More Rain!! But French & Yoga save the Day!!

1/ "Muesli" Liz's cute french kitten.

Much hand-wringing and moping from one Mr Graeme Oxley today. The rain has continued unabated today. "Aaah...there's not going to be any snow left!", he says. "Look Andy!" as he stands by the window (for the 12th time this morning). "It's washing down the road!". Hmmmmm ...thank goodness for the Ipod!!

Lots of french homework completed today. A good thing too, as Liz is back from her visit to the UK and we have our 2 hour lesson this afternoon.

Liz is a fantastic teacher. She prepares really well for every lesson and makes it fun. The time just flies by. As from today however, she no longer speaks to us in English (or at least 95% in French). However, when she is confronted with two completely cretinous blank faces, she has to relent and explain at least partly in English.

I am certainly getting better at blurting out a "semi" understandable sentence. My theory is ( much to Liz's horror!), don't worry about all those pesky, a's, aux's, la's, du's and les's etc, but just get those verbs, nouns and adjectives going. And if you don't know the french word just use the English one...but keep blundering on. They usually get the drift! More often than not, the person I am speaking to will concede and usually reply in english (really well, darn it!!). But my biggest problem is understanding the language when I receive a reply in French. Fortunately Graeme is much better at understanding the spoken language, but he is less confidant about speaking. As his mother describes the Oxley trait, "He's just like his father..afraid of his own voice!" I had hoped that watching copious quantities of French TV while we were sick might have helped me. Alas no!! (For the record, Graeme watched way more TV than me!!) Alors, Liz's new rules might help!

2/ Our lovely Liz with Muesli checking her work!!

The only other highlight today, was our first yoga lesson! Yes, you heard correctly! And moreover, it was Graeme's idea! Yes, I was surprised too. We are booked in for classes every Monday night, from 7 - 8pm. I had advised Antoinette our teacher - "Desole, mai mon mari et moi sommes debutantes. " I hoped she understood?

After french lessons, we "frocked up in our yoga garb", grabbed our yoga mats (aka known as foam sleeping mats that we picked up for E$4 each at Carrefours) and headed up the hill to gym. Quite a tricky exercise given the icy state of our driveway and the roads in general. Fortunately, Pepi Peugeot is unstoppable when we slip some chains on her!

Given the constraints of our severely limited wardrobe, and to give a very clear mental picture of what I mean by "yoga garb", let me explain further. Graeme chose to bring a Treble Cone branded windscreen ice-scraper and his ski waxing gear rather than a tracksuit. Consequently, the only pair of pants that's flexible enough for yoga was his long underwear! Now I'm not saying that he didn't look very striking in his form hugging stripey polyprop numbers... a bit like Rudolf Nureyev I thought! But unfortunately, Graeme was the only bloke in our yoga class and I couldn't help but notice that he was attracting quite a deal of extra attention from our lovely instructress Antoinette. She was very keen to help him get the stretch exactly right. All the other ladies also seemed very keen to help Graeme !

We will be buying Graeme tracksuit pants before next Monday night's lesson!!

And so ends a wet and soggy day in the French Alps. Please Lord, turn the temperature dial down, so all this grim rain turns to lovely snow!!

What? It's Sunday? And Where's the Snow?

1/ The "drive-in Boulangerie" at Sallanches

Well, it's official..we've finally lost touch with reality. We forgot that today was Sunday!

After a very late start to the morning, as a result of another night socialising with those party animals..Rick, Gavin & Welsh Sue, and Dave & Irish Sue, we had decided to head down the hill to Sallanches for a spot of shopping. It was grey and dreary when we awoke and the weather report predicted the arrival of a storm front with heavy snow by mid afternoon. We thought we'd better get going!!

In addition to Au Vieux Campeur (Graeme's favourite shop) there is also another a good outdoor outlet in Sallanches. Called "Quechua" the store mainly specialises in clothing. We had heard from Welsh Sue that they were having a sale. Maybe..just maybe...if there was a sale we could actually afford to buy something?

Unfortunately, we forgot that aside from ski resort areas, France pretty much closes down on a Sunday. So our drive was really for nothing. Quechua was closed, along with pretty much every other shop in Sallanches (even Carrefours!!). Although we did discover a neat "drive-in Boulangerie" on the way home. We had passed this converted fuel station several times on previous visits to Sallanches. There has always been a good number of cars parked outside, so we thought that it might be worth a try. The bread, and according to Graeme, the "pain au chocolat" were delicious, and about 25% cheaper than what we pay for the same thing here in Araches! The french obviously price according to altitude!!

2/ Pepi on her ice skating rink!!

Arriving back to Le Refuge for lunch we were excited to see the snow pleting down around us. Our delight was shortlived however! The snow turned to heavy rain and kept up all through the afternoon. Graeme was beside himself. Predicting an early end to the ski season he worked himself into a right frenzy.

Despite the rain, the temperature was still hovering around zero and our driveway and the local roads transformed to treacherous ice-skating rinks. Very disconcerting.

We were saved from total depression by an outing to visit Irish Dave & Sue, who had kindly invited us to dinner at their cute little chalet. Check it out at www.alpexperience.com They cooked us a delicious dinner. Prawn cakes on salad, a mild thai curry and lemon delicious pudding. Scrumptious!

The conversation flowed and flowed. Dave & Sue can hold a good cracking convesation. Somehow we got talking about TV programs and we ended up watching the latest episodes of "24" and then a British reality program called "Come Dine with Me". The idea of the show is to get 5 people who have never met each other to cook each other a dinner party. After each meal and privately in front of the cameras, each contestant then scores the meal out of 10. The winner gets $1,000 GBP - whoopee!!!??

Of course, all the participants are suitably odd. In the series we watched, there was a very attractive young Scottish mother who had a bit of drinking problem, a born again Christian African- American woman from Texas, a very wealthy landed gentleman wine critic who was obsessed with all things Tuscan, a Felicity Kendall look-a-like retiree who also enjoyed a "tipple" and a pasty looking "20-something" scottish cocktail waiter with a chip on his shoulder. All I can say is that it made morbidly good viewing. The alcoholic yummy mummy and the cocktail whipper snapper fell out, the born again christian nearly set her kitchen on fire and the wine critic bored everyone rigid with endless Tuscan tales. Felicity Kendall won.

As soon as we got home in the early hours of the morning we sent Dave & Sue an email. 10/10 we declared!! The pressure is now on!! We will no doubt be required to return the favour.

Speaking of getting home - what a challenge! While Pepi handled the slushy / icy main roads well, it was all too much for her on our side street, when Graeme gently applied the brakes in preparation for turning into our drive. Pepi hit sheet ice and continued to sail gracefully down the hill past our driveway. Hmmm what to do next? We managed to pull off the lane (not that there was any traffic) and slipped on the chains. Not a fun thing to do at 1am in freezing rain! I held the torch and gave appropriate moral support. But with chains on, we were now in business! Pepi crunched her way back up the ice and into our skating park driveway.

Parking safely in our driveway, we were mystified by the presence of an unknown vehicle. We thought that it might have been Rick & Liz's old car or Olivier's (our french neighbour). But no, it was not there's. It was still there mid morning and vanished just before lunch. We didn't catch the owner, and all we can assume is that they hit the same patch of ice and decided to park their car in our driveway and walk home? The mystery remains.

We cross our fingers and toes for snow tomorrow as predicted!

3/ The Mystery Visitor

Snow Snakes (aka Snow Marmots) Are Alive & Well!!

1/ Proof! The lair of the "mythical european snow marmot!!

I've got the proof!! "Snow Snakes" or "Snow Marmots" as they are referred to in Europe are alive and well! These supposedly mythical creatures are crafty. You can be skiing along, totally relaxed, humming a tune, when all of a sudden a snow marmot will sneak out of their burrow and trip you up. They operate at light speed and their movements cannot be detected by the human eye. The first we know about their attack is when we have unexpectedly landed on our faces in the snow, skis are off and there is a general garage sale of your poles, goggles and other equipment strewn all over the slope.

But today, while ski touring around our hill, I discovered a burrow right in the middle of the piste! I wasn't able to capture the fabled critter on film...but I'm hot on the trail now.

2/ The "Hideaway" Les Tranchets

Today I took myself off for a bit of ski tour in and around our resort. Unfortunately, young Graeme overdid things a bit on the skiing front yesterday and I ordered him back to bed this morning.

Armed with our local topo map I headed up the hill. It wasn't long until a lovely old man called Michel caught me up. He didn't speak English so I had to try and converse with him in French and keep up his cracking pace. Part moutain-goat, Michel has obviously been skinning up the slopes of Les Carroz for many a year.

But this was too good an opportunity to pass up. A friendly Frenchie!! And if I could just keep up with him ...I had another victim! While I can't even begin to imagine how awful I must have sounded, I was able to learn that he has had a holiday house in Les Carroz since the 70's, he has a daughter and a son in their 30's and 5 toddler grandchildren. He does this ski touring circuit most mornings while his wife is still sleeping. He laughed when I told him that "mon mari" was asleep too!!

He asked me about NZ. He didn't seem to be entirely sure where it was. He asked if it was part of Australia? Mon dieu!! Jamais!! I explained that "NZ c'est pres de Australia, mais deux heure le vol de la Nouvelle Zealande". He wanted to know if there was snow in NZ and I was able to tell him about Mt Cook and our snow conditions. Actually, I am becoming quite proficient at describing snow conditions! I suspect that Michel might have understood this part of our conversation the best.

I explained that I was going to try and get over to Morillon ( the neighbouring resort). He suggested that on the way, I visit a little known restaurant at Les Tranchets. The restaurant is tucked away in the forest, away from the piste. Only walkers and snow-shoers go there. I thought this was a fine idea and thanked him profusely as we parted company about half way up to the summit.

2/ The view from the secret restaurant at Les Tranchets

The weather was sunny and still and I was thoroughly enjoying my ski tour. Without too much trouble I found the secret restaurant. It is only open on the weekends, but I have made a note to take Graeme back there some time.

Continuing down through the forest past the restaurant, the skiing took a tricky turn. The walking track was narrow and icy. Too narrow for me to turn, my thighs were burning from the racing snow plough position I had to adopt to keep my downhill speed under control. The walkers and snow-shoers who were sharing what really is their track, were remarkably understanding as I hurtled past them. I took to making a "yodelling alarm call" as I came to a blind corner lest I mowed down small children or hospitalised an innocent elderly couple!

Finally the track flattened and headed upwards again. I came across a deserted cow barn and stopped in the sun for a light lunch of bread, cheese and sausage. Then following the same contour I arrived back on a beginners run called Le Marvel in the Morillon resort. Terrific, I thought! An easy walk homeward! Alas, as I soon discovered, skinning up a beginner's run is not a good idea. Even though I kept to the extreme edge of the piste, wobbly legged beginners would head straight for me, turning away at the very last possible moment. Runaway skis (without their owners) regularly rained down the slope and beginner snow boarders kept popping out of the forest around me. After 200m I was a nervous wreck and consulted my map for a less terrifying way back to Les Carroz.

While much harder going, I made it safely back through the forest and enjoyed a quick ski back through the weekend crowds to the car. I saw so many serious near misses on the piste today that I am beginning to think that skiing on the weekend is too crowded and dangerous. Maybe a first run in the morning will be OK, but after that, I'm going to put the skins on and head off into the forest!! Certainly, I think that this will be the solution for the next couple of months.

Skiing with the Gang!

1/ Les Crew!!

A seriously full day of skiing today. I managed to get Graeme out of bed early, even after a late night finish to our dinner party last night!!

Despite not being able to procure any decent Indian food, I was able to throw something together. Curried pumpkin soup, stuffed chicken breast wrapped in proscuitto, and chocolate cake with raspberry coulis and creme fraiche. And lots of roasted vegies.

The French don't seem to eat vegetables and yet the local markets and supermarkets are full of very good produce. Graeme has suggested that "real French men" don't eat broccoli in public? Certainly in any of the restaurants we have been to so far, vegetables don't make an appearance. A plate of meat and potatoes is de rigueur! Our Kiwi friends would be horrified. But the French do appear to eat quite a bit of salad. Nothing fancy, just a bit of fresh lettuce smeared in mayonnaise. Why the french are not dropping like flies from heart disease remains a mystery!!

French Observations - Impossible Ingredients

So far the list of impossible ingredients to procure in France are: -

1. Porridge (well that's understandable isn't it?)


2. Vegemite (that's also understandable.)


3. Indian spices and ingredients.


4. Real cream. Can you believe it? With the huge range of cheese and dairy products you would think that just good ol' cream, as we know it, would be easy to find. Alas, there are 101 different types of sour cream (creme fraiche), yoghurt and fresh light cheeses like ricotta, but no pouring or double cream. Porquoi? Je'n sais pas?


5. Lamb. Well you can get Agneau but you will need to take out a bank loan! A small leg of lamb here is E$45 (= A$90 or NZ$110). Since we are paying with the pacific peso (NZ$), agneau is off the menu, I'm afraid. I have, however, had some luck in the Carrefours Hypermarket at Cluses. Cluses is an industrial town with a big muslim population and after searching high and low in the butchery section, I found some affordable & edible cuts of Halal lamb. So, as long as we're prepared to face Mecca while eating our lamb we can get our fix!!

We met up again with the gang again today sans Liz who had flown back to the UK to visit her mother early in the morning. The snow and weather was glorious and we are continuously finding new routes in our "backyard hill". Having Rick as a guide is also pretty helpful!

Graeme had done such a good job tuning my skis that I will be loathe to let anyone else near them. I positively zoomed down the slopes!! Skiing with a gang is always fun and we decided to stop for an omelette at a little mountain restaurant called L'Igloo. The food was was simply delicious and so far this L'Igloo is our favourite. While all independently owned, L'Igloo is a very popular name for a ski resort restaurant - we've seen Les Igloos at all the resorts in Chamonix and even Megeve and the Portes du Soleil.

As we skied home after a very full day, we were amazed at the number of jet-streams overhead. It's a reminder of just how busy Europe is. We get excited when the Queenstown flight flies overhead at Cardrona. Jets are flying over us here every second of the day!

Looking skyward we were also able to catch a parapenter coming down off the hill. With his skis still strapped on, he made a perfect landing on the beginner's slope in the town centre. Parapenter's are everywhere and it looks like terrific fun. But there's so many more hazards here. Buildings, roads, people, powerlines, lift lines, cable cars....etc. A badly judged landing for a parapent off Treble Cone, might mean giving a sheep or cow a nasty fright. A badly judged landing in the Alps has consequences that don't even bear thinking about!!

2/ The busy skies of Europe

3/ Le Parapenter!

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!!

In search of Indian???

1/ Graeme tuning the skis in our little workshop!!

A day off the slopes today. The skis needed waxing, the apartment could do with a clean, we'd run out of food and we should be doing some more french practice....and the real reason...us old folks had tired legs after 6 days straight skiing!! Pathetic..! We know! But we were comforted also by the fact that the sun disappeared this afternoon for the first time in nearly 3 weeks!

We have our first dinner party tomorrow evening with Rick, Liz, Gavin and Sue. I had heard many times that these Brits love their Indian food and so I thought somewhat naively that I might try an Indian curry night. Wrong! India was not at any time a colony of France and the curry is definitely not a cuisine here in the Haute-Savoie. We have spent almost everyday this week pursuing "leads" to procure some good authentic curry, pappadams and saffron rice. You would think that I was asking for a banned substance from the horrified reaction I received whenever I asked someone where I could find some Indian curry ingredients. Of course, there is always a slim possibility given my limited French, that I was actually saying something truly grevious!!?

As a last resort, today we travelled about 30 minutes down the valley to Bonneville (an industrial town - not recommended) after I had found an entry for an Asian Emporium in the yellow pages. Emporium would be overstating the grubby little shop that we found. Staffed by a surly Vietnamese grandma who appeared to speak neither french nor english we had our pick of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese delicasies but no Indian. And so...I have accepted defeat....for the moment and it will be good plain old faire tomorrow evening. To be honest, I think Graeme is quietly pleased. He's a little sceptical about my ability to cook up an Indian banquet!!

Today's french observations

Well of course there's that whole French aversion to asian cuisine thing. But today I also learned two new things.

Firstly, did you know that a conductor of an orchestra in France waves around his "baguette". Not only is a baguette a long crusty french bread stick, it's also a conductor's baton. Riveting stuff heh? I particularly liked this piece of trivia as I have a very clear mental image of a wildly animated french conductor who slashes the air just a little too hard with his baguette and showers the first violinists with bread crumbs!

Secondly, I have learned a terrific french expression. I feel that I could hear it from time to time...particularly on a chairlift. The expression is "Tenir la jambe a qeulqu'un" which literally means : - To hold someone's leg. However its real meaning is to "bore someone with endless conversation or to corner someone!!" Perhaps I should rename my Blog - Andy, tenir la jambe a quelqu'un!!

Racing at Les Houches!!

1/ Les Houches with Mont Blanc towering over us in the background

Today we skied at Les Houches which, in contrast to Les Tours where we skied yesterday, is at southern end of the Mont Blanc chain of mountains. Les Houches is not particularly high, but southly facing and located right under Mont Blanc, it gets good snow that lasts well.

There's not much off-piste at Les Houches. This place is a race track. Every run is hugely wide and groomed within an inch of its life! Every year except 2009, [wouldn't you know it?] they hold a famous downhill world cup event. The race takes place on a piste called the "Kandahar" We skied this run today...what a ride!! It's a long long run, swooping down among the trees. It's steep and hard with huge rolls and rises all along the way. The competitors must be airbourne for much of the journey!! To make things interesting there's also a road (with cars on it!!) bisecting the run!! We suspect that the road is actually closed for the event ....but this is France...one never really knows?

At the end of the day, while we took the sedate route either side of the giant kicker ( we don't voluntarily "do air" at our age!), the Les Houches racer kids hit the kicker at full pelt and sailed over our heads and back on to the run below us. Quite awe-inspiring to watch. Sorry, but OZ & NZ racer kids have no chance!!

2/ The run continues below the road. You just use the kicker to jump the road....yeah right?!!

We've mentioned the cold before....but seriously, skiing in the shadows where the snow is the best = frozen nostril hair!! By 10:30am we have "besoin de" (need of) chocolat chaud and espresso. Graeme also regularly seems to need un croissant chocolat???

Today we found a lovely hotel in a sunny spot at the top of the hill! Obviously they were expecting a crowd by the number of chairs laid out? But despite their lovely welcoming manner, they were doomed for disappointment! There were no crowds at Les Houches today.

3/ Graeme was wondering "Ou, est toute le monde???"

4/ Graeme heading down to the Autoroute!! A westerly facing piste at Les Houches!

We managed to ski every run and lift at Les Houches today. While we had a blast zooming down the hard packed piste, Les Houches is unlikely to receive a second visit from us. We confess we prefer untracked snow and secret routes down through the trees than speedway piste! But we don't regret our visit. It was a fun day!

Those classic French Moments!!

Back to those little French moments! As you know we have french lessons at least twice a week. In addition to torturing our poor teacher and the odd chairlift comrade or two, I have been making good use of the internet and all its resources. One of the most interesting things to learn about the French is their "unwritten & unspoken language" that is, the "Faire Francais - the French Gesture!"

I have already mentioned the "Bof" (one of my personal favourites!!). But of course, one of the most recognisable french gestures is the "Faire la bise". Yes, that "kissie, kissie thing that they all do when they greet each other!

I frequently forget that you need to give 2 kisses. I have been accused of being "stingy" with my kisses. Personally, I prefer to call it "La Bise Interruptus!". But when reminded I always finish the task with enthusiasm! The other confusing aspect of the "Faire la bise" is, do you actually kiss? Or is it just an air brushed pucker to each side? And who initiates? The man or the woman? Oh....it's just too confusing....I like the "Bof" much better!!

For those who need further information on the "Faire la bise" go to http://about.french.com/library/weekly/aa018051f.htm