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.
Monday 26 March 2012
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.
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.
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.
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.
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