Arrivederci Livigno - Bonjour Araches via Lake Como

1/ Arrivederci Livigno!

For me, Livigno will forever be associated with burning thigh muscles, great pasta and a broken heart.....I chose the gloves!!

For Graeme, Livigno was La Skieda. The greatest festival he's ever been to. The people, the skiing and .....oooohhh all that equipment and the freedom to "gear talk" all day, every day, for seven whole days. My man has been in heaven!

We're on the way home now, via Italy and not Switzerland as Graeme had originally planned. The high pass to Andermatt is still closed. We tried to travel this route on the way back from Slovakia but ended up on the back of a train, in a tunnel, under a mountain. After fighting with Penny (the GPS), Graeme finally conceded that it was not worth driving all the way there only find that "She Who Must Be Obeyed (Penny)" was correct and the road was closed. Much sulking!!

To ease the tension between Graeme and Penny, I diplomatically suggested that we drop in on George for lunch. George who? Clooney, of course! Reportedly George has a little shack somewhere on the shores of Lake Coma. I'm sure he'd love us to drop by and say hello!

2/ Graeme in a contemplative mood. What pasta should I order?

We didn't have much luck finding George's place. But we did manage to find Lake Como and a great little spot for a quiet pasta lunch. Quite an achievement for us really, especially since SWMBO has been switched off by Graeme. [His personal act of "rage against the machine"!]

Pictures tell the story. Lake Como is beautiful. I would imagine however, being so close to Milano and Torino, it positively heaves in the summer. But in the soft spring sunshine, a late afternoon stroll along the shoreline was sublime.

4/ The Sunday Bric-a -brac stalls lining the shores of Lake Como

Italians Know How to Party!!

1/ Festa Trepallina - One Huge Party!!

We learned today that there are over 1300 telemarkers registered for this La Skieda festival. Yes, folks...that's 1300 telemark skiers in this one valley. I'd be fairly sure that there's not 1300 telemark skiers in the whole of NZ or Australia for that matter.

And today, after reaching the valley floor, we skied to "Festa Trepallina", a free luncheon for all the festival attendees and half the Livigno township. We can't even begin to estimate the number of people all sitting in the sun enjoying in a deserted valley at the back of the ski resort. Words fail me when I try to capture the fantastic organisation and party atmosphere of this event. Best view the film footage!!

The food was amazing, great vats of polenta, spare ribs, ragout, salad, cheese, bread and a beer! I suspect, every Mama in Livigno had been cooking for a week in preparation for this event.

Above us, the freeride Skieda competition was being held. The experts showed us how it's done! Tearing down the slope, they launched themselves off rocks and used the trees as race poles. An incredibly daunting display!! The DJ, was playing all the classic tunes - Rolling Stones, George Thorogood, Zee-zee Top, all the hippy classics, mixed with some good latin salsas, bossanova and topped off with Pavarotti and Julie Andrews!! Classic!!

These Italians truly know how to throw a party!!

2/ The whole village was manning the food assembly lines!

3/ The Dance Party

4/ The Fancy Dress!

We love Courmayeur!!

1/ One, two three all in a line!

This is our second visit to Courmayeur on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. We just love this place! The scenery is truly spectacular . The weather even co-operated and treated Mike and Leanne to a lovely sunny calm day for their last day of skiing in Europe!

We were fortunate to have remembered our passports this morning. For the first time in our European travels we were stopped by the Polizi on the Italian side for a passport check. We have sailed through all the border checks to date, so this was a surprise! But you just gotta to love that Italain police uniform. Dark blue pantaloons, tucked into shiny jack boots, lots of gold tassles and a white gun belt. Classic! Obviously there was absolutely no interest in a French car full of middle-aged Aussies and Kiwis! Little did they know that in our hallucinogenic dreams we were young rad cliff hucking skiers. (Well maybe not Leanne!).

On our first visit to Courmayeur only about a third of the runs were open. Today everything was open except the highest lift (due to high avalanche risk). Even though all our leggies were protesting we managed to ski just about every run at least once. We even tried a hand at some synchronised skiing...? The film may show that we still need a bit of practice!!

2/ Not a bad view hey?

But the highlight of the day, without doubt, was a classic Italian lunch in the oldest little hut on the mountain. This place was not set up as a restaurant, but rather as a snack bar. But somehow, Mike and I managed to persuade the friendly proprietor to whip us up some pasta that would have made his Mama proud!

3/ Well call him "Luigi" and that pasta!!

We actually had no idea what we were in for, but when we arrived, the table was all set up for us. Bread, cold meats and cheeses, pitcher of wine arrived. And...then a huge bowl of penne pasta with a tomato and sausage sauce. Yum, yum. Espressos so strong they blew your head off!! And to top it off, a little shot of a lemon flavoured Genepe (wicked, evil spirit!!). "For the digestion", explained Luigi with a cheeky grin!

Our bodies weakend with exhaustion, our stomachs distended with pasta (despite the digestive), we sadly turned home from France. We have no idea how we are going to get through the Barton send off party tonight.

4/ Oh by the way, they've put some signage up in the carpark!!

Les Gets & the Best Salle de Hors Sac!

"Oooooh look it's snowing again!"

What Leanne was really saying was...."Damn...it's snowing again!!... that means I'll have to go skiing..Bother!!!" No need to explain what Mike, Graeme and I were thinking.

Today we decided to head over to Morzine for a trip down memory lane. Over 20 years ago, Mike lived and worked in Morgin (near Morzine but over on the Swiss side), a small resort included in the Portes du Soleil ski area. Morzine is only about 35 minutes drive from Araches and getting there is easy.

It's a vast ski area - 650 km of marked runs and about 230 lifts in total, spread over 14 valleys and about 400 square miles (1036 square km) of trails. We congratulated ourselves on our choice today. It was snowing heavily and visibility was poor, but the low elevation of Les Gets and Morzine meant that there was plenty of tree skiing.

Unfortunately, our first impressions of Morzine & Les Gets were not good. A sticky mixture of natural and man-made snow, the slopes packed with British tourists, and a dodgy morning-tea stop failed to enthuse us. But as luck would have it, we discovered the "locals side" of the hill in Les Gets - Mt Chery. The majority of Les Gets' black and red runs are here. There are no beginner runs. We learnt that the tourists generally stick to the Les Chavannes side of the hill. To our delight, there was no-one on the slopes and the snow was deep!

We even managed to find the nicest Salle de Hors Sacs. After a disappointing start to the morning, we were cold and spirits were flagging. At first we thought we'd have to eat our picnic lunch in the windswept corridor of the telecabine station. But with a little more investigation, I found the most delightful picnic room. As I have mentioned before, the majority of Salle de Hors Sacs we have found are dark smelly windowless rooms located next to the public toilets. In contrast, the Mt Chery room was toasty warm, clean and although near the toilets did not smell! There were lovely wooden benches & cupboards, red gingham curtains on the windows and local artwork on the walls. Very homey. And we were the only ones there.

Warm and refreshed, we were ready to ski the hill.

2/ The best Salle de Hors Sac - Mt Chery, Les Gets

3/ Powder Piggy #1

Did we mention that the snow was deep? Even Leanne converted to a "Powder Piggy" for the afternoon. There was some consternation however when we took a wrong turn and ended up on a black run instead of the intended red one. At times like this, I have always found it best for the relevant partner to make themselves scarce! Leanne was very brave and followed me down with minimal bad language. I have a sneaking suspicion that the outcome may have been different if Mike had been her escort!

We rewarded Leanne's outstanding efforts with a delicious hot chocolate in a lovely little mountain restaurant.... where we were served by...you guessed it...a lovely young Englishman!

4/ Powder Piggy #2 - Leanne!

French Observation

There are no French left in the Portes du Soleil!

Phlegm? Flaine! and Peter Sarstedt?

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

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

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

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

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

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

2/ Our squashy car picnics!!

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

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

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

It's a Wanaka takeover of Araches

1/ Mike & Leanne on the Cascade Run

Nothing like "peaking on the first night" as Mike would say. Last night was a big "Rugby Night"in Araches! Wales vs. France. Being Welsh, our friends Rick and Gavin were keen to be installed in the local pub to watch the game. They were also keen to meet the Bartons who were, after all, the people responsible for us being here in the first place.

The night's programme was action packed. A quick dinner of mushroom risotto with Rick & Liz, all squeezed around the tiny table in our flat, then off to Pub for boys, and to the picture theatre for the girls. Meeting up with Sue, we enjoyed an English version of "Slumdog Millionaire". What a terrific film! No wonder it won an oscar! Unfortunately, jet-lag hit Leanne and she missed most of the film. She just could not keep her eyes open. The other tricky thing was that the first part of the film is in Hindi, but the subtitles were in French. No wonder Leanne fell asleep! As the film ended, we woke a weary Leanne, Liz and I dried our eyes and went to pick up the boys from the Pub. What a mess! Wales had lost and the beer had won! Apparantly Graeme was wearing most of a jug that had been up-ended and a glazed and wobbly Mike slurred repeatedly "Wow, the beer is really strong here!!" Nothing like "peaking on the first night!" is all I can say!

Understandably, the boys were a little fragile this morning. But the beautiful warm weather and bright sunshine could not be ignored! We had to get the skis on this morning.

We have solved a mystery! For all those at home in Wanaka complaining about the summer that has never arrived - we know who stole it!! The Bartons have obviously had the sun packed in their suitcases all along!!

Mike and Leanne opened their suitcases to don their ski gear this morning, letting Wanaka's Summer escape in to France! Well done Mike and Leanne! Thanks to them, we enjoyed a completely perfect day of blue, blue sky, with no wind and mild temperatures on the slopes today.

Given the amazing weather, the plan was to show them the amazing 14 km Cascade run to Sixt. This long run is only open in good weather. Looking at the long range forecast, it looked like that there would not be another chance this week. Lots of rain and hopefully some snow!

2/ Mike surfing behind the ski-do!

It's wonderful to be sharing some of our best times with our friends. This Cascade Run is really something special. We have done it 3 times now and we never get sick of it!! But given budgetary constraints, we have not previously had lunch at the gorgeous little Chalet Gers. This time we indulged! Delicious omelettes, salad, bread, wine, all consumed while bathed in glorious warm sunshine, by a frozen lake and surrounded by snow capped peaks - does it get much better than this?

3/ G & M - It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!!

We may have slightly underestimated the full distance for this ski adventure. We skied over 25 km today. Poor Mike and Leanne, were understandably a bit tired. Leanne was also very brave suffering some seriously crucified feet from ill-fitting hire boots!! After 15 weeks of skiing pretty much every day, the aching muscles and sore feet that we endured in our first few weeks have dulled into a passing memory. We owe the Barton's our profuse apologies! The good news is that the weather forecast for tomorrow looks hideous. Leanne is secretly ecstatic.

Meeting Mirielle in Megeve!

1/ "So that's what Megeve looks like!!"

Today we were re-visiting Megeve. In contrast to our first trip to this resort way back in December, today the sun was shining and the whole of the resort was open. No thigh deep powder snow or snorkels required this time, but the resort has obviously benefited from the good recent snowfall.

Our re-visit to this ski area was due to contact with a favourite Te Wanaka guest, Mirielle and her two delightful daughters, Clemence and Violette. Mirielle lives in Marseille and is staying in Megeve with her cousin Bernard. We have kept in contact with Mirielle and her family, ever since they first stayed with us at Te Wanaka. Mirielle is a lovely lady and it was terrific to meet up with her and hear her news. She is an adventurous soul and not afraid to try new things. She was excited to tell us about her horse-riding lessons and her new horse called Mustang.

We spent a couple of hours luxuriating in conversation during a delicious mountain lunch. Poor Bernard suffered our extremely bad french and extensive english conversations with good humour. He is a dental surgeon from Normandy, with a perfect smile (what else would you expect). He is wonderful with Mirielle's daughters and they just love him. Bernard is also the owner of a true "Daniel Boone" style hat! We all had great fun trying it on over lunch. But there was no question that Violette looked the best in it!

Tomorrow we pick up Mike & Leanne Barton off the TGV from Paris tomorrow afternoon. The Wanaka takeover of Araches begins!!

2/ The 2 cutest girls on the hill - Clemence & Violette and that hat!!

3/ Bernard, Mirielle and the girls at lunch!

4/ That Hat!!

A self-guided tour of Dana & Tibor's neighbourhood!

1/ Dana & Tibor's cuter than cute log cabin!!

Life with Dana & Tibor and their family has settled into an easy routine. The day starts around 6am, as their kids go to school early. Their kids are tough. Mischa and Tomi are on the school bus before 7am in the cold and driving snow. After getting to Proprad, the major town about 20 minutes drive away, they have to walk another 20 minutes to school. Both kids are highly intelligent and they love going to school. Mischa speaks perfect English and Tomi is a whiz at mathematics. Tomi also loves to invent board games and so far, Graeme spends most of the early evenings playing Tomi at his own games!! Graeme and I were both soundly beaten on our first night, but Graeme appears to be staging a significant come back tonight while I am writing this blog.

Dana & Tibor’s house is just lovely. A real log cabin, it is kept toasty warm by a fascinating wood burner. While the firebox is small, the heating unit is huge. It works by heating a circuitous flue system inside the brickwork. The brickwork absorbs the heat and then slowly releases it throughout the day. They only use 2 small boxes of firewood per day, once in the morning and again in the evening. This system heats the entire house.

2/ Andy writing away beside the magnificent fire!

Today, Dana set us loose to explore their surrounding country-side while they had business and stuff to do with the kids.

Armed with Dana’s itinerary and road atlas we headed off to explore the villages and historical sites in their region. The largest city Poprad, is about 15 minutes drive from their village. We like Poprad! It’s about the only town name in the immediate vicinity (and probably the whole of Slovakia) that we can pronounce. The Slovak language is a challenge. The spoken language is lovely. To us, it sounds to us like a mixture of Italian and Russian. But it’s not a harsh sound like German. The distinctive feature of the written language is the abundance of circumflexes, umlages, accents and graves. Without understanding their significance to the pronunciation of words, our attempts to speak the language have met with uproarious laughter from the Hrmodka family!

After a fairly late start in the morning, our first destination was Spisske Podradhie and one of the largest travertine castles in Central Europe. Getting there proved as challenging as always for us. Penelope (the GPS system) was no help at all. She hadn’t been to Slovakia before and once we strayed from the main highway, she was lost. And so were we! We actually ended up in a village called Spisska Nova Ves, which, as we learned later was Tibor's home town. Finally we made it back on route and found the famous Spissky Hrad - a derelict limestone castle perched on a lonely hill in the middle of surrounding paddocks.

3/ Spissky Hrad - a huge deserted castle

After circumnavigating the castle, we found a lovely spot for lunch. Serving traditional Slovakian food we enjoyed a delicious cabbage soup, noodles,beer & coffee all for E$12. The cheapest meal we've had in Europe so far!!

After lunch, Dana's itinerary took us to the historical walled city of Levoca. Here we wandered around the town's courtyard looking at the shops. The shops and businesses are so different than what we are used to. There are no big display windows. Only a small selection of goods are shown in a small window to the street. To enter the shop you have to go into the building via a large centre corridor and each shop lies to the left or right. I guess this style of display is a relic of the communist era, when really there was nothing much to offer for sale and large window displays were pretty pointless!!

Finally on the way home we visited a thermal spring area. We were disappointed not to have brought our bathers with us, as a swim in the hot springs would have been a lovely escape from the -10C temperatures of the day. There are loads of hot springs in Slovakia, and taking the waters is a very popular past-time for Slovakians. The winters here are generally long and very cold. You can understand the attraction!!

4/ Hot Springs near Kezmarok

Well it really wouldn't be a road trip without us getting lost. And today was no exception. Not only did we accidently divert to Tibor's home town in the morning, as we started for home we took a wrong turn in Poprad and ended up in the Whirlpool factory complex. It took us nearly 15 minutes to find our way out again. As we drove around and around, it reminded us of being caught in an endless spin cycle. Dana & Tibor were amazed that we could have found the Whirlpool factory let alone get lost in the complex. Aaaah ...but we explained that we especially "geographically challenged". We're not sure they understood this term, but they certainly understood that n0-one they knew could possibly get lost in the Poprad!!

Tomorrow, we are back under supervision with Tibor & Dana. We are going to do a walk in another National Park area of Slovakia - we can't wait!

The Early Bird Gets the Powder in France!!

1/ At the bottom of Les Gouilles (the "Goolies")

It really pays to be first on the slopes in France. The French are not early risers! While there was no more serious snow overnight, yesterday, we had spied an area in Samoens that had remained closed all day due to the high avalanche risk. The area faces due north ("the dark side!!) and has some good vertical . It is serviced by a classic old triple chairlift called Les Gouilles (we've knicknamed it the "Goolies"!!). Even on a perfectly good day, the operation of the Goolies is somewhat erratic. We have a sneaking suspicion that it closes for lunch (12:30 - 2pm) regardless of the snow or weather conditions. Classic!!

We had 5 fabulous runs in totally untracked knee deep powder by 10:30am when those pesky snowboarders arrived and swept half the snow down the mountain as they side slipped down the steep bits! I will refrain from making any prejudicial comments against snowboarders...but I'm sure you know what I am thinking!! To be fair there were a few good ones amongst them who were doing some beautiful lines through the rock chutes. Unfortunately, they were in the minority!

At the foot of the Goolies chairlift is a really cute little chalet/gite called Le Luge du Teran - not quite sure of the translation. Designed in the old style it is actually brand new. The bar lady was very friendly and the coffee was good. The lunch menu is also tempting. Even better, the prices look very reasonable. We had our cheapest coffee on the mountain so far E$2.80 for 2 espressos. Comparing it to E$6.80 for the same thing at Megeve, it was a bargain!

2/ & 3/ The very cute "Le Luge de Teran"

The sun had come out and after morning tea, we headed over to another shady face on Samoens which has become a favourite. It's a steep face and it's difficult to see what's over the edge when you leave the piste. Ideal!! We had taken a few runs down it yesterday and expected it to be tracked out, but no, the punters had left it alone and we enjoyed a pile of runs and a couple of good crashes as we completed the task of tracking it out!! There's some footage of Graeme on the lower section. He is having a mighty splendid time!! Click on http://picasaweb.google.com/TeWanaka/ArachesWeek10?authkey=erJxyjT9YrI## if you want to see live footage. We have been playing with our camera and we think we may have slightly improved the quality of image. Fingers crossed!

We will confess to being completely exhausted by 1:30pm and headed home for an early lunch.... and quite possibly a "Nana Nap". The sad but inescapable truth is that the ol' bodies are not as young as our minds!!

4/ Heading home through the sunlit trees! Magic!!