A blog to enable you to follow our daily lives in the Alps, France. Manu - the French Papa, Jude - the South African Mommy, Samuel - 9 years, super sensitive, caring and loving and Benjamin - 6 years, a breath of fresh air, answers to the nickname Hiroshima.
I was asked to go to Sammy's school on Friday to help with project Dali. We had such fun doing all sorts of Dali type art with the kids and other mom's.
We had such fun.
On Saturday we had soccer tournaments. Samuel went with another mom and I took Benjamin to Combloux. It is so disorganized but the kids love it so what do you do?
You can just see Benjamin standing to the right of the group in a white shirt. He scored a goal so was quiet impressed with himself. I went for dinner on Saturday night with the kids to friends up on the mountain. It was delicious and lots of English was spoken so it was a nice break.
We went riding on Sunday morning and Perrick came with us. He lives opposite and goes to school with Samuel. The snow has thawed in the woods and the flowers are out.
Samuel looking at the fungus on the tree
The blossom is out
Three kids having fun
Crocuses
ON Sunday I was invited to Bettex. Having never been I got lost but it's beautiful. On the way to St Nicolas de Veroce about half an hour from us, I went to have tea with Binita, an Indian lady who moved here last year and has two children in Samuel's French class. They live opposite Mount Blanc. Here's the view, it felt like you could touch the mountain.
This is St Gervais in the Valley
Isn't it fab.
She bought a Poisson for gouter (tea) because it was Poisson d'Avril or April Fool and here in France they celebrate with the fish. It was delicious, unfortunately I didn't take a photo though.
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.
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
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.
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?
