Our Last Day Skiing with Teste Family

1/ Hubert & the Racer - Camille!

A fitting end to our stay with the Teste Family. We shared their first day of the 2008/09 season in December and we were thrilled to enjoy their last day too.

It is closing day for Les Carroz, Samoens and Morillon but the Teste Family decided to ski at Flaine, where the snow is still good. A little top up of snow 2 days ago above 2000m meant that we were still able to have some fresh tracks off-piste. Amazing.

In typical Teste family style several high speed runs on the groomers were mandatory for Hubert (with his shadow Camille hot on his heels) before we were able to tempt them off-piste for a run in the Ger. Serious spring snow greeted us but we enjoyed a couple of runs to say goodbye to our favourite part of the Flaine resort.

Back at the chalet we tucked into a delicious BBQ lunch with the family.

I suspect that Graeme and I, are a disappointment to Hubert & Marie. Our french is still atrocious! But we blame them!! Their english is too good! To make jokes and really have a two-sided laugh, a common language is a must.

We hope that we have inspired them to make the long trip to NZ some day. Hopefully if the NZ$ stays low it will be affordable. But since living here, I can understand why the French are such reluctant travellers. Their country has just about every type of climate imagineable. Beaches, serious mountains, rolling countryside and exciting cities with history, art & culture at every turn. New Zealand and Australia are lovely but I think it would be hard to truly impress the French. We'll have to wait and see!

2/ Team shot: Teste Family & "A&G"

The Serious Smell of Summer!

1/ A Spring Lunch on the Deck

Ever since we arrived back in Araches, the weather has been sunny and balmy. The long hot summer days don't seem far away as we watch the last snow drifts melt away and the grass literally jump from the ground. Another lazy day today, getting through some of those little jobs we have neglected in the social whirl of the last two months!

We joined Marie, Louie, Diane and her friend Louise for lunch on the deck in the sunshine. Marie's youngest, Cami is here too, but she was visiting with friends today. After lunch, Marie and I settled into the deck chairs and it was extremely difficult to get motivated again as we soaked up the relaxing warmth of the sun.

2/ The "secret french custom" - eating fruit!

Apparantly there has been some misinformation given in my blog. Contrary to my earlier comments, after observing a sample of one - the Teste Family luncheon today, the french do eat fruit and vegetables. But I still stand by my original assertion...it's a private thing. You won't see any flagrant fruit or legume munching at restaurants or cafes.

After lunch, Marie was kind enough to ring UPS for us and check on the price of sending our ski bag to NZ. A positive bargain ...only E1700 Geneva to Queenstown. Marie was laughing after she hung up the phone. "It's a joke!" she said. "It would be cheaper for you to buy a seat on a normal flight for your ski bag!"

So it looks like our skis will be coming with us, after all. Plan B is to mail home all the other stuff we won't need. What a hassle. But on a brighter note, we heard from Drive Away Australia this morning and we don't need to have our car serviced! Thank goodness. Trying to explain in french to our local Peugeot dealer that we want an "unscheduled scheduled service" was too traumatic to contemplate....for everyone involved!

Eventually the sun went behind some clouds and it was time to rouse ourselves from the comfort of the deckchairs. Our welsh friends Gavin & Sue have gone back to Cardiff for a flying visit to their family. But they've left their wee doggy "Winston" with Rick and Liz. Winston is a delightful border collie. He loves a walk and so we thought we'd help R&L and share that responsibility. Winston is still very definitely a "boy" so we were a little shy about letting him off the lead lest he chase the girls or pick fights with other boys. We would hate to have to explain Winston's disappearance or injuries to his parents.

To end the day, we were back at Yoga with Antoinette after a 2 week absence during Dana's visit (we didn't have the energy) and our trip to Livigno last week. It's hard to tell, but we actually think she was pleased to see us. We're not sure why. We are the worst students in the class by far. And we have no idea what happens in the last third of each session which is dedicated to breathing. This evening she gave us a Chakra map...all in French. She handed it over to us very reverently. It's obviously important. Unfortunately, we have no idea what we do with it, but we'll have a go at translating it this week in the hope that we can at least try to make an intelligent comment next week. [That'll be interesting!].

Finally just before we were leaving Antoinette went to her car and asked if we wanted some leafy herb that she had been growing. Thrusting a great big bag of green leaves at us, Antoinette explained that it was a good substitute for garlic and onions. We couldn't catch what she called it, but graciously thanked her for the gift. I guess we'll have to try it in our salads and hope that there's no hallucinogenic reaction.

Aaah there's never a dull moment for the Oxleys in Araches!!

Car, Excess Baggage & Summer Continues

1/ Araches farm house and lane

Well France Meteo has obviously got the forecast wrong. No rain today. 20C and not a cloud in the sky. No more procrastination! Much to the relief of our aching joints there's no skiing planned today. We are off to do the food shopping in Cluses and undertake the tricky french task of booking Pepi in for his 10,000 scheduled service. We also have to turn our minds to shipping all our excess luggage back to NZ - groan!

2/ Farmhouse #2

Catching up with Marie this morning, she has given us a fright. She expects that the scheduled service will be about E300. A little naively, we really hadn't given the cost much thought. We are now kicking ourselves that we didn't hand back the car before the service was due and make other transport arrangements. Rick had offered to loan us one of his cars on many occasions. We're feeling a little foolish now.

Rehearsing our french all the way to Cluses "Je voudrais reserve la revision dix mille kilometre pour notre voiture" . The young man at the service counter spoke little English and he shook his head explaining something negative in rapid-fire french. The major flaw with our french is that we also rehearse an expected reply and our subsequent interactions. But when we are thwarted from the beginning with a totally unexpected answer we're in trouble. We were in trouble now.

We pulled out all our bits of paper, the Carte Grise (Registration Papers), our lease with Peugot, contract with Drive Away Australia, the car manual, our passports....his desk was now strewn with important official looking documents. This was sure to impress the young lad that we new what we were about. But no, he was still shaking his head. This was not going at all well.

After 15 minutes of frustrated conversation from our young lad and totally confused responses on our part, we finally figured out that he couldn't do a 10,000km service because the first service for our model wasn't until 20,000km. Aaahaa....."maintenant, nous comprendon!" An unexpected result but hopefully a good one. We still had a problem because our contract with Peugeot/ Drive Away Australia clearly required a 10,000km service. But this was hardly the nice young man's problem. Thanking him profusely and leaving him with a bemused expression on his face and a good story for his morning tea break, we retreated gracefully taking all our bits of paper with us.

Back at Le Refuge after our shopping trip, we have contacted Drive Away Australia, (who fortunately for us, are fluent in English) to ask for a clarification of the conflicting contract terms. Fingers crossed we will be spared E300! If not, we will get them to do battle with our Peugeot Service office. They can try and explain to our young man in Cluses how to do a unscheduled scheduled service!

Next hurdle....the luggage. We really would prefer to travel without our skis if at all possible. A few weeks ago, we had contacted AirNZ about unaccompanied baggage and also been to Geneva Airport to see the airfreight people there. But the skis could only be shipped to Christchurch and we'd have to organise a customs clearance ourselves. Major hassle.

Scouring the internet well into the evening, we tried all the usual suspects DHL, UPS, FedEx only to find that when we entered the dimensions & weight of our ski package the quote was over E2,000. Surely this was a mistake. I know that NZ is close to the South Pole, but not that close!! No nearer to a solution, we have decided to enlist Marie's help and see if she would be kind enough to contact a number of our leads and explain our requirements in French.

Breaking our frustrating shipping search we joined Rick and Liz for an early dinner of Fajitas and an Italian debrief of our time in Livigno. I think we have inspired them to go to La Skieda next year.

They are also going to Italy in June. Renting a gorgeous house in Umbria, they will be joined by some UK friends for a cycling training camp. Both Rick and Liz are involved in cycling events over the summer. Riding from Paris to Geneva, Tour de France or some such ridiculous length of ride!

What is it with our age group? Is it a realisation of our impending mortality? Mid-life crises? What? All the news we hear from home is about friends joining running clubs, cycling around or swimming across lakes and... god forbid running marathons. Makes Graeme and I want to lie down and have a nice cup of tea. But we can't escape even here in France the land of sensible things like red wine and cheese fondue....Rick & Liz have also caught the biking bug.

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.

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....

A Magic Day to Sixt-fer-de-Cheval

1/ Looking down into the Sixt village

The blue skies and picture perfect scenery really says everything - doesn't it? There is a big high pressure sitting over us at the moment and the nights are freezing but every day for the last 4 days has been "bluebird". No new snow in the forecast, but hey...you can't have everything?

2/ The hidden valley to Lac de Gur

Today we did the ski run from Flaine to Sixt-fer-de Cheval. 14 km long, it was spectacular. It's an easy blue run called the Cascades from the top of Flaine (2480m) to Sixt (about 800m). From Sixt you then pick up a free bus that takes you back to the other linked resorts, Samoen or Morillon. We were joined on our excursion by the Teste family sans Louie (their oldest boy) but with their friends, Pierre-Lui and Katrine and their 8 year old daughter who is a great friend of Camille.

About half way along there is a traditional Gite (Guesthouse) situated on a small alpine lake (Lac de Gers). If you wish, you can make a booking there for lunch and enjoy traditional Haute Savoie cuisine on the way down the run. As the Gite is slightly off the piste, there is a telephone nailed to a sign and you just call them to pick you up. They arrive with a ski-do and ropes to tow you up to the restaurant. You can also stay there the night!

The village of Sixt also has one or two ski lifts, so we think we might try a few runs there. One or 2 lifts? It will remind us of skiing in NZ!!

3/ On the way down through the forest

We joined the Teste Family for lunch after we returned to the very top of Les Carroz - a place called the Tete des Saix. Graeme and I actually joined in the conversation and uttered a few french sentences that were understood! There might be hope for us yet?

But the "Logique francais" of the day belonged to Hubert. He is keen to get some randonee (ski touring) equipment and was seeking Graeme's advice. Hubert is not a small man, immensely strong and he skis very fast and hard. Graeme tried to politely suggest that he would need to look at a "robust" set up. "Hmmm ...he said scratching his chin" "So it's like buying a mountain bike?" "How so?" Graeme asked. "Well, I was thinking about buying an ultralight bike - say 1okg but it will cost me a lot more. So I figure I should buy the 15kg model and lose 5kg in weight. Then, I win both ways: - the bike is cheaper and I'm 5 kg lighter!!....but it might be a little more difficult n'est-ce pas?"

4/ Picnic at Tete des Saix with the Teste Family.

Look carefully, Graeme captured a mandarin in midflight!!