Reality Hits!

1/ We'll be finding our way home shortly. Good thing we don't have to use a map -
as you can see -we are a little challenged in that department!

Reality has hit today! In just over 2 weeks we will be leaving France and starting the long journey home. I'm not sure why we both felt it so keenly today.

Maybe it was because we went back to our French lessons today. We still have 2 to complete. And it was obvious how much we had regressed during the last two months! Aaah, we paid the price. Poor Liz, was totally frustrated at our efforts! "Must try harder" was stamped all over our homework.

As lunch drew near, we finished our french and relieved our poor Professor from further torture. Joining Hubert for a sunny lunch in the garden, neither of us felt much like doing anything. It was too late in the day for ski touring.

Over lunch we kept exclaiming to each other and Hubert "how the time had flown". Both Graeme and I are not coping well with the long sunny summer days of the last couple of weeks. It's been nearly 2.5 weeks of continuous blue skies and temperatures in the 20's in the French Alps. Not to mention that pesky daylight savings. Am I sounding like the equivalent of the Christmas Grinch yet?

Right oh! I'm back to the blog after a nice cup of tea and a lie down. Much better. Hubert has also cheered me up no end by warning us that this warm period is the "false spring". There will be another dump of snow before we go and the temperatures will plummet alarmingly. Excellent!

She's Gonna Hurt Us!!

1/ Dana & Graeme

She's gonna hurt us!! Dana is not your ordinary middle-aged mother of two. She's seriously fit and strong. And although it has been many years since she has been on a long ski holiday, she has great style and scarily for us....loads of stamina.

There is a real hint of spring in the air since we returned to Araches from our ski tour in Italy. Today was bright and sunny but with a strong North wind blowing to keep temperatures down and slow the snow melt. It was an ideal day to show our friend around our "little" ski resort.

Dana joined me for the bread run early this morning, while Graeme caught up on his beauty sleep. Dana was amazed at the selection of breads and cakes available at our local boulangerie. She was also astounded at the prices. The cost of living in France is going to come as a bit of a shock to Dana. Compared to western europe, Slovakia is still well behind in the wealth stakes. "Boy! She's going to be shocked when she learns how much a hot chocolate or coffee costs on the mountain!...and we're not even in Val D'Isere!"

Being Sunday, we thought to avoid the usual crowds and buy our tickets at a little vendor on the way to Les Carroz. When Mike and Leanne were staying with us, we had come to know Annie, the ticket lady there. Keen to show off my good french, I thought I'd asked Annie for one day ticket. But as we walked back to the car, it dawned on us that the cost of the ticket was way too expensive for just one day. What I'd actually bought was a 2 day pass!! Hmmm! What to do? How do I explain this to Annie? The thought of rejoining the rapidly growing queue held no appeal at all. After much hand wringing, Dana noticed that she had actually got a bargain. The usual price of the ticket was E58, but we had only paid E48 for two days. A comedy of errors!! Dana was quick to agree that this was a bonus and was happy to ski 2 days at our resort rather than to go back and try and sort out the mess my "impeccable french" had caused!

After surviving the "forfait du jour debacle" we spent the rest of the day touring our home resort. With the cold wind, the off-piste did not soften, so we were limited to the groomed runs. We zoomed around the connected resorts of Les Carroz, Morillon and Samoens to help give Dana her bearings.. She was amazed at the size of the resort. It has been 14 years since she last skied in the Three Valleys in France and she had forgotten the immense size of French ski resorts. As we pointed eastward to Flaine & Mont Blanc on the horizon, an area almost as big again as where we were skiing, her eyes grew even wider!

2/ Sure, I'm smiling now, but I can't promise how I'll look after this week of skiing with Dana. Perhaps there will be a hospital photograph by Friday?

Did I mention that Dana was a good skier? We tried our hand at synchronised skiing again. Our last attempt with Mike and Leanne in Courmayeur was not a stunning exhibition. Dana, of course excelled. Here's our footage!

Despite hurtling around the whole resort, with only a quick picnic stop for lunch, Dana was not in the least bit tired. Telemarking on the piste is exhausting work and Graeme abandoned us early in the afternoon, leaving me to tough it out with Dana for last run. As I straight-lined it through the trees (I didn't have any energy left for turns), I realised that Dana was going to seriously test my stamina this week! (She's gonna seriously hurt us!!).

3/ Can we go home now, Dana?...Pretty Please???

Les Carroz's Santa Unmasked!!!

Day 1 on the Teles for Andy.

Day One for Andy on the Telemark skis today. It was quite surprising to us how few people in the french Alps telemark. Proportionally, there would definitely be more teleskiers in NZ. So we are very lucky that the little ski hire shop in our village is owned and run by a telemark enthusiast named Bertrand. He is a lovely young fellow, who runs the ski rental shop in the winter and a downhill mountain biking operation in the summer. We haven't seen him on the slopes yet, but we suspect he will be no slouch!!

Back to the story of my Misery Sticks (aka known as telemark skis)...it was a long long day for me. De l'apres midi, "Je n'ai plus des jambes!" I thought that this was a very clever expresssion meaning literally "I have no more legs" - "I am exhusted". I had found this expression in the Lonely Planet phrasebook and thought that I'd try it out on Bertrand when I returned the skis to him at the end of the day! Malheureusement (Unfortunately), what I actually said to Bertrand was "Je n'nai plus des jambons" This translates to "I have no more hams!! " He fell about laughing! Aaaah... this confounded language!

What the heck! Our visit to Bertrand's shop couldn't get any more embarrassing so I decided to try on some of his ski hats for size. I found the perfect one!! Belle... n'est-ce pas?

2/ Stylish!

And finally, today we think we have "unmasked" the Les Carroz Santa. Taking this kind of photo is always fraught. I was forbidden to go up and ask this poor man whether he was the Les Carroz Santa! So I had to pretend that I was taking a photo of Graeme instead.

3/ Ignore Graeme...check out Santa in the background!!