"Flaine! I want to live forever, I want to learn how to fly..."
"4 days in the French Alps, a snowboard, some school mates, and more cheese than you could poke a fondue fork at; that was my trip to France, and it was great... "
"Flew into France, found Flaine, flopped down onto the fofabed..."
3 potential starts to the post. None of them winners. And that last one was really bad and wasn't true - I flew into Geneva.
Anyway I did wake up one on a Sun morning to sounds of grendades de-avalanchersizing the slopes around Flaine, with some minus degrees in the air, and a whole lotta snowboard gear to get into. Flaine is the highest village in the Alps at 1600m and the runs go up to 2500, so fog, sleet, massive wind gusts were all to be dealt with which closed down the the gondolas quite often, but there was also sun. I was still finding my feet a bit after not boarding much last year due to the dud shoulder, but it gave me no probs this year. There was a threat of snowfall in the forecasts, and it hit Mon night, which meant Tuesday was absolutely, positively, Powderlicious! Some nice snow on the groomed runs, and knee-height on the edges of the pistes meant a great day of power action. All the tumbles and falls were almost fun! And with another boarder in the group, equipped to hit the real deep stuff, some real off-piste adventure was also had. The kind where you stop every few meters because you didn't hold your line and dropped too low so can't go where you want and the only way now is through the trees or over the rocks... woo hoo!
The last day though was very Aussie-alpenesque with rain, and slush. Didn't go out for long as the body was aching, and the main runs open involved really, really long and steep T-bars, which take a lot of effort to ride on a snowboard.
I held the prize for "most spectular faceplant in front of all of your friends",, until Nick the other boarder upstaged me with a stunning double backflip that actually shook him up a bit. Much use of the word 'akimbo' was to be had.
Off the slopes wasn't entirely embarassment free. There was something about all the excercise, lack of sleep, and thin air which meant my first apres-ski beer was generally enough to have a noticeable effect. After a pint or so before starting to prepare dinner on my last night there, which was a fondue & raclette cheesfest, I was a little sozzled by the time we sat down to eat, and I had to rush and finish by 6.20 to catch my bus. The dinner was great and involved melting 11 different cheeses in 2 different devices with plates of various meats, baguette and vegies to dip in or drizzle cheese on, and what a stringy cheesy mess I made! Needless to say I made my bus and got home at midnight (after about a 10 minute lecture from the passport control guy about biodiesel) and was at work with swiss chocolates in hand for our regular Thur morning team meeting.
Thanks again to Duncan and Peta for being the catalyst for it all, and the rest of the gang: Winnie, Andrew, Sean and Nick. Couple of pics here, more on Facebook - just click the link:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=816331&l=684d7&id=731953277
Genepi is an alpine flower related to Juniper, which is turned into sweet, herby liqueurs, of which my favourite Chartreuse is the most famous. Good to know that there are plenty others out there to try!
