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!!

"Chasse au tresor" - A French Treasure Hunt

Gra's team "arty photo". See their clever interpretation - spelling "RT" in the snow!

Today, we joined Rick and Liz and their guests for a "treasure hunt" around our ski resort. Every week, Liz organises a treasure hunt for their guests. She sends out two teams (usually blokes v. sheilas) to find their way around the mountain, take photographs and generally cause chaos and mayhem .

Aside from answering the clues and finding our way around the mountain we were also set a number of tasks that we had to photograph in order to prove completion. These tasks included:-

• Taking an "Arty Photo",
• Giving a kiss to a random person of the opposite sex,
• A team photo with the "largest moustache" on the mountain
• Making a snow sculpture
• Getting some air on skis.

There was also some speed time trials and ski acrobatics (horizontal 360's) down the piste to top off the day!!

The Boy's snow sculpture. Very styly.

My team was Heather (mum), and her 17 year old daughter Hannah and her friend Tilly. Graeme's team comprised Rick, Josh (Heather's son) & friend James. Our girls team, will confess to being a little intimidated by the boy's team. They had an unfair advantage with Rick on their team, not only because of his local knowledge, but he also has terrific artistic flair as evidenced by the "RT" photo. As a number of the set tasks involved sculpture and creative photography, our team conceded very early on that we were "artistically & a little directionally challenged!"

While we received only scorn from the judges (Liz & her friend Mark (Heather's husband)) for our attempt an arty photo, we did win the snow sculpture. Tragically it was not due to any great skill, but rather we lowered ourselves by using sex to sell!!. Our sculpture was of a naked & excited hermaphrodite. (We wanted it to appeal to both judges!). Needless to say the photograph was not suitable for my blog!!

We also won the "Best Air Shot". Typically the boys tried to capture a "big ski jump" on film. But alas, like most male things in the cold, the jumps were very small indeed. The clever girls from our team had absolutely no intention of getting involved in anything with forward speed and height! So we took a different interpretation and I climbed a tree with skis on. (Not the easiest task ??!!) But I was at least 3 ft off the snow, certainly much higher than any of the boys' jumps. Needless to say we were the winners of this contest!

Lastly, we left the "giving a kiss" to the young girls in our team. I mean really, who'd want a crusty ol' 42 year old laying one on them? Given the language barrier, we were hoping to make a bee-line for an English accent. Unfortunately, the Anglais were thin on the ground today. Well the sun wasn't shining and the pub was probably well more interesting!! So we had to corner some poor french fellow, throw him to the ground and Hannah jumped on him for a kiss. By the looks of him he didn't seem to mind very much!

What a fun way to spend the day, see the mountain and have a laugh!

The Antipodean Care Package!!

Guess what came in the mail today!! Oh such lovely, lovely things! A care package from Moira, our dear friend in NZ and another from Julie, my sister in Australia. Everything a homesick Aussie/Kiwi could want!! But I suspect they've been reading my blog!!

• a lovely handwritten letter. (Who still writes letters? Well done Moira!!)
• photos of the nephew's recent wedding;
• CURRY!!
• intellectually stimulating reading material;
• a book of AFL commentator quotations..(it's an Aussie thing!!);
• the Aussie Homesick Pack....for further details see below
  

And from my sister, The Aussie Homesick Pack - a classic!!

• recipe for Pavlova (Hush all you kiwi's. Australia invented pavlova and that's the last we'll hear about it! OK? Look, you just beat the Aussies in cricket...get over it!)
• aussie bush tea,
• koala tatoo (Graeme's excited to help me with this one!! The mind boggles!!")
• echidna badge, (I responded that I was keen to help pin this one on him!! Ha ha ha),
• aussie toothpick (aka a "match"),
• the flag,
• real gum leaves (there's no MAF in France, obviously!),
• ....and of course VEGEMITE!! (Boy, are the Teste Family in for a gastronomical treat!).

But the very BEST thing in the care Package. Can you guess what it was?

Tongs! No more chasing the beans around the pot!!

"No, Graeme, that is NOT what we use them for!!"

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!!

The Answer to Life, the Universe & Everything....and the "Needle in a Haystack"!!

"Tout Baigne! Andy, Graeme, et une baguette"

For all Douglas Adams fans (author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ("HHGG"), you will understand when I say, that I know the Answer to Life, the Universe & Everything! I've reached that magic number - "42"!! Not sure what's so special about the number "42" but apparantly Deep Thought (the supercomputer in HHGG) took 7.5 million years to come up with the answer. Personally, I've only done 42 years thinking on the matter and my answer to most deep and meaningful questions is - go skiing!

It was a leisurely start to the day today. Opening pressies in bed and thanks to Sue & Gavin, who loaned us their skype camera/microphone we enjoyed a successful morning speaking to all our friends and family in OZ & NZ.

It was mid-morning before we made it out onto the slopes. Armed with our standard lunch fare of baguette, cheese and sausage we headed out. The snow is still in remarkably good shape given that it hasn't snowed for some time and the temperatures are steadily increasing. We keep thinking that the snow will turn icy as it does in Australia and NZ, but no, - still good!!

Finding a nice sunny picnic spot on the hill, we settled into our delicious french fare. While eating, were were entertained by a gaggle of boffin snowboarders. We even caught some of their hilarious capers on film.

Today was auspicious not only because of the number "42" but because we found a lost treasure! A week ago, I took quite a spectacular crash and slide on one of our favourite off-piste runs. For some reason, SOMEONE had forgotten to do up the top pocket of my back pack. We hadn't realised this, until a Mars Bar, that was supposed to be safely in my pack, shot past me as I slid down the slope on my face. Collecting the detritus I had left scattered about the slope, we failed to notice that I had also lost Graeme's "Binding Buddy" out of the same pocket. A Binding Buddy is a very useful tool like an Allen Key that you use to adjust your bindings. Graeme was suitably distraught about its loss.

But today, one week later, and after probably 100's of people had skied this slope something made me go back and just have a quick look for the missing Binding Buddy. Graeme thought that it was a waste of time. The slope is large and I wasn't exactly sure where I had crashed. The rather large hole from the high speed head plant had disappeared! "Needle in a haystack, Andy!" said Graeme. But I just had that positive feeling that I would find something....so I followed my hunch. Sure enough... about half way across the slope I came upon a Mars Bar. Obviously another one of our chocolate bars had made a desperate break for freedom. So I scratched around in the nearby snow and "low & behold" the Binding Buddy was found! What are the chances?? Graeme was ecstatic!

"Eureka! The Mars Bar and...the Binding Buddy"

And to top off an otherwise perfectly lucky and special day, Graeme had secretly organised a dinner at a local restaurant with Liz & Rick and Gavin and Sue.

Called the Gron, the restaurant specialises in meat dishes. Actually it's just a big BBQ place where you select your meat and it is cooked on an open fire in front of you. The owner is quite eccentric. He used to run the only nightclub in Les Carroz for about 20 years. And so the music for dining is comprised of 80's classics like B52's Private Idaho & Nina 99 Luft Balloons. He also speaks Franglish (a mixture of French and English) which no-one, not even the Rick & Liz could decipher. (It has since occurred to me, that this is what I must sound like when I attempt the language? ) He reminded us very strongly of another equally eccentric restauranteur we know who nails his tables to the floor! The food was almost as good too!!

3/ & 4/ Cooking our dinner over the BBQ. Our night out with the gang.

A "Tele" Fest Today

We spent the day skiing at Flaine today. Flaine - 1600 - 2480m is the highest area of the Grand Massif.

It was an uncertain start to the day as the weather is finally starting to change. The temperature has risen and the wind has started up. We admit to being so spoiled with the snow and weather conditions that we were both a little reluctant to don the skis this morning, especially since the skies were grey and it looked like the weather was going to crack up any minute.

Au contraire!! In fact, the sun came out at lunchtime and it remained sunny and warm all afternoon. What do we know about the weather?

The weather in Europe is quite different than NZ. Everything happens very slowly. They have a gentle weather pattern. No howling NW'esters or 4 seasons in one day! We can almost predict what the weather is going to do by what the council workers routine. If they are busy moving lots of snow and clearing the road edges, then it's going to snow. If they are clearing drains...bother it's going to rain!!

2/ "8 -seater Telesiege "Grand Vans"

Today was a TELE fest kind of day. Not tele as in telemark, but "tele" as in Telepherique (Cable Car), Telecabine (Gondola), Telesiege (Chairlift), Teleski (Poma/Drag lift) and finally the very unique Telebenne. We went on a "lift tour" of Flaine today!!

We have never seen a lift quite like the "Telebenne". You ride it standing up. It takes only two persons and in Flaine it's used as a short access lift from the village to the main lifts. The best way I can describe the lift is to think "chariot". You climb into the little half cabin and hold your skis vertical. The back closes automatically behind you and you're away. Getting off is interesting! Easy than it looks, you step off backwards and the telebenne continues on it's merry way.

Our aim today was to see if we could manage to ride all the different kinds of lifts at Flaine. Mission accomplished! See the photos below, although we missed out taking photos of the telepherique and telecabine - you'll just have to take our word for it!

We also did a bit of skiing - here's todays footage!!

3/ Teleski de Veret

4/And... The "Telebenne"

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....