was going to be another one of those powder mornings!! It has snowed continuously since Wednesday night! It'll be deep! And the weather forecast is for sunshine...does it get any better?

3/ First in the Queue!

And despite Leanne's lack of enthusiasm for the task, we were first in the lift queue waiting for the lifts to open this morning. "What time does the telecabine open" asked Leanne? "9am!" we replied. "Well, why the hell are we here at 8:30am?" she groaned. And suddenly the fog cleared and I saw ourselves through her eyes. This skiing thing must be a mental illness...skimania, skiphilia?

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines mania as, “The excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity. Manic behavior patterns include hyperactivity, increased energy, and heightened mood. Left untreated, the person’s judgment is impaired resulting in reckless and dangerous behavior. In severe cases, delusions and hallucinations occur." Hmmmm!

Food for thought! Mike, Graeme and I seemed to be sharing the same delusion that we are still young hot skiers. But the reality is somewhat different. I fell asleep in my helmut at lunch time today!!

3/ The Helmut Kip!!

But as promised the sun came out and even Leanne started to share in our skiing hallucination. While she would have preferred a good long hard ....shopping trip. She did admit to "Hitting her Groove" this afternoon!

4/ That's Leanne on the left with a "Groove Grin!"

Phlegm? Flaine! and Peter Sarstedt?

1/ Mike, me, Leanne & Sue at Phlegm!

The lovely Sue joined us for a ski at Flaine today. Sue was solo today as Gavin had gone skiing with Rick in Courmeyeur. Despite the glamour of reporting that you have been skiing in Italy, I think we chose the better skiing venue. As we looked eastwards to Mont Blanc and Courmeyeur, all we could see were dense clouds. Even though we didn't have sunshine at Flaine, the snow was in remarkably good condition and we enjoyed good visibility.

There was some confusion with the name of this resort. Leanne was very concerned this morning that we were going to be spending the morning clearing our throats at "Phlegm". Understandably, she couldn't understand why anyone would want to call their ski resort Phlegm? She had assumed that it had a different meaning in French!! She was much relieved to realise her error when we gave her the piste map!

Mike was feeling a little better this morning after a good night's sleep and really enjoyed the wide groomers of Flaine. It was a cruisey day, showing Mike & Leanne around the resort.

But we tortured poor Sue with our rendition of the Peter Sarstedt classic song - "Where Do You Go To My Lovely". This song has become rather a "camp song" for us Wanaka'ites here in Araches. Leanne started to sing it as she toured the streets of Paris and arrived to us still humming the tune. It wasn't long before we were all addicted and "googling" the song to find the lyrics. But this morning, Leanne and I thought that the song was very apt for Sue & Gavin. Being Welsh, their standard greeting for a friend is "How are you my lovely?" Even though Leanne and I sang the song beautifully for Sue, she failed to recognise the tune! Our persistance did not improve her memory...hmmm maybe we are really bad singers.

I'm sure our tuneless attempts prompted her early departure. We were left to another squashy lunch in the car! Flaine has horrible "Salle de Hors Sacs" - Picnic Rooms. They are dark holes with no external windows and located right next to the public toilets! The reek of disinfectant or horrendous toilet smells are not conducive to enjoying your picnic lunch. Cynically, I am sure that the on field eating venues have a major interest in keeping them that way.

2/ Our squashy car picnics!!

Tonight is Yoga night and after a quick bowl of soup, we left Mike and Leanne to reacquaint ourselves with the special sadistic talents of our Yoga Mistress...Antoinette. It was a quiet night as far as customers go and I think Antoinette was secretly pleased to see us. Although it was hard to tell. She has a gruff demeanour!

Stretched and toned, we returned to Mike & Leanne and headed out to Les Carroz for a typical french fast food - crepes! Smothered in cream, chocolate, coconut, bananas, these dessert treats are not recommended for the weight watcher or those who are cholesterolly challenged!! Couldn't help but think my dessert fiend pal, Steve, would just love them!! Despite the side serving of guilt, we tucked into the delicious crepes with gusto!!

But best of all....it has started to snow. Serious snow!! Fingers crossed it will go all night!!

Please..Send No More Tongs!!

Help! The tongs are breeding!!

Help the tongs are breeding!! No, seriously, thanks to all our friends and relatives who have kindly sent us tongs. We now have one for the meat, one for the fish and the other to chase the beans around the pot.

But please, don't send any more tongs! Graeme is finding new uses for them, which I would rather not encourage!

It was a shocker today. Officially, bad weather!! It's warmed up and all that lovely powder snow is being washed away by a deluge of rain. Accompanying the rain is some fairly strong wind. The locals here are calling it a gale - vent forte!! Little do they know about wind!! Now a good Canterbury Plains Nor'wester or a Southerly Buster on Bass Strait - now that's a vent forte!!

I will confess to having a lazy day. We had been invited to Gavin & Sue's for dinner last night and as usual it was a late one. Also another amazingly delicious dinner. I know these guys cook for a living, but it was just lovely. Blini's with tzatziki & tarasamalata, thai chicken curry and tropical pavlova for dessert. Yum! They were also intrigued about the controversy in Australia and NZ over which country can lay claim to inventing the delicious dessert.

I explained that unfortunately, as a nation settled originally by convicts, Australia has a bad-habit of "stealing" the limelight and claiming inventions and famous people, in particular, as "Aussies" when in fact they are from NZ. The most typical examples being the famous race horse - "Pharlap", the band "Crowded House" and the actor "Russell Crowe". There, have of course, been some other unfortunate events throughout history, like the infamous Chappell underarm bowling incident in cricket, which has rightly added fuel to the Kiwi's argument that Australia is always out to "steal their thunder". Despite all this, I'm not ready to concede that NZ invented the pavlova. Some internet research since the dinner party seems to support my view that Australia did indeed invent the pavlova. See for yourself - The Pavlova Debate.

It was a long walk home during the storm last night which will, of course account for my general lethargy this morning. Fortunately it was not raining when we left Gav & Sue, the only hazard while walking home were the slick footpaths and the great piles of wet snow dropping like bombs from the trees all around us. For some unknown reason (?) I remember feeling very concerned about the hedges. Apparantly I was worried that all the hedges in Araches were going to collapse under their heavy load of snow! Sensible comments from Graeme like "The hedges have been there for a while, dear! And every year they get covered in snow. Looks to me like they still survive!" and a little while later, "Please come away from the hedge, Andy!" and a bit later still.... "Seriously now, will you leave the hedge alone"...... "ANDY, WOULD YOU PUT DOWN YOUR POLE AND MOVE AWAY FROM THE HEDGE, NOW!!" I think the film he secretly captured says it all.

The Answer to Life, the Universe & Everything....and the "Needle in a Haystack"!!

"Tout Baigne! Andy, Graeme, et une baguette"

For all Douglas Adams fans (author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ("HHGG"), you will understand when I say, that I know the Answer to Life, the Universe & Everything! I've reached that magic number - "42"!! Not sure what's so special about the number "42" but apparantly Deep Thought (the supercomputer in HHGG) took 7.5 million years to come up with the answer. Personally, I've only done 42 years thinking on the matter and my answer to most deep and meaningful questions is - go skiing!

It was a leisurely start to the day today. Opening pressies in bed and thanks to Sue & Gavin, who loaned us their skype camera/microphone we enjoyed a successful morning speaking to all our friends and family in OZ & NZ.

It was mid-morning before we made it out onto the slopes. Armed with our standard lunch fare of baguette, cheese and sausage we headed out. The snow is still in remarkably good shape given that it hasn't snowed for some time and the temperatures are steadily increasing. We keep thinking that the snow will turn icy as it does in Australia and NZ, but no, - still good!!

Finding a nice sunny picnic spot on the hill, we settled into our delicious french fare. While eating, were were entertained by a gaggle of boffin snowboarders. We even caught some of their hilarious capers on film.

Today was auspicious not only because of the number "42" but because we found a lost treasure! A week ago, I took quite a spectacular crash and slide on one of our favourite off-piste runs. For some reason, SOMEONE had forgotten to do up the top pocket of my back pack. We hadn't realised this, until a Mars Bar, that was supposed to be safely in my pack, shot past me as I slid down the slope on my face. Collecting the detritus I had left scattered about the slope, we failed to notice that I had also lost Graeme's "Binding Buddy" out of the same pocket. A Binding Buddy is a very useful tool like an Allen Key that you use to adjust your bindings. Graeme was suitably distraught about its loss.

But today, one week later, and after probably 100's of people had skied this slope something made me go back and just have a quick look for the missing Binding Buddy. Graeme thought that it was a waste of time. The slope is large and I wasn't exactly sure where I had crashed. The rather large hole from the high speed head plant had disappeared! "Needle in a haystack, Andy!" said Graeme. But I just had that positive feeling that I would find something....so I followed my hunch. Sure enough... about half way across the slope I came upon a Mars Bar. Obviously another one of our chocolate bars had made a desperate break for freedom. So I scratched around in the nearby snow and "low & behold" the Binding Buddy was found! What are the chances?? Graeme was ecstatic!

"Eureka! The Mars Bar and...the Binding Buddy"

And to top off an otherwise perfectly lucky and special day, Graeme had secretly organised a dinner at a local restaurant with Liz & Rick and Gavin and Sue.

Called the Gron, the restaurant specialises in meat dishes. Actually it's just a big BBQ place where you select your meat and it is cooked on an open fire in front of you. The owner is quite eccentric. He used to run the only nightclub in Les Carroz for about 20 years. And so the music for dining is comprised of 80's classics like B52's Private Idaho & Nina 99 Luft Balloons. He also speaks Franglish (a mixture of French and English) which no-one, not even the Rick & Liz could decipher. (It has since occurred to me, that this is what I must sound like when I attempt the language? ) He reminded us very strongly of another equally eccentric restauranteur we know who nails his tables to the floor! The food was almost as good too!!

3/ & 4/ Cooking our dinner over the BBQ. Our night out with the gang.

What? It's Sunday? And Where's the Snow?

1/ The "drive-in Boulangerie" at Sallanches

Well, it's official..we've finally lost touch with reality. We forgot that today was Sunday!

After a very late start to the morning, as a result of another night socialising with those party animals..Rick, Gavin & Welsh Sue, and Dave & Irish Sue, we had decided to head down the hill to Sallanches for a spot of shopping. It was grey and dreary when we awoke and the weather report predicted the arrival of a storm front with heavy snow by mid afternoon. We thought we'd better get going!!

In addition to Au Vieux Campeur (Graeme's favourite shop) there is also another a good outdoor outlet in Sallanches. Called "Quechua" the store mainly specialises in clothing. We had heard from Welsh Sue that they were having a sale. Maybe..just maybe...if there was a sale we could actually afford to buy something?

Unfortunately, we forgot that aside from ski resort areas, France pretty much closes down on a Sunday. So our drive was really for nothing. Quechua was closed, along with pretty much every other shop in Sallanches (even Carrefours!!). Although we did discover a neat "drive-in Boulangerie" on the way home. We had passed this converted fuel station several times on previous visits to Sallanches. There has always been a good number of cars parked outside, so we thought that it might be worth a try. The bread, and according to Graeme, the "pain au chocolat" were delicious, and about 25% cheaper than what we pay for the same thing here in Araches! The french obviously price according to altitude!!

2/ Pepi on her ice skating rink!!

Arriving back to Le Refuge for lunch we were excited to see the snow pleting down around us. Our delight was shortlived however! The snow turned to heavy rain and kept up all through the afternoon. Graeme was beside himself. Predicting an early end to the ski season he worked himself into a right frenzy.

Despite the rain, the temperature was still hovering around zero and our driveway and the local roads transformed to treacherous ice-skating rinks. Very disconcerting.

We were saved from total depression by an outing to visit Irish Dave & Sue, who had kindly invited us to dinner at their cute little chalet. Check it out at www.alpexperience.com They cooked us a delicious dinner. Prawn cakes on salad, a mild thai curry and lemon delicious pudding. Scrumptious!

The conversation flowed and flowed. Dave & Sue can hold a good cracking convesation. Somehow we got talking about TV programs and we ended up watching the latest episodes of "24" and then a British reality program called "Come Dine with Me". The idea of the show is to get 5 people who have never met each other to cook each other a dinner party. After each meal and privately in front of the cameras, each contestant then scores the meal out of 10. The winner gets $1,000 GBP - whoopee!!!??

Of course, all the participants are suitably odd. In the series we watched, there was a very attractive young Scottish mother who had a bit of drinking problem, a born again Christian African- American woman from Texas, a very wealthy landed gentleman wine critic who was obsessed with all things Tuscan, a Felicity Kendall look-a-like retiree who also enjoyed a "tipple" and a pasty looking "20-something" scottish cocktail waiter with a chip on his shoulder. All I can say is that it made morbidly good viewing. The alcoholic yummy mummy and the cocktail whipper snapper fell out, the born again christian nearly set her kitchen on fire and the wine critic bored everyone rigid with endless Tuscan tales. Felicity Kendall won.

As soon as we got home in the early hours of the morning we sent Dave & Sue an email. 10/10 we declared!! The pressure is now on!! We will no doubt be required to return the favour.

Speaking of getting home - what a challenge! While Pepi handled the slushy / icy main roads well, it was all too much for her on our side street, when Graeme gently applied the brakes in preparation for turning into our drive. Pepi hit sheet ice and continued to sail gracefully down the hill past our driveway. Hmmm what to do next? We managed to pull off the lane (not that there was any traffic) and slipped on the chains. Not a fun thing to do at 1am in freezing rain! I held the torch and gave appropriate moral support. But with chains on, we were now in business! Pepi crunched her way back up the ice and into our skating park driveway.

Parking safely in our driveway, we were mystified by the presence of an unknown vehicle. We thought that it might have been Rick & Liz's old car or Olivier's (our french neighbour). But no, it was not there's. It was still there mid morning and vanished just before lunch. We didn't catch the owner, and all we can assume is that they hit the same patch of ice and decided to park their car in our driveway and walk home? The mystery remains.

We cross our fingers and toes for snow tomorrow as predicted!

3/ The Mystery Visitor