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

La Skieda - the Gala Dinner

1/ A very full stage. Livigno likes to say Grazie Mille!!

Tonight was the Academy Awards of the La Skieda Festival. This is the night where everyone, and we do mean everyone is invited up on the stage to be thanked!

But aside from the "grazie festa", Livigno's catering and hospitaliy once again surpassed itself. Beautifully decorated tables with serving staff in traditional costume, the dinner showcased all the specialities of the Livigno Valley.

2/ The handsome young serving staff in traditional costume!

First course, was Brasaola salad. Produced in Livingo, Brasaola is delicious air dried salted beef similar to prosciutto. The salad was made with spring greens, local cheese and paper-thin slices of brasaola. To follow was a main course of Pizzocheri. No relation in any way to Pizza, this seriously calorie loaded dish consists mainly of buckwheat noodles, cheese, cabbage and potato. Not for the faint hearted, this dish was designed, like many of the fat & carbohydrate loaded dishes of the European Alps, to keep the farmers warm through the long winters! Totally delicious... I confess to having seconds. Livigno is not going to be kind to the waist line!! Dessert, according to Graeme, was a delicious ice-cream confection. I took a photograph of it, but didn't dare taste it, given my over-indulgence on the Pizzocheri!! And just to completely burst the pants, a small cheese board, featuring all the local cheeses was laid out. It ran the length of the stage!!

Sitting with Chuck, the mountain guide from Conneticut and his wife Linda, we were entertained by stories of their former life in France. They lived in Toulouse for many years while Linda worked for an Aerospace company there. Chuck and Linda were not your average Americans. Quiet about their achievements, their adventures were only revealed when we spent time questioning them. I was intrigued and when we got back to the apartment later that night, I couldn't resist "googling" - Chuck Boyd. Amazing what you come up with! An accomplished mountaineer, he was refreshingly modest about his achievements. I'm sorry to say that my past encounters with Americans have prejudiced me somewhat. I have heard too many "exaggerated tales" in my time!! What a shame we didn't hook up with these guys earlier in the festival.

We were also seated with a lovely German couple, who of course spoke perfect English & Italian. [We are constantly humbled by Europeans linguistic abilities!!]. They live near Lake Constance and revealed that they "Austrian Ski Team" groupies. They were very excited to learn that the Austrian Men's Ski team trains in Wanaka at Treble Cone every August. They've booked their flights!!

Unfortunately, while the food was outstanding - the musical entertainment was less so. Picture if you will, 5 enthusiastic young Italian lads, whose command of their instruments and the English language was not that strong, dressing up as the Beatles and trying to do covers of their big hits. Hmmm!....but then it got really really, bad! After a short break, and a quick costume change, they returned to the stage to cover......The Rolling Stones. Disaster!

4/ The "Entertainment" was sleep inducing!

With full bellies, tired legs and already day-dreaming of our last day skiing in Livigno sunshine, we were inspired by this young La Skieda attendee......our beds beckoned and we snuck away just on midnight.

The Most Delicious Meal in France!

2/ The Crew!

For weeks now, Rick and Liz have been planning a special meal for their friend Andrew who is now staying with them. Andrew aka "Jock", wasn't able to come to Rick's 50th birthday dinner back in October. To compensate, Liz planned an encore performance especially for Andrew last night. Attending were also Andrew's wife, Jane and his friends Richard and Mikki. It was a lively crew!

Rick and Liz organised a young chef from the local area to prepare and serve the food. Roman is a talented young chef, who like most chefs, has spent huge hours learning his profession. But he now has young children and has decided to take a more "regular job" at the local hospital. But it's hardly inspiring cuisine and he loves the opportunity to cook beautiful food. We were in for a treat.

Tonight's menu was:-

• Fois Gras on home made fruit bread, with a champagne sauce and chive garnish served with a sweet local white wine.
• Langostein (flat lobster meat) with wilted spinach in an orange sauce
• Sorbet of pear and pepper
• Pan seared eye fillet with baby turnip poached in saffron and pureed garlic potato
• Camberbert cheese stuffed with truffles
• Rocket Salad
• Chocolate souffle with peppermint creme

To accompany such a fine meal, Rick spoiled us with an array of fabulous french wines! For more photos of the evening - click here

It was well into the morning when we finally rolled from the table and wobbled back up the hill to Le Refuge. I'd like to think that we were as quiet as church mice and didn't wake Dana, but I suspect that's just wishful thinking. Luckily we're not skiing tomorrow. I can't quite believe I just said that!!

2/ The Fois Gras

3/The Langostein

4/The Chef - Roman

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.

It's a Fondue & Telemark Fest

1/ Stir that Fondue, Mike! You know what happens to those who burn the Fondue!!

It's Fondue-arama! Friday night -venison fondue with Rick & Liz and last night - cheese fondue with the Teste Family. They have driven all the way from Lyon just to meet the Kiwi celebrities, Mike & Leanne and introduce them to the delights of the Cheese Fondue!!

Put aside memories of that last cholesterol test...you are about to enter the "Danger Zone!" The traditional Savoyarde cheese fondue is a 200g/ per person mixture of melted Comte savoyarde, emmental & beaufort cheeses combined with 100ml of dry white wine per person. Hubert has a "close relationship" with Christine from our local Haute Savoie fromagerie! She knows just how Hubert likes his cheese combination!! If my description is sounding a little risque...it is intended. The French have a sensuous and emotional attachment to their food. It is important to know all the vital statistics, source, melting temperature, fat content and the taste subtleties between varieties. I'm sure that the French would ask for the names of the cows who donated the milk if they could!! The thought of picking up some pre-packaged supermarket cheese is unthinkable!!

We had to procure "Hubert's special cheese mixture" from Christine on our way home from skiing yesterday. We hid the bag under our coats and locked the car doors ....this stuff was obviously like gold!"

2/ Not our best photo - missing Leanne and Graeme, but they were there!!

Hubert's fondue recipe is a little modified from the traditional recipe. He found that he ended up with very sleepy children with so much white wine! So now he uses beer instead. The procedure is relatively simple. First the fondue pot (a caquelon) is rubbed with garlic. Hubert reluctantly has to be gentle with the garlic. According to him, Marie is one of only two women in the whole of France who does not like garlic. (The other woman is her mother!!). Next comes the cheese and the beer. Nothing complicated there, but woe betide if you don't keep stirring and burn the cheese. Along with murder, this is a capital offence in the Haute Savoie. Mike was motivated to keep stirring!

The mixture is then served on a warmer and eaten with bread squares skewered on long forks and dipped into the cheese. Accompaniments can include pepper, mustard and a light salad. But beware: there are penalties for losing the bread off your fork and into the cheese. In the Teste household, if you lose your bread you have to sing. This rule was quickly changed after I launched into what I thought was a spectacularly tuneful version of "Once a Jolly Swagman". Very disappointing! I was less enthusiastic about the new rule - a lap around the house outside in your underwear!!

If the fondue mixture has been kept at the right temperature there will be a thin crust of toasted (not burnt) cheese left at the bottom of the caquelon. This is called "la religieuse". It more or less means - "the nun". Why? I have no idea?? La religieuse has the texture of a thin cracker and can be lifted out and eaten. Alternatively, an egg can be cracked into the bottom for cheesey scrambled eggs or sugar and more alcohol added for a caramalised treat. We had the caramalised version. Fortunately, Marie sensibily provided a delicious orange segment dessert to help with the "internal deglazing".

French Observation

I continue to wonder why the Haute Savoie or indeed the whole of France is not knee deep in people turning purple and clutching their chests! In addition to cholesterol loaded meals like fondue & raclette, the French consume copious quantities of butter, dairy products and pork. Why doesn't France lead the world in heart disease? Apparantly someone else has also given this some thought. See Wikipedia - The French Paradox

I like the "red wine" explanation myself. Consuming red wine is thought to cancel the cheese effect! Well thank goodness for that!!! Bottoms Up!!!

Teaching Marie to Telemark

Still digesting our fondue from last night, Graeme and I headed out on the slopes again this morning. We had promised to introduce Marie to the "Misery Sticks" ie. the delights of telemark skiing. Despite the glorious warm sunny weather, we were abandoned by the Bartons who wanted (read: needed) to have a break from skiing.

As we've come to expect from the multi-talented Teste family, Marie picked up telemark skiing very quickly. After one run on the beginners slope she was off down a Red piste. Click here to see today's footage and the marvellous example set by Marie's instructor! Way to go Andy!!

During the day we kept asking Marie if her legs were tired. She kept assuring us that her legs were fine! Hmmm...Graeme and I suspected that she was not trying hard enough!! We had to retire hurt at lunch time - our legs were killing us! Marie continued to ski on into the afternoon! We'll have her out on the moguls next time!!

We returned home for lunch with the Bartons and a relaxing walk around our village in the sunshine.

Another French Observation

Now I'm not saying that the French are short. We have only a small sample group here in the mountains from which to judge. But so far, I have yet to meet any tall Frenchies! The few tall men that I have seen on the slopes have had British or German accents. I will continue my search for "de grande taille" Frenchman!

3/ Graeme - a giant among french women!!

Marie and Geraldine from our local ski rental shop.

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.

Whump vs Thwack!! A Crash Analysis

A perfect french snowflake!!

"Did we mention the words "Pea Soup?"

It's snowing again!! In contrast to the last snow dump, it's deep, light and fluffy! But unfortunately, it's Sunday and the first day of the French School Holidays. We have been warned - a dire combination!

The french stagger the winter school holidays throughout a month long period. At the moment, kids from the Lyon region (which includes our area) are on holidays for the next 2 weeks. Next week, they are overlapped with the Parisians and British school holidays. Rick and Liz continually tell us that they don't even bother putting their skis on during this period as it is totally crazy. So rather than stay and observe the madness, Graeme and I will be departing for Slovakia at the end of the week.

But this morning, we arose at "crack-o-dawn", dug out the car, (there'd been about 30cm of fresh overnight) put the chains on and were waiting for the telecabine to open. We got the second telecabine. A septogenerian "powder hound" pushed past us to snatch the last spot in the first cabin! Hmmm, next time ....!!

While the snow was amazing the visibility was less so. Good thing that both of us have trained at the Skiing for the Visially Impaired Academy (aka as Mt Buller on a good day and/ or the TC Saddle Basin -Winter 2008)! We have really started to know our way around our little ski area, and heading to all our favourite haunts we whooped it up in the knee deep powder! (Cold crotch syndrome again I'm ashamed to report!!).

And then..... we thought we'd be a little clever and head off down a new beckoning patch of untracked field. The result a nasty crash for Andy!

A word about Crashes - the "Whump" vs the "Thwack!!

I am always surprised when I fall. I am generally very relaxed, humming along to the music playing softly on my headphones. I'm not thinking about what I am doing at all. Thanks to my intrepid father, I was brought up skiing off the "beaten track". I seem to remember most of my early skiing days were spent rolling down ungroomed slopes or dodging trees in tight gullies. Dad himself would often provide spectacular demonstrations of how to crash in deep and heavy snow without hurting yourself. My father always treated any fall as an occasion for great hilarity. As a result there are very few times even now that I don't start giggling while I'm flying through the air and I know that a "Whump" into the deep snow is imminent.

The only exception to this relaxed demeanour is when I am skiing on -piste or the snow is really icy off-piste. Then I'm tense. I don't want to fall. I ski tentatively and try to ensure that I am not going to hit or be hit by someone or that I will end up doing a "slide for life" on some icy off-piste. On the rare occasion that that I have crashed on-piste - it's a Thwack! And it hurts!

As capturing crashes on film is hard to do, you will forgive me for me using some old footage to demonstrate the distinction between "Whump" & "Thwack" crashes!!

The happy "Whump Fall" Note: soft snow and smile on face!!

Brother-in-law, Cam, demonstrating the aftermath of a "Thwacker".

Note: hard snow and blood!!

So today was a bit of a shock to the system. I anticipated a Whump when instead I received a Thwack. As I hurtled down the new off-piste field in the poor visibility I did not see that a groomed trail had been cut across the slope. The drop was about a metre onto a flat and hard packed snow road. I had been quite relaxed, after all I was skiing powder what could happen? So even when I ejected from both skis I was anticipating a graceful flop into a snow feather bed. To my surprise I ploughed head first into the hard road, driving my goggles onto the bridge of my nose. Ooowww! I saw stars! Thank goodness I was wearing a helmut! It took the full brunt of the impact.

The good news is that of course I was completely OK. After a quick check of the all the fingers and toes, I retired from slopes for a restorative hot chocolate and was able to continue skiing for the rest of the day! It is afterall a powder day and more snow is predicted overnight!

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.

Skiing with the Gang!

1/ Les Crew!!

A seriously full day of skiing today. I managed to get Graeme out of bed early, even after a late night finish to our dinner party last night!!

Despite not being able to procure any decent Indian food, I was able to throw something together. Curried pumpkin soup, stuffed chicken breast wrapped in proscuitto, and chocolate cake with raspberry coulis and creme fraiche. And lots of roasted vegies.

The French don't seem to eat vegetables and yet the local markets and supermarkets are full of very good produce. Graeme has suggested that "real French men" don't eat broccoli in public? Certainly in any of the restaurants we have been to so far, vegetables don't make an appearance. A plate of meat and potatoes is de rigueur! Our Kiwi friends would be horrified. But the French do appear to eat quite a bit of salad. Nothing fancy, just a bit of fresh lettuce smeared in mayonnaise. Why the french are not dropping like flies from heart disease remains a mystery!!

French Observations - Impossible Ingredients

So far the list of impossible ingredients to procure in France are: -

1. Porridge (well that's understandable isn't it?)


2. Vegemite (that's also understandable.)


3. Indian spices and ingredients.


4. Real cream. Can you believe it? With the huge range of cheese and dairy products you would think that just good ol' cream, as we know it, would be easy to find. Alas, there are 101 different types of sour cream (creme fraiche), yoghurt and fresh light cheeses like ricotta, but no pouring or double cream. Porquoi? Je'n sais pas?


5. Lamb. Well you can get Agneau but you will need to take out a bank loan! A small leg of lamb here is E$45 (= A$90 or NZ$110). Since we are paying with the pacific peso (NZ$), agneau is off the menu, I'm afraid. I have, however, had some luck in the Carrefours Hypermarket at Cluses. Cluses is an industrial town with a big muslim population and after searching high and low in the butchery section, I found some affordable & edible cuts of Halal lamb. So, as long as we're prepared to face Mecca while eating our lamb we can get our fix!!

We met up again with the gang again today sans Liz who had flown back to the UK to visit her mother early in the morning. The snow and weather was glorious and we are continuously finding new routes in our "backyard hill". Having Rick as a guide is also pretty helpful!

Graeme had done such a good job tuning my skis that I will be loathe to let anyone else near them. I positively zoomed down the slopes!! Skiing with a gang is always fun and we decided to stop for an omelette at a little mountain restaurant called L'Igloo. The food was was simply delicious and so far this L'Igloo is our favourite. While all independently owned, L'Igloo is a very popular name for a ski resort restaurant - we've seen Les Igloos at all the resorts in Chamonix and even Megeve and the Portes du Soleil.

As we skied home after a very full day, we were amazed at the number of jet-streams overhead. It's a reminder of just how busy Europe is. We get excited when the Queenstown flight flies overhead at Cardrona. Jets are flying over us here every second of the day!

Looking skyward we were also able to catch a parapenter coming down off the hill. With his skis still strapped on, he made a perfect landing on the beginner's slope in the town centre. Parapenter's are everywhere and it looks like terrific fun. But there's so many more hazards here. Buildings, roads, people, powerlines, lift lines, cable cars....etc. A badly judged landing for a parapent off Treble Cone, might mean giving a sheep or cow a nasty fright. A badly judged landing in the Alps has consequences that don't even bear thinking about!!

2/ The busy skies of Europe

3/ Le Parapenter!