Wednesday 22 August 2012

Chamonix exercise

I didn't just sit glued to the Olympics for two weeks, honest! There is the best open air 50 metre pool in the world in Chamonix, with a perfect view of Mont Blanc. So, I got myself a season ticket and swam every day. I did 2km one day in honour of the open water swimmers and I have huge respect for their 10km swim, I had wobbly legs and forgot my locker combination after just 2, so goodness knows how they feel after 10km.

So, I managed quite a bit of exercise in Chamonix as well as watching a lot of elite athletes who do bags more sport than me. A perfect two weeks really!

Olympic coverage dissected

My main views on the BBC coverage are these:-

Claire Balding, Jake Humphrey and Hazel Irving ; all brilliant, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and charming.

Lineker; stick to football, I didn't believe that you were really very interested and some of your interviews with medal winners were bordering on patronising and usually had the feel of an embarrassing uncle at a teenagers party!

The pundits - Denise Lewis and Michael Johnson, brilliant. Ian Thorpe, a really excellent first time doing this sort of job, he was so natural and I am sure the BBC will be trying to lure him back for other similar events. Colin Jackson......oh dear, a little out of his depth sometimes and not quite up to the knowledge and gravitas of Michael Johnson, I actually winced when Colin slapped Michael Johnson's leg as Johson was clearly not amused.

My small criticisms should not detract from the fantastic job that the Beeb did overall. The Olympics in London was, in my humble view, a great event for the UK and something that many of us will remember fondly in years to come. The volunteers, organisers and competitors did us all proud and the impression I got from lots of friends was that we would all like the Olympics to come back to the UK as soon as possible! I don't know if that will happen again in my lifetime, but I hope so. A job well done and I hope the country will continue the enthusiasm for all sports in the future.


Chamonix Olympics

After travelling through the Pyrenees and seeing the Tour de France, we headed on to Allos for a few days. Our friends were there and it was great to see what the village was like in the Summer after spending four months there over the Winter. It is hot and glorious in the Summertime. Gorgeous steak frites sitting out under the stars at the PMU Bar and lots of chilled Rose wine.

We then drove up north through the Alps to Chamonix. We went through the Frejus and the Mont Blanc tunnels, a first for me, and stpooed overnight in the Oeste valley in Italy. A recession busting conversation with the campsite owner took place " do you want a receipt or shall I put the money in my other place?"

We got to Chamonix just as the Olympics got going. We rented an apartment with UK tv so that we could see the full 2012 spectacular. We were there for the first Super Saturday and celebrated Mo Farrah's gold medal. I was glued to the BBC coverage for the whole two weeks. Paul had some work to get done, so he didn't get to see the full details of the dressage, Greco-Roman wrestling and  trap shooting, but he did see a lot of the swimming, cycling and athletics, which wasn't too bad either!

I even ended up watching the closing ceremony as I had missed the Opening one

Northern Spain

We had a good time travelling through northern Spain, however, we travelled quicker than originally planned because the weather was very wet.

Galicia was lovely, met some Brits who were just about to buy a farm and turn it into an Eco-campsite.

Asturias was really, really wet so we rushed through.

The Spanish Basque country was a lot of fun. Interesting camping experiences that widened my usual limited comfort zone of operation, for example, free camping on a remote headland with a panEuropean collection of travellers.

Spain is a very loud, party sort of country. Quite a change from shy, retiring Portugal! The Spanish social hours are unique for Europe, no one seems to think about eating in the evening until at least 11pm and that is considered early. We were on some campsites where entire families ( including very young nippers) didn't sit down to start eating until midnight and the meal would take a couple of hours, I don't know how anyone gets any work done when they are up that late every night!

Anyway, we moved on to France after about a week travelling through Spain and headed for the Pyrenees. Still a bit wet, but a bit of sunshine in between too.

Monday 16 July 2012

Tour de France fun

We arrived in the French Pyrenees yesterday. I am going to blog separately about Spain as we had a great time travelling along the northern coast. We are at the col de Peyresourde. The point of being at this particular spot is that the Tour de France comes up and over the col on Wed and then it comes back up and over on Thurs, so it's a chance to see two days from one spot. We are camped out in a farmers field about 500 metres below the col. There are sooo many people arriving each day, it is like a music festival. It is already very busy so it will be utter madness by tomorrow. I think the road gets closed tomorrow evening, but who knows really? Everyone here is cycling mad, obviously. We've been chatting to some Brits, Belgiums and lots of French fans. It was a shame to hear about the tacks on the road yesterday, hopefully that sort of idiotic behaviour won't be repeated. Paul is really missing out on the cycling opportunities here, as he left his road bike at home. However, we managed a hot ride up to the col this morning on our beach cruisers, with Daisy in her basket on the back. It did produce some funny looks from the hoards of cyclists kitted out in Lycra on their carbon framed bikes, but I think it was good to show them something different!

Monday 2 July 2012

Northern Portugal

We had a great time in Sao Pedro, cycling, swimming, beachcombing and watching a local go-kart competition which would have given the UK Health and Safety Executive a collective aneurism! Next we headed down to the surfing Mecca of Portugal, Ericeira. Gorgeous sunshine, clean, sandy beaches with wild surf. We camped for a couple of days and then headed to Ribamar, about 6km north for 5 days of luxury at a place we've visited before. Beautiful views, a pool to ourselves and a lovely owner who delivered carton after carton of ripe soft fruits from her orchard "just because I thought you might like these". The visit was only marred by England getting knocked out of Euro 2012 by Germany on penalties, aarrgghhhh! We went up to Peniche a couple of times, apparently this is the new surf Mecca of Portugal (according to a lifeguard in Sao Pedro who updated Paul on this fact, his main reason for rating it above Ericeira seemed to be that "the girls, they are better looking in Peniche"). After Peniche we started to head North. We spent a couple of hours in Obidos (the Rye of Portugal, very pretty but also very touristy). Next we headed for Figueira da Foz and Praia de Mira. Mira is a great beach town, very laid back. We saw Portugal lose to Spain at the campsite and the poor Portugese are very emotional about these events, lots of gesticulation and post match analysis, reminded me very much of home! Mira is a town on the north side of the mouth of the river Lima and we camped at a site to the south. There was a fab little ferry that took us and our bikes across to town to explore. Our next stop was Viano do Castelo, set in an area of Portugal called the Minho. Great rivers, wooded valleys and lots of greenery. A truly stunning landscape. Lots of agriculture and the people here are serious about preserving old traditions and customs. There was a dance festival in Viano, with men and women dressed up in traditional costume wearing clogs that looked impossible to walk in, let alone dance. We did a trip over to Guimaraes, inland. This is a mediaeval city known as the birthplace of Portugal. The architecture is really interesting and the grilled octopus that I ate there was delicious. It is the European City of Culture 2012, and it is easy to see why. Well worth a visit. The campsite there is up at the top of mount Penha, a 15 minute drive out of town. Once you are up there, you feel like you are in the clouds and there is an air-conditioned cable car that gets you down to Guimaraes in 5 minutes flat (only 2 Euros too). After Guimaraes we went to Vila Praia de Ancora (or Anchor Beach). So named because King Ramiro II had his unfaithful wife drowned here with an anchor tied around her neck! There was a sardine festival taking place there, so dinner was obviously sorted! The surf dropped off a bit whilst we were there, so I even managed to persuade Paul to accompany me out to visit Citania de Briteiros, an impressive Celtic hill settlement and apparently, one of the most important archeological sites in Portugal. It dates from around 300 BC and has streets, guttering, cisterns, a bath house and many circular and rectangular dwellings. It is thought that the settlement housed many thousands of people at its peak. We will stay here in Ancora for another day or two and then we are heading north into Spain. Portugal has been friendly, sunny, scenic and interesting. I hope Spain will be equally as good.

Thursday 14 June 2012

Google translate

Google translate has been a brilliant thing over the last 7 months, it has helped me get all sorts of information and stuff from the chemist, tourist office, bank, post office and pet shop. However, today I tested the extremities of its range and carefully wrote out in Portugese what I needed from the friendly vet in Marinha Grande. I tried to pronounce it - just got blank stares, so I handed over my little scrap of paper with my neatly written out and, I thought, polite request - the stares back at me went from merely blank to shoulder shrugging incomprehension. Eventually a lovely veterinary nurse who spoke a little bit of English (more than my non-existent Portugese anyway), came out and after a short conversation we were all sorted with the correct item. So, what I wanted to say on my little note was "Please could I purchase a worm tablet for my dog?" What I think my Google translated note said was "May I please purchase some earthworms to feed to my dog?" Oh well Google translate, it's been lovely and I'm sorry I gave you a task too far, I'll stick to easier subjects from now on.

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Sao Pedro de Moel

It got a bit wet and windy in Guithary, so we packed up and drove down to Portugal. The drive took us diagonally across the northwest area of Spain. Lots of wind, very flat and a bit featureless (apart from the many wind farms). We had an overnight stop in Belmonte in northern Portugal and then arrived at Sao Pedro on Monday. We last visited this place in 1996, it's a lovely little village on the west coast and the campsite is set amongst a pine forest that is called the Pinhal de Leiria. It was planted at the request Dom Dinis about 700 years ago to protect farmland from the inward march of sand dunes, it is a huge national park now and the tall pines provide shade and a fresh fragrance. The campsite hasn't changed much at all since we last visited. It's a chilled out, relaxed place. It's not very busy at the moment as the season doesn't really start until July. Paul had a bit of a surf today that turned into an adventure, but as he's going to blog about it I'll leave that particular story for him to tell. There was a Euro match on tonight, Portugal v Denmark, the Portugese are clearly as obsessed with football as the Brits as there were huge cheers to be heard from the village when Portugal scored. Portugal won thank goodness! We went on a great bike ride along the coast this morning and there are lots of bike trails through the pine forest that we'll try out this week. The weather here is sunny and warm, but not too hot, perfect for biking and beaching. Sorry to read that the UK is having very heavy rainfall and serious flooding at the moment. I hope the summer starts soon for all you Brits.

Friday 8 June 2012

Pays Basque

We left Brittany on the 1st June and headed south. We stopped overnight at Ile de Re and I had my first bowl of moules mariniere on this trip. Then we headed to Hossegor and checked out the surf beaches, wild and windy! We stayed overnight in the cheap camping-car area with all the other 'snow-birds' and had a wander around town the next morning. Lovely, chilled-out place. We arrived at Guitary 4 days ago, a little town right in the heart of the Pays Basque. It's about 3 miles from Biarritz. The town is lovely and there is a fantastic Basque church with incredible sea views. The beaches are empty, sandy and relaxing and the water is warm. Biarritz and St Jean de Luz are both great. St Jean is a lively city with a gorgeous harbour and great beaches. We watched 4 intrepid people surfing in an out-rigger this morning which was very entertaining. It looked like lots of fun with little control (shouldn't life always be like that?). The food here is delicious, red peppers and chilli with everything and loads of tasty fish. We saw some kids playing pelota a couple of days ago, fastest game in the world apparently. They must have been about 8/9 years old and they were already extremely competent players, I guess it's in the blood here. It's so nice here in the Basque country that we'll probably stay a bit longer and then aim for San Sebastian and Bilbao. Pip pip for now!

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Sunny Brittany

I haven't updated my blog for a few weeks as I didn't have much news. I went back to the UK for a little while during April and early May. It rained for most of the time I was home! We've now come back to France and are on the west coast of Brittany, the sun is out and the beaches are wild, deserted and perfect for dog walks. Paul is managing to get a bit of surfing done too! Seafood extravaganza planned for tomorrow night with some friends, hopefully with some Sancerre. Have so far resisted the lure of stripy Breton tops as I have too many already! We are here for another 10 days, then it's off south in the campervan.

Monday 26 March 2012

Exploring Provence

We went to Castellane and saw the Paris-Nice bike race whizz through, the peloton were in a happy mood, chatting, smiling and looking at the crowd. It was lovely and sunny and they were probably pleased to have almost completed the race. Well done Wiggins!

A couple of days later we decided to explore a little bit of Provence instead of going to San Remo. Glad to have made that choice as Cav didn't win Milan-San Remo, but we got to drive through breathtaking Provençal scenery on a blazing hot Spring day. We got to Vaison-La-Romaine and stayed there for a couple of nights. Gorgeous food, unbroken sunshine, fabulous Roman remains including a 7000 seater amphitheatre which is still used in the Summer for dance productions and for Paul our B and B host just happened to be the president of the local cycle club and took him out on the clubs Wednesday morning bike ride. While he was there Paul also took the opportunity to climb Mont Ventoux, an ambition he has held for a few years now. He enjoyed himself a lot that day and had a well deserved Croque Monsieur afterwards.

We got back to the chalet at the end of last week. We're now busy packing up ready to head off from here on the 31st March. I will be sad to leave Allos as it has been lovely living here in the mountains, but the next phase of our adventure is about to start.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Goodbye to our last visitors

We said goodbye to our last visitors this morning. I think Russell and Edie had a good time, although I am not entirely convinced that Russell enjoyed the bike ride up to La Foux. He did however appreciate the tea and cake when he got back to the chalet. Edie managed her first blue run and had a happy introduction to skiing in the spring sunshine.

We are packing up and leaving here at the end of this month. Before then we are off to see the Paris-Nice bike race as it passes through Castellane and then we are going to the coast for a couple of days to see the finish of Milan-San Remo (come on Cav). Hoping for some nice, sunny weather.

The snow conditions have deteriorated further here, which I didn't think would be possible! Unfortunately, this means there has been an increase in accidents on the slopes. We are seeing the helicopter ambulance more and more frequently as it ferries people down the valley to the nearest hospital. Nothing too serious so far, mainly broken arms and legs I hear.

Saturday 3 March 2012

The Gender Divide

There are endless pages of information devoted to this, the differences; physically, psychologically, emotionally. The never ending discussions as to which gender is the best at multitasking. Identification of the similarities in order to achieve a greater understanding of the differences. Some is interesting, some is boring and a lot is pub talk nonsense.

Well, I thought I'd add my own pub talk nonsense. There are certain things that men just instinctively like and women don't get at all.

Two of those things are opinel knives and merguez. I haven't ever met another woman who appreciates either or understands what men find so fascinating about these items.

Take opinel knives, let's just accept that they are a bit useless (sorry men), they go rusty as soon you breathe on them, the safety catch becomes impossible to move after about a week, thereby rendering the knife a health and safety nightmare and the wooden handle eventually starts rotting away. I don't need the added excitement of losing a finger every time I chop some carrots. Give me a nice sharp Global knife any day thank you. But, to men, the opinel is a design classic to be admired and coveted. Within an hour of visiting, my friend Will asked my husband in breathy tones whether he was really looking at two opinels in the kitchen "you mean you've got the number 9 AND a number 12?!" (Yes Will, there is now twice the opportunity to suffer a serious legume chopping injury, and the number 12 is so big it could actually take my whole hand off), Will and Paul then had the inevitable boy conversation about opinels that I have heard numerous times before.

Now to merguez, not a bad food item, but it's a sausage, and densely packed with spicy meat. There's nothing that special about it. There are other sausages, some better some worse, and some just as good. Try convincing a bloke of that? For a man, the merguez seems to have an almost mythical status. It's not even a rare item, but in any French market a merguez stall has a magnetic pull on men who cannot pass without buying a string of them. Why the merguez inhabits this position in the male psyche is a mystery. Perhaps there was some ancient legend involving merguez that started the whole thing off? Anyway, any woman will tell you the she rates merguez on a par with chorizo; and that a quality British banger is preferable to either.

In the interests of equality I accept that there are things that women like that men don't get too. Trying to get a man to appreciate the beauty and craftmanship of a Floris candle or a Brora cardigan is an utterly hopeless activity, don't waste your precious time ladies.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Tardiness

I have been remiss in my blogging,
I accept there is no excuse,
I can only mitigate by confessing that I seem to have temporarily misplaced my work ethic,
I suppose that's an inevitable consequence of taking a sabbatical.
In my defence, I have been tweeting quite liberally, I encourage anyone who isn't yet part of the Twitterati to give it a try.

Since my last post we have had many visitors at the chalet. Russell and Will arrived at the end of January, along with some fresh snow, and we introduced them to Socca (with beer and rugby on the side) and morning yoga. Let's just say they liked the Socca and leave it at that. Hopefully these two busy Dads went home feeling a wee bit rested and revived.

Next was Hammy, Emma, Lewis and Sophia. They arrived in the middle of a vicious cold snap, minus 18 C most nights. This meant there were some challenging living conditions as various water and drain pipes froze at various times. However, Hammy worked his magic, and set up a thermostat controlled pipe heating system and we've had no trouble since. We enjoyed a great meal with them at a local restaurant which included a knockout palate cleanser of thyme ice cream, delicious.

Paul and I then nipped off to Bordighera on the Ligurian coast for a couple of days and enjoyed the warmer weather. Bordighera is a lovely little coastal town near San Remo. It is stuffed full of all kinds of citrus trees, which in Feb were all heavy with ripe fruit. A really lovely
place to wander around. We went to San Remo for the day and there was a huge music festival taking place. I discovered later that the whole focus of the festival is to choose the Italian entry for Eurovision. It is an X Factor type elimination process that takes place over a few days. I have no idea whether Italians generally take it seriously, but San Remo was buzzing with people, tv crews, stretch limos and red carpets.

We got back to the chalet a couple of days before our next visitors arrived. Simon, Louise and Sam stayed with us for a week. They are all very experienced skiers, but had never been to Allos before. The weather had warmed up by the time they arrived and the snow was thinning out. Early morning skiing was better so they were up at the crack every day to catch the first lift. They were all really taken with the ski area, and could appreciate the off-piste opportunities which are available when there's more snow. Whilst they were with us we were all invited to tea by an English couple who had a chalet built 3 years ago.The chalet is very modern and is absolutely gorgeous. It's got the best en suite I've ever seen with a claw foot bath facing a large window, giving the bather uninterrupted views of the mountains.

By Saturday 25th Feb we were all on our own again and the chalet seemed very quiet. However, the quiet was brought to an abrupt end when we had an earthquake at about midnight on Sunday 26th. It apparently measured 4.7 on the Richter scale and it lasted for about 10 seconds. Neither of us has ever experienced an earthquake before, surprisingly, our dog didn't even wake up. The chalet is completely made of wood, so there was no real risk to us, but it did rumble, wobble and sway a bit. The whole village was discussing the quake the next day and it clearly doesn't happen very often. Thankfully, no damage at all to any people or property.

Since Sunday the weather has got really warm and summery. The local view is that the ski season is finished for this year and it has been a really dreadful year snow-wise. Nevertheless, the village is very busy as it is French half term. I think the holiday makers are just treating it as a summer break rather than a ski break, I saw a guy walking around the market today in shorts and flip flops.

Our next visitors are Russell and Edie who arrive on Saturday. There won't be much skiing for them but there's plenty of other activities for them to enjoy in the sunshine.

So, lots of news and I promise I won't leave it as long before my next post. I am also trying to sort out adding pictures to my blog but the iPad seems to adopt a 'computer says no' stance on that, however nicely I try and ask. No doubt some tecchy-tiff between Apple and Google.

Bye for now.

Saturday 7 January 2012

Socca today

It's been 2 weeks since my knee injury and the cabin fever has ended.

I've managed to get out and about sporting my rather stylish knee brace. The trickiest part is getting down the steps of sheet ice from home to the road.

The Doc says I've got 2 more weeks to go before I can start skiing again. In the meantime, my lovely brother has posted out a Care Package consisting of all 5 series of The Wire. This means all our high brow intentions have been shelved for now and we are counting down the days until we can immerse ourselves in the narcotics problems of Baltimore and McNulty's bad behaviour.

We went to Colmar today and walked around the old fort, built to protect Savoie from the French when they were separate countries, looks like it's now available for wedding hire.....progress in a way I suppose.

On the way back we stopped at the socca hut, I've been wondering what socca is since we got here. Well, the socca man looks like a cartoon Frenchman drawn in an episode of Felix the Cat. He is very happy in his work. Socca is a giant, fluffy pancake make from chickpea batter. The hut has a wood-fire oven inside and the pancake is made in a huge frying pan. A bit of pepper on top and that was lunch. It was delicious. Someone ought to open a socca hut in Borough Market, so much better than a crepe. I think Will and Russell will like a spot of lunch there when they visit later this month.

Oh yes, I've also done a bit of knitting whilst I've been incapacitated/incarcerated. Production so far is 2 hats, 1 neck warmer and a selection of dogs from a postmodern, ironic, hilarious, handbook called 'Best in Show, knit your own dog'(the best Christmas present, thank you Hammy and Emma). The Fox Terrier turned out ok (but I do have a live model to work from), the Pug hasn't got any ears yet as I ran out of brown wool and the Westie was a tragedy, it has the stance of a dog with a chronic worm problem and looks more like a Puli than a Westie. But it has turned out to be a perfect duster for Paul's computer screen, so that's saved it from the bin for now.