A Rendezvous with Daniel at Les Contamines

1/ Graeme & Daniel

We met Daniel at Les Contamines in early February. He was a lovely man who was trying to learn to telemark. Since meeting Daniel, he has called us a couple of times to invite us to stay at his house near Annecy. Unfortunately, every time he rang us we were about to head off somewhere, first to Slovakia and then Livigno. To be fair we were also a bit reluctant to go off and stay with a bloke we had only met for a couple of hours and could hardly communicate with.

But we decided to trust our instincts and meet up again with Daniel. The easiest place for us both seemed to be back at Les Contamines, the resort where we had first met. Daniel knows the resort well and we still have free tickets there.

2/ The Lunch Gathering

Our meeting with Daniel is remarkable in that he really does not speak English and we really don't speak French. As you can imagine our whole day was full of hilarious miscommunications and widespread reliance on Franglish.

Even more challenging, the idea behind the day was for Graeme to give Daniel some telemark lessons! We'd double checked with Liz some key phrases we could use - "flechez les jambs" , "poid egal" and "regardez on ba la montagne"!

It was so hot today and the snow turned very quickly. Our best skiing was done mid morning before "la neige devenir comme souppe!" Along the way, we learnt quite a bit about Daniel. We knew that he was separated and that he has 3 sons, David, Jeremy and Timothy, who are all grown now. He also has a little grand-daughter.

Graeme can't believe how so many people feel the need to "unburden themselves" to me. In the past, without any prompting on my part, Te Wanaka guests would often reveal the most random "dark secrets" to me. I have no idea why? I've checked my forehead to confirm there's no tatoo saying " Tell me all!" or "I am your confidante". But suffice to say, Daniel too, felt the need to share his dark secret with me today while riding the chairlift. There was nothing lost in translation, but the wonderful thing is that after a hard 3 years, he now has a second chance at life and is revelling in the opportunity to re-establish his relationship with his 3 sons.

3/ The cadeaux! Daniel presented us with a pen and little key ring.

By lunch-time both Daniel and I were pleading with Graeme - "On n'a plus les jambs!" (We have no more legs left!). Kindly Graeme stopped the lessons and we enjoyed a healthy lunch of pomme frittes in the sunshine. [The budget is starting to get pretty tight!!] Over lunch, Graeme pulled out his map of the area and were were able to establish exactly where Daniel lived and where he worked. He lives in a little village called Le Villard in Parc National Reg. du Massif des Bauges. And he works as a remontee mechanic at a tiny resort called Margeriaz.

Lunch was a long one. We all seemed to have lost enthusiasm for tackling the "souppe" again. But we wanted to get some photos and film footage of Daniel skiing, so we managed to have a couple more runs before we called it a day.

It is always surprising how you can still communicate when you have a common interest. We had a really fun day with Daniel and we are pleased he persisted with us. We wish him well for the future and hope that we can keep in contact with him.

4/ Not the best shot of Daniel telemarking. He did much better avant midi! But to be fair! He was skiing in "souppe" and like me - "Il n'a plus les jambes!!"

Mountain Train Journeys & Dining with Bovines!

The Mont Blanc Tramway - in summer (not my photo).

There's still snow now!

Tragically, today of all days, our camera's memory card decided to die. So there's no pictures to accompany a pretty good sort of day. I'll do my best with a few words and some photos from the internet.

After 83 days of skiing, despite the glorious spring weather, we've decided to take the day off and do a "touristy" trip on the Mont Blanc Tramway. Leaving from Saint Gervais -Le Fayet, the tramway heads up into the mountains. Another French engineering feat, it climbs steeply (24% gradient) up to the Les Houches/ Saint Gervais ski area. The views of the St Gervais /Les Contamines valley to the west and Bionnassay Glacier and Chamonix valley were, as always, breathtakingly beautiful. Admittedly we had seen these views before while skiing at Les Houches earlier in the season, but we were pleased to see that the Les Contamines resort, where we are headed tomorrow, still looks to have good snow!

Coming from Australia, a flat land, dominated by beaches and deserts, the mountains of New Zealand were always something special for me. But now, having lived with the dramatic scenery of the European Alps for the last 5 months, I think I may have over played their beauty in the past to our european Te Wanaka guests. Especially for the French, Swiss, Italians and Austrians, our Southern Alps must actually seem quite "ho-hum". NZ's, wild weather and lack of infrastructure is also a double-edged sword. While the lack of "people pressure" and feeling of isolation is appealing to some, the inaccessibility of our mountains make them daunting and possibly, quite boring to the average person. Certainly there are no "telepheriques" and access to the high mountains in NZ is reserved for the seriously fit and skilled mountaineer or those with enough money to afford a helicopter. There are few "mountain-top" restaurants or places to stay of a european standard in our mountains.

I guess the reality is, that unless there is a huge shift in population, there will never be a european level of infrastructure in NZ. For such a tiny country, the NZ Department of Conservation and NZ Alpine Club does an amazing job maintaining all the tracks and huts we do have. Let's be thankful for that!

Dining with Bovines!
Returning to Araches in the evening, we joined Rick & Liz and their friends, Simon, Carol, and their grown children Jo & Andy for an interesting dining experience.

Jo has been staying with R&L for 4 weeks during the season. She's a delightful girl and gives Liz a helpful hand running the chalet during the busiest periods. We've skied with her and enjoyed meeting up with her again and getting to know her family.

Back to that "interesting dining experience"? Travelling to Samoens, about 20 minutes drive over the hill to the valley parallel with us, we arrived at a fully operational farm yard. The cows were still in their winter shed. Pigs, dogs, chickens were everywhere. The strong smell of silage and hay filled their air. Our shoes were quickly covered in mud, straw and cow poo, as we strolled through the shed making the acquaintance of all the cows, who, were soon to be our dining companions for the evening!

Tucked into the corner of the shed was a glass room. Set up inside were two long country tables laid with red gingham table clothes and baskets of bread. Every night of the week during the winter season, the hard working farmer's wife prepares a traditional Haute Savoyarde feast for her family and 15 other paying guests! Much of the ingredients are produced on the farm, sausages, cheeses, meats, and vegetables are all grown on the farm or sourced locally.

The fare is seriously hearty and the quantities ...well even Michael Phelps (the swimmer) may have had trouble finishing the servings of Tartiflette, Diot (Sausages) and Pottage (plate of meats). Add to this home made pate, basketloads of crusty bread, green salad and dessert and we were starting to have waistlines resembling the girls chewing their cuds outside.

Such a wonderful and unusual dining experience. We wondered if the cows outside in the shed appreciated the continuous comings and going? I imagine it would be excrutiatingly boring to be locked up in a shed for 5 months every year and some human entertainment each night might be quite fun for them. We wondered whether the farmer moved the cows around so that each had a turn at the window to watch the funny two legged creatures feeding? The bovine obsessed cartoonist, Larson, would have a field day with this dining venue.

What a shame our camera decided to malfunction - oh well C'est la vie!

Les Contamines & the Yoga Continues...

"Look at that!!" But wait...there's more! A photo of Graeme pointing to a tenth of the total Les Contamines ski area.

Yum, Yum....Les Contamines. What a deliciously divine ski area! And we didn't even experience her in the best conditions. A windy and cloudy afternoon, followed a warm and sunny morning. As we mentioned yesterday, the weather is finally starting to change and while the Meteo is predicting snow, the temperatures have been increasing steadily every day. Fingers crossed, we'll get some of the snow that is currently crippling Britain.

Situated at the end of a valley running alongside the western flank of Mont Blanc, Les Contamines has amazing fall line, huge areas of ungroomed and, what looks like, endless touring!! Hmmm...our kinda hill! Definitely a place that we'll be coming back to!

2/A few Racer Kids too! This is an 8 year old doing 80kmph!!

3/ A view of the village from the access gondola

Les Contamines ("LC") also wins the award for the weirdest gondolas we've struck so far in Europe. They must have got their lift system from the Poma sale catalogue, either that, or LC was an experimental installation by Poma. Their gondola's are double sided and designed to take 6 midgets or 4 normal sized humans, or 2 rugby players. (Actually, strike that. The entrances are too narrow for a front row'er even if they squeezed in sideways!!). The shell is made of fibreglass and both the rear and front doors open & close on their own random timetable. An adventure in themselves, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to use these gondolas in a busy period when everyone is pushing and shoving. Maybe that's why they don't fit rugby players?

4/ "The experimental Gondolas at LC!!"

And finally our day ended with a chance meeting with a lovely frenchman, Daniel, who was trying to learn to telemark. As the clouds were rolling in and the visibility drove us further down the mountain, Daniel came over to say hello to us when we stopped half way down the run. It was day 2 on telemarks for Daniel and he was obviously looking for some pointers. "Voulez -vous venir avec nous?", I asked. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I hoped he understood that I meant we'd be happy to help him, rather than any other scary interpretation!

What ensued was an hilarious telemark lesson conducted in "franglish" as Daniel spoke no English and we no French. But somehow he got the drift and he followed Graeme down the slope 3 or 4 times. At least by the end of the afternoon, he had the downhill ski forward and his turns were looking less alpine and more "telemarky".

Daniel shouted us to a coffee afterwards and we learned that he was 55 and a strong alpine skier. He had spent all his life in the mountains, skiing and climbing and he now works as a Lift Engineer at a ski resort near Annecy. Didn't quite catch on where it was exactly. But we did get that he was separated from his wife, with 3 sons (30, 26 & 22). He skis all the year on the high glaciers at Tignes & Val d'Isere. He wanted to learn to telemark to keep his interest in skiing alive. (Some may think that telemarking has just the opposite affect! They are not called "Misery Sticks" for nothing!!).

A delightful man, we hope that we'll catch up with Daniel again when we return to the little gem that is Les Contamines!!