This past week has been a real holiday for
us based in the village of Bellentre in the French Alps.
Our friends John & Carolyn have lived
here for the past 9 years. They
are the only non-French family in the village. John is English and Carolyn is from Port Fairy,
Australia. They have skied many
resorts around the world spending ten years in Falls Creek where we met up. They purchased this 100+ year-old
skeleton of a building 9 years ago then set to rebuild it as a family home. They have done an amazing job.
Their summer business is Alpine Cadence - training & tours for cyclists and in winter they have an English ski school
franchise of New Generation, both businesses are based here in the Alps.
The girls love their French life. Lotti, 10 was born in Andorra and Matilda,
8 was born here. The girls go to a
small school of 35 students, a three-minute walk from the house. The girls speak French at school
and English at home. John and
Carolyn both speak conversational French so the girls love to correct their
pronunciation.
During the week we visited the two closest
towns of Bourg St Maurice a ski town 18kms north and Aime (pronounced M) a town
8kms south in the direction of Albertville/Chambery, both towns Carolyn shops
in and Aime is where the girls will go to secondary school.
We were keen to visit at least one ski
resort while we were here so we chose Tignes. It was a 45-minute drive. Tignes and Val d’Isere are both large ski resorts beside
each other. You can ski between
the two. They are already open for
the ski season. The other resorts
in the area will open between Dec 1 & Dec 21.
We had a day trip to Lake Annecy a 2-hour
drive in the direction of Chambery.
It is a beautiful alpine lake 15km in length. We wandered around the old city and had lunch of a baguette
sitting on the seat overlooking the lake.
It was a beautiful partially sunny autumn day.
We drove home around the other side of the lake passing a few cute
villages along the way.
You will see in Flickr many photos of
beautiful cows. We walked past
many yesterday afternoon on a walk down to the river and around the
village. They are native to this
area of France known as the Savoie (pronounced Savoy). The cows are Tarentaise cattle. Their milk is used to produce Beaufort cheese. It goes well with the local Savoy white wine,
both of which we have sampled in the past week. The cheese is a bit
smelly, pungent is a better word but tasty.
Tomorrow is 11th of the 11th
and the village will have a celebration at 11am so we will all attend. Will tell you more after the event.
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| Tignes, from the top of the funicular |
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| The 'Bridge of Love' overlooking Lake Annecy |
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| Local Tarentaise cows |
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| Looking at the village of Bellentre returning from our walk yesterday afternoon |
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| Sunday lunch - outside the mountain restaurant |
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| Inside the mountain restaurant - enjoyed yummy local fare |
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