Gelato Time is Here Again

Ah yes, it's already that time of year again. The lure of gelato in town calls us when we pick the girls up from school in the afternoon, and it's a wonderful way to spend an hour in the warm sunshine before heading back up the hill for dinner. Citron is still the fave, although Anna is now branching out to 'fraise' and Zoe remains loyal to 'smarties'.

 Cheers

 Just hanging out in town

 Toby and the girls

 The Saturday morning market is also becoming a more pleasurable outing again now that it's warm and sunny (although it also means that the crowds are coming back) and Anna, Zoe and I had a lovely shop there this morning. I also succumbed, finally, to the nougat stall, but I think it will be my one and only time as I just about fell over when he told me how much my 'tranche' of almond nougat cost (I'm not even sure I came clean to Toby about the true price... I think I owned up to 12 euros... maybe...). I'm also ashamed to admit to how much of that nougat is already gone.

We also bought the girls a few pots of pansies to put around our deck. And we bought two kilos of strawberries. And some cheese, sausage, fish and lettuce. I think I'm finally getting the hang of what's good to buy in the market.

Anna Turns 8

Anna had her 8th birthday last week, and I think we celebrated in pretty good style. It's funny, I have strong memories of my own 8th birthday, and so we're definitely entering 'memory' territory here for the kids. I think she should have fond ones of this one. The birthday itself saw lots of presents in the morning, a cake that she got to take to school to share with her class, a birthday lunch with god-father Pete from next door (he picked up her from school to take her down into a town, a special treat indeed), and then a birthday dinner in the evening (hamburgers & chips, and carrot cake for dessert).

Then on Sunday she had her party in the garden with 7 friends from school. It was a group of really nice kids AND boys were still invited, I was glad to see. Adjusting to school and having to make new friends was one of my worries for the year, but good on Anna, she seems to have made some very good friends in a short period of time. Now, French parents are usually determined to 'drop and go', (as someone wrote in the paper recently, you're lucky if they slow down the car before jettisoning their child) so we were flattered that the sunshine and the offer of wine or beer enticed a few of them to stay and chat in the garden. The party was a low-key affair with lots of games and playing in the garden (we got lucky with the weather). Although as usual the 'organized' games - Pass the Parcel, Kim's Game, and an extended Relay Race - lasted about 20 minutes and then they just ran around and went on the trampoline for the rest of the time. But before you knew it, it was time for 'tea' - hot dogs, strawberries, Orangina and chocolate cupcakes - and whew, we were done. And no loot bags were expected - bonus.

Gift opening

Lots of crafts

Note the new watch on the wrist - her main b-day present

Being suitably appreciative

Indie

Zoe

Birthday lunch

Cupcakes for all

Birthday girl

Last Skis of the Season?

(View from Brevant)

I'm starting to understand the flow of the seasons here, or rather, the flow of the sporting seasons. Fall was  all about hiking and trail running and cycling, then of course the ski season started and then it was all about the pursuit of powder and x-country ski marathons, and now, in the spring, it's all about ski touring (where you 'walk' up the mountain with 'skins' on the bottom of your skis, and ski down the glaciers). Toby is off for a ski tour with Lesley this morning, and has a four-day trip planned with Pete at the end of April. I'm not a ski tourer, sadly, since I don't have the confidence or the skill to really ski off-piste, so I'm excited to see the hiking season come back. The snow is almost gone on some of my favourite trails. I've also signed up for the Mont Blanc 10km run, and have started my training. I'm no runner, but it feels good to have a goal, albeit a small one in this community of extreme athletes. I'll report back on how I'm doing in my training...

And in the meantime, I feel like we're squeezing in the last regular skis of the season. The girls have one more week left of their ski classes, and we're still managing to eke out some x-country skiing further up the valley. Toby and I went to Argentière yesterday early, before the sun hit, and the conditions were hard and fast and it was fabulous. The downhill is also wonderful in the warm spring sunshine, but you definitely have to work harder in the soft, mushy snow in the afternoons. Poor Zoe is practically up to her knees in slush by the time the end of the day comes - no wonder those little legs are getting strong. But the amazing thing is that we're actually managing to ski as a family now. Zoe is a little slower than her sisters, but she more or less keeps up, which is remarkable since she started the season on the baby slopes doing snow plough. Now she's skiing red runs with parallel turns. A lot of the credit has to go to Toby, since he's really skied a lot with her. All the the girls' skiing skills, not surprisingly, have come on fabulously, but we've voted Zoe 'Most Improved'. It really is a revelation, skiing together as a family, and something we've been looking forward to. But sadly, it's not long before Zoe overtakes me, and once again I'll be the limiting factor. Toby bet me 100euros that I wouldn't be able to keep up with him and the girls if they really went for it, and I was forced to admit he's right. I feel my skiing has improved a lot this season, but I'm never going to be super speedy. 

So it's one more week of school before the girls are on holiday again for two weeks (I KNOW, RIGHT? IT FEELS LIKE THEY WERE JUST ON HOLIDAY...). We're not going anywhere this time - Toby's sister, Sophie, and kids are coming, and we're going to enjoy Chamonix activities for the first week with the girls - I think climbing at Les Gaillands will be on the cards - and in the second week I've signed them all up for a great day camp run by the local MJC (Maison des Jeunesses et Cultures). The theme is 'Greek Games' and they're going to be making their own costumes, competing at various sports, going swimming etc. I also want to keep immersing them in French, since we're pretty much English at home and with our friends and family.

So we're now two thirds done our year here ... incredible to believe. We have booked our flights to London for the Olympics, and our flight home from London to Montreal at the beginning of August. So now we have an official departure date from Chamonix: July 31st. Four months left! It's good to focus the mind on making the most of our time here...

These three pictures show Indie doing the jump at Brevant onto a big inflatable bag, which they did with Toby and as a treat in their lessons. Here's the launch...

There she goes...

Flying.

A great family ski at Les Houches

Refuelling on the slopes in the sunshine

Playing

Anna having a snack

The girls

A last ski at Argentière

Mont Blanc in the background

View from the top of Brevant

Salvador Dali Comes to the Valley

Yesterday, I was invited to accompany a school outing to the town of Megève to see an exhibition of Dali's sculptures with both Indie and Anna's classes (rather conveniently, they were going together...). It was a great outing, mainly thanks to the weather (gorgeous, warm and sunny) and the fact that the sculptures were just scattered along the main street of the town instead of a stuffy museum, so we were outside the whole time and it didn't matter how much noise the kids made.

I hadn't been to Megève before - you basically go down the valley and up the other side (there were a couple of kids sick on the bus on the way up from the windy road, but the teachers were on it and had bags at the ready, this is obviously not unusual on bus trips around here on the mountain roads) - and it was another classic pretty little Alpine town with a pedestrianized main street and stunning views of the mountains all around. 

We had our picnic on a field to start and I was curious to see what the French kids would have in their lunch boxes. Sadly, nothing very interesting - a lot of baguette, of course. And they're much more relaxed here about nuts (there is no ban), and also there were lots of chips, chocolate bars, candies and one little boy even had a can of coke. Shock, horror! Unheard of at home! Thankfully, the kids then had about half an hour of running around - literally - on the field before we set off. 

We then walked through the town, looked at each sculpture, found their title, and heard a little background to their themes and inspiration from the teacher. We stopped to sketch one of the sculptures, and then at the end the teacher, Blandine, was prepared with some close-ups of some details from the sculptures (the texture on St George's chain mail, the legs on another etc.) for the kids to identify. They were amazingly observant! Even the teacher was stumped on one, and Indie was the one who correctly identified Dali's signature from the very first one we saw. I was impressed. The kids seemed to enjoy Dali - I think his skewed, surreal view of the world somehow makes sense to them. A piano with a dancer's legs and a tutu? Of course, why not.

Indie's clearly got some artistic skills, and funnily enough, her teacher yesterday said exactly what Indie's kindergarten teacher said to us last year - that she's convinced Indie is going to be an artist when she grows up. She joked that she was going to keep Indie's sketch of Dali's elephant to sell when Indie is old and famous... Indie lapped it up, of course. She's certainly got artistic eccentricities, anyway. 

A grand day out.

 Anna and her friends, Amelie and Marine

 Picnicking on the field

 Indie and some mates

 Indie and one of the two melting clocks

 Examining some detail

 Rapt

 The famous elephant

 Artists at work

St George and the Dragon (an unusual choice for Dali, I thought...)

 The dancing piano

Indie

March Round-up

Hard to believe that March is more than half over. Where has the time gone? I did have a terrific week in the UK, all to myself, catching up with lots of lovely friends, and since getting back it just feels like we've been very busy. Although now, I'm not quite sure with what. 

The weather has been incredibly sunny and unseasonably warm (+18 degrees in the afternoons) but this morning we woke up to winter's last hurrah, and once again I'm watching thick snowflakes fall outside the window (see above). The girls were very put-out to be back in snow pants and winter boots after weeks of shoes and light jackets. Still, I feel one last snowman coming on, and Toby's gone up Grand Montets this morning in search of powder, so how bad can it be? 

In the meantime, the countdown to Anna's 8th birthday is on (and trust me, it is a daily countdown, 3 days to go...) and we're planning her party for this week-end. The girls have their final ski tests on Saturday, and Anna was asked to try out for the Chamonix ski club! This is considered quite the honour here - it's a very competitive racing club, and only a few get asked to try out - but of course we had to tell them we wouldn't be here next year, so there was not point trying out. Still, it was very flattering to be asked, and a tribute to Anna's enthusiasm and level of skiing. In the meantime, Zoe has been going swimming with her class, Indie has been skating, and Zoe has also been doing some snowshoeing. I wish I could include the video which shows her class running towards me, all of them falling like ninepins before getting back up to run again, but I'll just have to leave it to your imagination. Here are some highlights:

 Indie, excited to get on the ice

 Zoe on snowshoes

 She clearly had a lot of fun

 Wet mittens though

 Zoe having 'goûter' after swimming with her best friend, Eva

Random picture of Zoe, getting 'fancy'

While I was in the UK there was a big Carnival in Chamonix with a parade through the centre of town, and the girls and Toby got dressed up and went down to join in the fun.

 Zoe, dressed up

 Anna

As ever, the Mont Blanc in the background