SUNNY DAYS

Sun the whole weekend, and what a pleasure.  The boys got out their bikes and we set off.  It's nice not to slip on the ice for a change.

On Sunday I went up with the boys, my sister-in-law Claire and our friend Seb, to the top of the piste.  I've never seen the boys ski down from the top so it was great to do.  We went with our yooners and had a great time.  I feel like a professional now.  In fact I posted a video of me on facebook and my brother-in-law said I looked like Ayrton Senna racing on the moon.  Funny.

My friend Heather, said my casque makes me look like I have ears.  Actually it's Ben's old one, can you believe it actually fits me.  Can't believe either how well the kids ski, Benjamin had a near miss because he doesn't watch around him, but other than that they skiing so well.

I'M HOOKED

Yip on the Yooner.  Developed here in France in fact a couple of villages away in Manigod, for a different experience on the snow, you are allowed in Praz only to go to the top slopes and yooner down.  So off I went with my friend Caro,her husband mans the piste and is a pisteur so if anything went terribly wrong we could always call him. Off we went having both watched how to do it the night before indipendantly on You Tube and Voila.  Got it first time.  Great fun.  Went down the Blue and Red Piste four times with a break in the middle for lunch of course.

 Going up

 Red Piste

 At the top - 700m up

The yooner

Me

Caro

Best fun, it's fast but easy to control, can't imagine it's so fun when the slopes are packed with skiers but on a quiet day it's superb and I can now go up with the kids and they can ski down and me yooner.  Will have to see who's the fastest.

We went to a little restaurant on the top for lunch and were waiting for Caro's husband (Francois) to join us when we witnessed an avalanche.  The lady sitting behind us said she thought she saw two snowboarders, none of us saw any snowboarders just the avalanche. Anyway she left and obviously alerted the men on the ground because half an hour later the pistes were abuzz with dogs, pisteurs, police helicopters.  It was an amazing operation to watch. It ended at 7pm last night apparently and there was no one in the avalanche so maybe the lady just had had one to many.  Anyway needless to say Francoise didn't join us for lunch he was in his element searching away. It was a yummy lunch and very exciting to have a show at the same time. I took photos - of course.

 The restaurant at the top

 The avalanche and a man arriving with a search and rescue dog

 A good shot of the avalanche - all the brown mud

 Francoise - Caro's husband, arriving on skis

A skidoo equipped with spades

 You can see all the guys looking next to the avalanche, they use long poles to poke the ground.

 Police helicopter arrives

Everyone in a briefing on the base

So that was my exciting afternoon.  The school (Samuel's) was skiing the same afternoon and Caro and I yoonered down with them, this is looking back up with them all coming down behind us....

And to finish of the splendid day we caught up with Caro's son Titioun

What a day.

COUPE DU MONDE

Well Sunday looked gloomy so I went to the slopes with the kids to watch Praz's Yooner competition.  The yooner is a type of sledge allowed on the slopes from the top down, a normal sledge is forbidden and you have to stick to certain areas.  They had a competition Sunday.  Not a huge turnout but I managed to snap a picture of one making a rather fast descent.

I am meant to be doing this Thursday with friends, secretly though I am praying for rain.  You use your feet as the breaks.  Will keep you posted.

Then Sunday afternoon a friend called to say the World Cup Final was on at Cote2000.  It's at the top of Megeve so we wrapped up warm and went to watch.  Great atmosphere with loud music and lots of people clapping and using cow bells.  Love that sound.

 You can just see the two skiers.  This is a downhill run full of little bumps with a big jump in the middle.  Actually called Ski de bosses Dual.  A French lady won it from Megeve, it's incredibly fast. 

 The course - 235m long

This is Seb with the kids.

The weather closed in though so it was home for hot chocolate.  I have never seen such big flakes.

And I thought Spring was on the way.

VISITORS

Well we had a surprise visit on Wednesday when I thought my two sister-in-laws were coming to dinner, turned out I had three more for supper.  My sister-in-law Fifi (short for Anne-Sophie) was here for a week from Burgundy to help her sister out in the chalet business. She left her little boy with her parents in Brittany for a week and they decided to come down and fetch Fifi to take her back.  They spent three day here and of course brought Romain, much to Sam and Ben's delight as they adore their little cousin.

 Romain with his present from his Grandma
 Our friend Seb who gave the concert for the evening.

Manu's mom and Fifi watching the concert.

It was funny weather today but we ventured out to ski a little anyway.  The boys have had flu and so have been man down for about 1 week, we seem to be on the mend though.

 Benjamin just loves to ski

 Brothers

 Proud cousins

 First ski lesson

 Romain and Benjamin on the luge slope

 My breath of fresh air
Who's winning Samuel or Auntie Claire?

QUICHE, MELTING SNOW AND LOCAL PRICES

Well I made myself a whole quiche this evening, being single is difficult for cooking.  I end up eating a handfull of nuts and a piece of toast.  Great for the waistline loosing kilos fast (well not that fast) but you feel like you haven't had a square meal after a while, so I made a quiche.  Courgette, Feta and Caramalised shallots.  It was delicious but think I'll be freezing the rest.

RECIPE

Three courgettes sliced longways and sauteed in a little oil with a chopped garlic clove.  Tip in to a puff pastry shell.  Slice one onion or one large shallot and fry in some oil. Add a table spoon of brown sugar and a splash of red wine.  Reduce until the onion is soft and add to the quiche base.  Mix together three medium eggs and 250ml cream (I used light cream) a pinch of salt and pepper.  Crumble two rounds of feta onto the courgette and onion base.  Pour over the cream and bake on 200C till set about 30 min.  Don't add too much salt to the cream and egg mixture because the feta can be very salty.  Enjoy warm with a salad or if you're like me skip the salad and pour yourself a nice glass of wine.

The finished Product

The kids pizza.  I buy the dough ready made and then we just bung whatever on top.  Really good.

As you can see the North facing slope is melting fast and the South facing slope still has plenty of snow.  We have had so many tourists but that's it, they are all off this weekend.  France breaks its' school holidays into three regions.  So when the kids have two weeks off, the other two regions are still at school.  When our kids go back the second region has two weeks off and so on.  So you end up with six weeks of busy season if you live in a seasonal town.  Clever really but annoying to the locals.  O and the dogs.  Why take your dog on a skiing holiday?  I don't understand.......

*  So you drive 6 hours to the resort - dog in back
*  Check into a tiny apartment - dog on balcony -7C
*  Go skiing all day and leave dog to bark at every passing thing on the balcony all day 0C or leave him    inside ALONE.
*  Take the dog for a walk at night when you get back - dark and -4C.......

No excellent idea, bring your dog skiing and then let it crap all over our pavements because that's what you do if you are French and have a dog.

The ski slopes (South) with plenty of snow on still.

I had a lovely catch up with friends and family today, on skype and the phone.  Our phone calls to all landlines to the UK and South Africa are free.  Yip FREE.  I even prefer the phone most of the time because Skype at the moment is delayed and I find the whole speech but no mouth moving thing very frustrating.  I was chatting to Lisa about local prices so I thought I'd put some down.  You can decide weather France is expensive or not.

In Euros......

A small loaf of sliced brown bread 0.80c - R 7.93
6 Carrots 0.57c - R 5.65
Small head of broccoli 1.39 - R 13.78
Fresh baguette from the bakery 89c - R 8.82
One Croissant from the bakery 1euro - R 9.91
6 litres of UHT milk 6.27 - R 62.17
Pack of two turkey scallops - 2.37 - R 23.50
Pack of 6 chicken breasts 6.79 - R 62.17
Pack of 250g mince 2.99 - R 29.64
Pack of 6 chipolata sausages 2.99 - R 29.64
Camembert 2.49 - R 24.68
A coffee at a sidewalk cafe (a very small espresso) 2euros - R 19.83
One take-away pizza from the local pizzeria 9.00 - R 89.24
Petrol per litre 1.59 - R 15.76
1.4kg fresh mussels 4.50 - R 44.62
A pass to swim for the afternoon in the heated covered pool Adult 5euros - R 49.57 and
Child 4euros - R 39.66
Dinner for two in a slightly upmarket restaurant with one bottle of cheap Rose, 1 starter, 2 mains, 2 desserts 79.86 euros - R 791.86
A frozen coffee/ice cream drink thingy from Mac Donalds 2 euros - R 19.83

And then there's skiing to give you an idea of what a day will cost to go skiing for an Adult....

Ski pass to use the lifts 27 euros - R 267.72
Hiring of ski's and boots 21 euros - R 208.22

Just in case you're interested.

CARNIVAL

Well it's been a while since I updated.  With Manu being away I seem to be on the go all the time.  Nothing new really just lots of holiday makers taking up the slopes so we've been doing other things like swimming, visiting the library and of course there's school.  Samuel and Benjamin had Carnival at school last week which meant going to school in a disguise or dressing up in English.  The teachers made them crepes and they danced and sang songs.  The parents weren't invited but I did get these pictures of Samuel's school blog.

Benjamin went as a policeman, rather ironical because most of the time he is the criminal and Samuel went as a pirate.  Here are the photos from Samuel's school.

 Samuel's class, he is at the back third from the right.
 The dance in France this is called THE BOOM, actually it's called LE BOOM

 Making crepes

Just loved this of the little girls in his class.