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.

A Striptease, A Lesson and A Delicious Dinner in Livigno

1/ An uninspiring Strip-tease!!

The La Skieda crew of telemark skiers (all 1,300 of 'em) are an eclectic bunch. Racers, jibbers, old hippies, the young & the old from all corners of the globe.
And today we were treated to a wonderfully extroverted group of telemarkers from Sweden (where else?) who liked to get naked in public. Standing on their tables during the peak lunch hour at the Refuge Carosella, they put on a fine show. It's always a time consuming process to rid oneself of all your ski gear. Personally, it was taking so long, I lost interest and went for coffee. I think from the few photos Graeme took, he wasn't that impressed either. I mean to say, looking at the photo, we are not talking prime beef cake here..are we??? Nevertheless the crowd, egged on by the band, went suitably wild.

We confess to a late start to the day this morning. We didn't get to bed until midnight (very very late for us) after seeing some of the award winning films from the most recent Banff Mountain Film Festival. All manner of extreme mountain sports were featured, climbing, skiing, paragliding, speed skiing, skydiving and base jumping. The main feature film was about 3 Base Jumpers (An Australian, American and Norwegian) who travel to the heart of China to freefall 2km into a gigantic cave. An interesting armchair glimpse into the psyche of men with a serious death wish!!

2/ Andy : "You want me to do what? On Telemark Skis - you gotta be kidding?"

After lunch we joined John Falkiner again for a Telemark Clinic called "Balance before Power". His theory is that, if you are balanced, then you use much less "power/energy" to drive the telemark skis. Sounds great in theory. I'm keen to learn any technique that will reduce the excrutiating thigh burn I experience every time I don the "Misery Sticks".

The afternoon consisted of some hilarious exercises : - handclapping, buddhist chanting (Om Bar Cha, Cha, Cha) and arm waving. Most of the exercises had to be done with our boots completely undone, in "walk" mode and without our poles. Other routines included skiing on one ski while lifting the uphill ski and placing it down as gently as possible during your turn - The "Cat Step". Lastly John had the whole class hurtle down a mogul field yelling "Ding Dong" over each bump like a bunch of crazed Avon sales ladies! By this stage I'm starting to get suspicious that we are secretly being filmed for the "candid camera" segment of the La Skieda festival?

I still have a long way to go before I am truly efficient at this telemarking caper, but Graeme enjoyed the clinic and found a number of the exercises really useful. But the best thing about the afternoon was meeting up with a lovely Italian couple from the Aosta valley (near Chamonix). Daniela is a psychologist and Luciano a ski instructor. Interesting combination to be sure. But they were delightful. Daniela spoke perfect english and Luciano spoke perfect "ski english" as he called it. Just don't ask him to explain Italian politics in English!!

We had plenty of time to get to know each other as part of the lesson also included stopping for a beer at a mountain top restaurant. Typical La Skieda fashion!! Needless to say the last lesson on the run down the mountain was fairly challenging with loose boots, no poles and a beer in our bellies!!

2/Andy, Daniela and John & others on the "beer stop" part of John's Clinic!!

And finally after a good cup of tea and a lie down, we frocked up for a special mountain top dinner. Graeme and I, are constantly in awe of the organisation of this huge event, but it was entirely due to some lucky connections that we managed to get into this dinner. Let me explain.

We are staying in the home of the Zini Family- a 3 story old fashioned apartment complex which, apart from our flat, is occupied entirely by Zini's. Aunts, Uncles, daughters & son-in-laws. Truly the European way. The Zini family, as we have been learning, are quite famous in the Livigno Valley. Everyone in the village seems to know Genni, who manages our apartment for her family. Genni's sister, now retired, was a famous speed skater and won a bronze medal in the last winter olympics.

As it happens, Genni is a telemark skier too, and she has taken the week off work to go to join the party that is La Skieda Festival. We keep running into her at various events and have enjoyed snippets of conversation with her. On the night of the special mountain top dinner, we realised that although we had booked the dinner when we registered, the flustered receptionist had failed to give us the tickets we needed to gain entry. We were with Genni when we realised this. We were so lucky that she was able to explain what had happened to the door attendants and plead our case for us...in Italian! We would have been lost without her help and doomed to have missed an incredible experience in the mountains. What luck to have been staying with her!!

As I have mentioned before.. these Italians really know how to cater. I guess I always knew this having grown up in Melbourne with many Italian friends, but this mountain top dinner for 200 or so people was really something. 4 courses, with wine and coffee all included in the price of our festival ticket. What a bargain!

Ours was a truly multi-cultural table. To our left were 3 young french couples from Geneva, and to the right, an older (60's) immaculately dressed Swiss mountain guide (Fritz..yes seriously), and then a team of wild french/spanish boys from the Pyrenes and La Grave who produce hand-made wooden skis. [I still didn't find out which one was Vincent!! ]. Across from us was a German chemistry professor, a mountain guide from Conneticut and his aircraft engineer wife. I told you that telemarkers are an eclectic bunch!! Needless to say the conversation was wonderfully interesting.

"Guess the German?"

To top off the night we caught the cable car down with Genni's father, Guido, who unfortunately does not speak a word of English. But also sharing our cabin was another lovely local couple who were also friends of Genni's. They had been to NZ and Australia and we enjoyed a lively conversation about their experiences on the long ride down the mountain.

What a day, what a night? How are we going to be up at the crack of dawn for the next ski tour??

Spring has Sprung and a Farewell Fondue for Dana

1/The daffodils coming through at our church village

2/ & 3/Native Crocus in our forest, the true harbinger of Spring

In contrast to the punishing fitness regime of this week, we arose late for a leisurely breakfast this morning. Understandably, Graeme and I didn't need much food after gorging on the feast the night before. We showed Dana the photos of the food. She was not that impressed. She doesn't like fois gras, crustaceans, or that much meat. She did, however think the chocolate dessert with mint creme sounded rather yummy.

We were relieved yesterday to find a solution to Dana's transport problem back to the Geneva border. We have to leave very early tomorrow morning for Livigno, but we're in the opposite direction. Fortunately, Irish Dave who runs a chalet in Les Carroz was going to the Geneva airport to pick up guests at exactly the right time and Dana was able to catch a ride with him. Like a worried mother and father, we have asked Dana to text us tomorrow afternoon when she is safely on the bus. Her travel plans all seem incredibly tenuous to us but somehow they always seem to work out!

Our afternoon drifted by with a long walk through our forest and a trip into the village to buy supplies for a Fondue. We have been promising to make a traditional cheese fondue for Dana all week. Of course, the ingredients were sourced from Christine - Hubert's personal fromagereuse. She packaged up all the right cheeses, grated and mixed in the correct proportions with the local white wine and instructions just to make sure we got it right!

Hubert and Marie would be proud of me. Not only did I avoid setting the apartment on fire, I made a perfect fondue! As Hubert emphasised, I stirred, stirred and kept on stirring the cheese mixture. We even achieved the crusty melted cheese base at the end! A simple meal, but wickedly delicious! I'm also glad we are eating early (Slovakian time) so our stomachs will have time to recover before bed.

It will be a sad farewell to Dana tomorrow. She is easy to have around and inspires us to achieve fantastic physical feats of endurance! I hope that we will see her again in NZ. But it's not easy now that her children are older. They love their school and their friends and are reluctant to be transplanted again in NZ. I guess it will have to be a long distance email relationship for the next few years. But we have made a promise to all meet up again for a ski somewhere half way between us, like Canada or America in 2019! Nothing like a plan!

4/ A Farewell Fondue

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

Day 2 with Dana. Knees on Fire!!

1/ Don't be fooled. Dana is not resting!

The cold wind of yesterday disappeared and we were able to show Dana some of the harder runs on our hill as the off piste softened throughout the day. She handled the steep bump runs with ease. Meanwhile, my knees were burning and my thighs screaming!! I'm pretty confidant Graeme was in equal discomfort as he suggested sternly that a coffee stop was mandatory today!

Dana's parents were enthusiastic skiers, and every weekend during the Czech winter she would travel to her Uncle's mountain chalet for skiing. Unfortunately for Dana, her husband, Tibor and their children do not share her passion for the sport. She has to work very hard to get them to go skiing with her. However, I suspect that this time with us will make Dana more determined than ever to do more skiing. If I know Dana, she will find a way to go skiing for at least one week each year. She has already been talking about doing some guiding for the Czech tourist company with whom she travelled here.

2/ Lunch at our favourite picnic spot

3/ Dana skiing gracefully

Again, it was just about last lift for the day when we were finally able to convince Dana to stop. A quick stop with Rick and Liz to introduce Dana, as always turned into a longer session and it was a late dinner by the time we made it back to Le Refuge.

As we observed when we were visiting with Dana in Slovakia, their family tends to eat early around 5 or 6 o'clock at the latest. Sometimes even earlier if they have been doing hard physical exercise. So poor old Dana was practically falling over with hunger by the time we finally had dinner prepared.

We talked about this different eating pattern and we agreed that the Kiwi way of eating is not really that good for you. By delaying dinner, you not only tend to snack on unhealthy nibbles like chips and nuts, but your body has no real time to properly digest the food before you go to bed. Dana is very health conscious and has a great figure to show for her strict adherence to diet and exercise. She is also diligent about stretching and showed me a few new stretches and exercises before dinner. She's quite an inspiration actually!!

Outside the weather is changing and it looks like we are going to get another dose of winter with heavy snow predicted for the next couple of days! Secretly I am praying for a rainy horrible day so that I can have a day off from skiing. How sad is that?

4/ Dana showing me some snew stretching exercises!

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.

Village Mysteries & the Boulangerie Breakthrough

The sign at the top of the street!

For some time there has been heated debate in our household about the correct spelling and pronounciation of our street name. Even Liz, who has lived here for years pronounces it differently from Antoinette our Yoga Sadist (oops, I meant to say Instructress!!). We thought this very strange and then we found the cause of the problem. The street signs at the top and bottom of our Route Frev(r)uard are spelled differently. Both signs are rusty and well worn. They've been there a while!? Aaah you just gotta love those Frenchies!!

First Village Mystery solved!!

And..at the bottom

The Second Village Mystery

Well this one is a bit tricky. And there's no photos to accompany this part of the blog today. It begins with a confession of "my unkind and unjust" thoughts towards my local Boulangerie, or more specifically the attractive young lady behind the counter.

My misplaced judgement began in December, I think. Given my annoying propensity for rising early, I am inevitably the one who walks down to the village to buy the bread for the day. While we've been trying many different kinds of bread, we particularly like "un boule". It's especially good for making sandwiches with a nice crunchy crust.

On this particular morning, there was only one boule displayed in the window. Using my best french with a nice smile, "bonjour" and plenty of "svp", I asked for the lonely boule! The very attractive lady suddenly leapt to whisk the offending pain (bread) from view. She shook her head and said I couldn't have it because it was "reserve". "Ok, fair enough!" I thought and chose a different bread.

But when the same thing happened the next morning and on and off for the next couple of weeks, I started to get a bit of a complex? One morning there were 2 boules in residence, but one was a little more burnt around the edges than the other. So when the cute little lady reached to give me the burnt one, I risked saying: "Non madam, ce la, svp " pointing to the less burnt boule. And the answer..... "Je desole, mai reserve". That did it! I was thoroughly put out! For the last month I have been surly and sneery with my boulangeraise. Graeme kept telling me that she was always totally delightful when he went for the bread in the morning! (On the 3 ocassions he has made a trip in the morning!)

But today, Graeme and I visited the Boulangerie together around midday, after our french lessons with Liz. I looked like a proper student with French books tucked under my arm. It was not busy and we managed to strike up a little bit of conversation with her. It appears that that magic phrase "Je vien de la Nouvelle Zelande" has worked again! The transformation in her demeanour was nothing short of amazing. We also noticed that there were at least 6 boules in the window, so we have guessed that maybe I am too early in the morning for the fresh ones?! Graeme reckons that she doesn't want to sell me a boule if it isn't fresh. This sounds like a much nicer and fairer assumption. I am looking forward to my next visit with the pretty lady! An exchange of names is next on the list!!

The Pressure to Publish! And Carnard a la Can!!

Aaah...the pressure to keep my blog up to date! We had put aside some time today to see the Teste Family who are again in residence. Over our morning coffee, I learned that Marie & Hubert are diligently following my blog whenever they get homesick for Araches. Their usual routine is to check the internet for the Chamonix weather report, the Les Carroz snow cams and take a little peek at my blog. Of course they find my observations on the french way of life quite funny and so they were very disappointed this week when there was a hiatus in my daily publishing!!

Aaah the pressure to publish!

1/ Hmmm?? - Confit de Canard

2/ aka "Duck in a Can"

Tonight we tried "Confit de Carnard" ("Duck in a Can") for the first time. On special at Carrefours, I thought we'd give it a try. Nothing like picking up a can of something foreign to your tastebuds and being brave enough to have a taste! The can looked rather posh! A gold tin with fancy black label, so I have assumed that Confit de Canard is a bit of a French delicacy. I could also be wrong but it was certainly way more expensive than the pet food so it had to be half decent!??!

Despite his love for duck normally, Graeme was more than a little sceptical. Muttering something about "the only meat in cans is spam or PAL", he was extremely reluctant to participate in my gastronomic experiment this evening.

The duck is already cooked and all you need do is open the can, remove the 3 portions (breast & leg) from the fat and then reheat in the oven.

How do the french not die of heart disease??? Can someone please tell me? There was enough duck fat in this one can to clog the arteries of an entire football team. Gross!!!!!! Somehow I managed to fish out the pieces (would've have been much easier with tongs) and pat them dry with paper towelling. Then into the oven at 180C and reheat for 15 minutes.

3/ Off-the-scale fat levels!!

And the result....Surprising. The meat was tender and moist and Graeme claimed that it was delicious. He even went as far to say that he would like it again?! Tragically, he will be on his own. I am not a duck fan at the best of times and I suspect I will be adding "Duck in a Can" to my list of banned french substances lest my digestive system go into a complete meltdown. I can already feel the heartburn coming on as I am typing!!

"Voila - the end result"

French Observations

Important Tong Update

Well it's official. I had it confirmed by Marie today that real French people don't use tongs!! Incroyable!!

No reason! Just the classic french BOF in response to my in depth questioning. Looks like I am just going to have to get more skilled with the use of "le forche".

Other kitchen mysteries solved!

In the course of my discussion with Marie this afternoon, I also learned more about the "gaps in french ingredients". They don't have soft brown sugar or self raising flour! Our discussion about baking powder and baking soda was also a little confusing. Je ne comprende pas!! How on earth will I make my Sticky Date Pudding? I forgot to ask her about the Real Cream conspiracy but fortunately she is back next weekend....

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!