Allez-go! Allez-go!

Wow such a long time has passed since the last entry, February passed so quickly, it was chock-a-block full of trips and more importantly, fun!

Following visits to York and Exeter I had approximately 5 hours back in La Roche before heading off on my second trip of half term, Chambery and skiing! One of my York friends, Beth, is currently doing her assistantship down there (the lucky devil!), so a group of us from York went down to visit, and benefit from the skiing opportunities! Catrin and I were there from Tuesday, with Dan joining us on Wednesday and then Natalie, Anna and Lauren on Friday night for the weekend (as half term holidays are staggered in France).

Skiing was immense! Such good fun, I'm absolutely hooked and desperately want to go again. Catrin had done 2 years of dry-ski slope skiing before and Beth is amazing, so I was thrown in at the deep end! On our first day we did a green run and then progressed straight onto the blue runs, although I was less than ready! But fearless too, I just loved it! Most of the time I was completely unable to stop (my snowplough was pretty awful for the first 3 days...very dangerous!) and I must have knocked over more than a handful of French people, as well as myself! I spent much of the day on the floor and I think the quote of the day goes like this:

On the approach of a few danger signs (as you had to ski across the path of people going up the mountain by draglift) me: "Eeeek guys, I genuinely can not stop!" Beth and Catrin "Of course you can: snowplough". Me, getting ever closer to sign, "Um no, definitely can't...*hits danger sign*...stop!"

Some time in the afternoon of our first day we accidentally found ourselves at the top a red run, with no alternative route off the mountain than to go down it. It was far above my standard, and about halfway down, following many too close for comfort shaves with the edge of the piste, I had to take my skis off and bum slide down, much to the bemusement of the flashy skiers flying down next to me!

Talking of flashy skiers, the children who were skiing were all so impressive, they put us to shame! They were haring down black runs, doing jumps, parallel turns, you name it, there were 5 year olds doing it! Catrin and I had one funny meeting with one, as on the ski lifts they put a child from the ski school on with random adults, as they're too young to go up on their own. I was told to take hold of her hand as we got off at the top and guide her to safety. Well, bearing in mind that Catrin and I were pretty bad still, this was probably not the best idea, and the little French girl was wise enough to realise this! So when we arrived she flatly refused to take my hand and jumped off like a pro and skied off, leaving Catrin and me flapping around with skis, in our usual confusion!

Ski lifts really were the bane of our skiing experience! Chair lifts were great as they gave stunning views across the mountain, but only once we'd successfully mounted them that is. The attendants used a hilarious mix of languages, generally shouting "allez-go, allez-go" at us as the lift approached at a completely unpredictable pace. On several occasions I had to be lifted onto it, I saw the lift coming and promptly sat down, but straight on the floor, having misjudged its speed! Getting off was also a challenge, many a time we ended up on the floor! I also skied straight into the base of one, flat in the face, as I was coming down one of my first blue runs, completely unable to break or steer! But they didn't compare to draglifts, where Catrin and I held up a whole queue of people, her having fallen off it and me having 2 consecutive unsuccessful attempts to get on it (both ending up on the floor and needing rescuing by the attendant!). Finally by the end of the week I think I can say we mastered it, but it certainly took some doing!

The following days were great fun as we all started to get quite good and we found some really nice runs. On the third day, by which point we had become quite good (Beth was a brilliant teacher) I will admit to becoming just a tad too confident! I was haring down the last run of the day and suddenly found that I was going much too fast, people ducking out of my way as I bombed down. I just remember the thoughts running through my head as I was gathering speed: snowplough! SNOWPLOUGH! S.N.O.W.P.L.O.U.G.H! Fence. Ow. I went straight through the fence that separates the slopes from the car park at the bottom! On my way I knocked the metal warning post and sign out of its holder and went straight through the orange netting, leaving my skis behind me! A French lady looked very shocked and said "ca va?" to me, to which I just nodded "oui, oui, bien, bien", fortunately not hurt! I wish we'd had it on video though; it would doubtlessly be a you've been framed winner!

However never have I ever ached so much! I think every single muscle in my body hurt, even those that I didn't know I had! But this didn't stop us from returning to the slopes every day and enjoying the evenings. One evening we went to see Slumdog Millionaire at the cinema which was great, although a little confusing as it was shown in a mixture of English, Hindi and French! Definitely one to watch if you haven't already. Other evenings we either took over Beth's tiny kitchen (which really is like auberge espagnole!) or ate out and sampled some delicious local cuisine, tartiflette, raclette (not raquette, which is walking on snow!) and fondue, all yummy cheese based dishes.

So thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the Alps and returning to La Roche was a definite downer, it just doesn't compare! Returning to school was difficult! But as per usual school was amusing and eventful. You could clearly see all those pupils who had been on ski trips, as like me, many had panda eyes or a fair number had boken legs!!! Highlights from the week include being stopped from queue jumping the canteen queue (staff rights!) by a new surveillant (who also carry out the duties of dinner ladies) as he thought I was a pupil and at first wouldn't believe that I genuinely wasn't, much to the amusement of the pupils!

In the European Studies class they're studying the Bronte sisters, as they'll be visiting their house and going for a walk on the moors during the exchange trip in April. The teacher was explaining what a moor is and said that they are purple because of the heather, but I don't think the pupils heard the heather part. So they got really excited by the fact that the hills are purple, I'm pretty sure that in their heads they're imagining going to some surreal tellytubby land!

An observation I've made this week, is about French queues. I remember remarking at Christmas how long the queues are, as they take such care to gift wrap everything, but in fact queues are always long. This is because, even if there are hoards of people waiting, they simply won't rush, or multitask and serve two people at once (which is perfectly do-able here at the residence). They take their time with each and every person, which in some ways frustrates me (I queued for 45 minutes to pay my rent, and there were only 2 people queuing when I arrived!) but equally, they will do the same for me, they have absolutely no sense of rush.

Another observation I've made, is how French people will expect you to have heard of the most obscure English villages that they happened to visit on holiday way back in 1982! This happened to me twice this week, when people were utterly bemused that I'd never heard of some obscure villages in Shropshire. From the looks on their faces I wasn't sure if I'd misheard some large city or they were really famous for something and I ought to know better. Not the case at all, they were just random places they'd been and were highly surprised I hadn't heard of them!

Final point before I publish this (I will return for more "allez-go-ing" later, as I recount my London trip!) is that I must have become a Frenchified, if only a little, as I have now purchased a pair of the hilarious Alladin trousers, that I mentioned as being utterly ridiculous in a post way back in September! I must be becoming accustomed to the funny French ways!