Sainte-Foy: Snowhere Else We'd Rather Be.

Firstly, we'd like to point out that our first 2 weeks of work have been highly mentally taxing, and thus we apologise for the abysmal quality of the title pun. It was a toss up between that one and 'We're Having an Ice Time'.

For those who are not aware, we're spending the next 4 months working in the ski resort of Sainte-Foy Tarentaise in the French Alps. Over the past couple of weeks we've been honing our skills in the kitchen, getting to know the Auberge crew, preparing chalets for the guest arrivals. And, of course, skiing! Thankfully we don't have photographic evidence of us trying to master the waist-deep powder, but it's safe to say that we've found ourselves out of our depth more than once. Felix had a half hour encounter crawling up some serious powder under the chairlift to retrieve his buried skis, only to be abused by some arrogant local French ski bums, while Phoebe had a near death experience in powder 2 metres off the groomed trail.
Our parents have each since invested in avalanche safety kits, thank god.

We're as keen as a pair of spring marmots to spend the season here, and with a bit of luck we will have mastered the powder as well as the kitchen, come April!
 

Waking up to this makes it difficult to start the day on a bad note.

Phoebe enjoying the spa. Felix got out cos his hair was frozen, poor wee dumpling.

 The snow-covered sauna chalet, set on a magnificent backdrop of early morning sun glistening off the virgin slopes of Les Arcs.

Deeply saddened that our local cinema isn't screening The Hobbit, we have settled for following Gollum the Auberge cat around instead.

 Our first catering experience doing Raclette. Felix noming while Phoebe does the catering.

Félix, always the voice of reason, wearing safety goggles to safely melt the sugar on his crème brulée.

 Phoebé, with a flippant disregard for the safety of our wooden chalet, incinerating her crème brulée.

Guess whose crème brulée?

Da Phoeb$turr ready 2 hit the powPOW whaduupp #YOLO mofos.

 A member of the Sainte-Foy mafia being a menace to society. Incidentally, we thought this was a pretty rad shot.

Phoebe with all her new skiier friends.

 Our deck. Before we started shovelling.

We are still working on the after photo...

Next time: A white Christmas and a hectic new year.

Paris: Bon Apetit and C'est la Vie

We arrived in Paris at the ungodly hour of 6am after a 9hr bus ride, with seats that reclined to almost 45 degrees and a 2am bus changeover. Felix was ecstatic to be back in the mother(/father)land, and Phoebe was ecstatic to be surrounded by crowds of grumpy Parisians.

We were welcomed by Felix's grandmother Mounie, who frequently mistook Felix for his dad Geoffroy. Mounie's apartment is ideally located opposite the train station, and about a half-hour train ride out of central Paris. Her generosity made for a very enjoyable 5 days, with endless amounts of delicious food, wise words on where to go in Paris, long hours of sleep and even the use of her little car! We managed to get to Chartres and back driving on the right side of the motorway, without a single death.

Our days spent in Paris were filled with meeting lots of Felix's family, eating sheep cheese, rabbit, wine and bread, and of course doing our best to blend in with the locals, while blatantly tourist-ing. Continuing our trend of learning new European board games, we learnt some sweet new French ones from Felix's uncle Thomas (the introducer of Werewolf) and his family! Some of the games weren't particularly European, and involved shouting at each other in Japanese.

 Us with Mounie in her cute wee apartment.

Lac du Mail, 2 minutes from Mounie's apartment in Orsay.

A gargoyle-like statue in the Jardins du Luxembourg.

Notre-Dame de Paris... It was too grand not to take a photo of it!

Felix doing a pretty good job of looking French, eating a crepe by the Seine.

 Croissant! Hoh hoh hohh!

Felix and his French/Irish cousin/tourguide, Neal.

 

The Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Just tricking, that's Phoebe. Lol.

 The best of our dirty selfies, taken near where Neal lives in Paris.

Phoebe frolicking in the bushes behind the Chartres Cathedral.

 After realising how terrible our selfies were getting, we slowly began to master the art of self-timer...

 ...To breath-taking effects.

Little Felix, lost in Chartres.

The clouds parted for a glimpse of our lady in all her glory. The splendid Cathedrale de Chartres.

 Phoebe losing her footing on the catwalk.

An old woman solemnly walking through the autumn leaves at dusk near
the Viaduct at Bures-sur-Yvette. (Just tricking, that's Phoebe again.)

Next time: Shovelling snow in Sainte-Foy!

Frankfurt: A Jet-lagged Sausage-fest

After 17 hours of travel from HK (which involved a large amount of insecticide, Felix getting intimately touched by a bald fat security guard, and Phoebe's bag being swabbed for drugs - thanks Heathrow) we were rather tired upon our arrival in Frankfurt. We were lucky to have a welcome party consisting of Phoebe's German brother Luke, and her Kiwi sister Rachel (who then took us on a 45 minute tour of the airport while attempting to relocate the car. We love travelling.)

We stayed with Luke and his family, who live in a little town called Dieburg - just out of Frankfurt. Luke's family were awesome! They ensured we ate plenty of sausages, drank too much gluhwein (aka mulled wine), and helped us to put on a few extra layers of blubber for the winter. They also taught us how to play Siedler von Catan/Settlers of Catan, the greatest game ever.

The temperature ranged from -8 one morning, to a tropical 4 degrees during the hottest parts of the day. It also snowed a couple of times, just in case we'd missed the memo that it was winter. Combined with the Christmas markets, we felt very festive indeed!

 

Being models in Dieburg, with a stunning backdrop of a soon-to-be-frozen lake.

 Trying a little too hard...

 Phoebe was working the camera a little too much...

So Félix put her in her place. Step aside Peter Jackson.

 A snowy asparagus field!

Luke's dad Werner, as the Burgermeister (mayor) giving the opening speech at the Dieburg Christmas Market.

GLUHWEIN!!

A candid family portrait.

The Hunt sisters indulging in stollen and tea.

Top of the Main Tower in Frankfurt. Snow and clouds obscuring the views, but still beautiful in a grey, mysterious kind of way.

The Frankfurt Christmas Market! Sausages, gluhwein, stollen, cheese, gingerbread, chocolate-marshmellow treats, ornaments, scarves, decorations, and mountains of Festive Cheer.

Gluhwein + Rhum + Amaretto = Warm bellies.

I smell SAUSAGES!

Enjoying the bratwurst and currywurst saussies.

Félix ate lots of snow.

Next time: Les kiwis arrivent à Paris!

Hong Kong: Bigger than Dunedin.

Hong Kong is a big city. We arrived into town at about 11pm and the taxi dropped us off at the door of the Chungking Mansions, a 17 storey building full of guest houses, Indian food stalls, electronic shops, cash exchange outlets, tailor-made clothing, guys offering us hashish and probably anything else you can dream of. A little overwhelming. For the following 2 days we explored the wonders of HK, with one day in our area - Kowloon, and the other day on Hong Kong Island. It was a wicked city to explore. We crammed in as much as humanly possible in 2 days - highlights included the Hong Kong zoo (which was free!!), weird and delicious food from cluttered market stalls, and just the general vibrancy of the city. Would love to come back and see the city without a veil of cloud!

The first photo of the trip. Felix in his travel pants, travel shirt, tramping pack, backpack, fanny pack and alpaca jersey - ready to face the dangers of the World.

The infamous Chungking Mansions, where we stayed. It's something to be able to say that we felt less safe in the mansions than we did out on the streets.

Lunch in central HK. Phoebe made a small Chinese friend.

Flamingos in Kowloon Park, right near where we stayed.

 

All of the Lights: The 'Golden Mile' down Nathan road.

 

International Commerce Centre disappearing into the clouds.

 

The Symphony of Lights. Damn Clouds.

The Soho Markets. Streets filled with stalls and locals buying various produce from papaya to pigs ears!

The Star Ferry.

We weren't sure exactly what we were ordering in Chinese, and ended up with the spiciest meal of all time. Very sweaty, but delicious! And free soy milk to tame the spice.

Baby twin Orangutangs at Hong Kong zoo!!

Felix looking ecstatic about having his breakfast in the comfort of the Chunking Mansions.

Phoebe wearing her latest haggling purchase from the Temple Street night market.

Next time: Sub-zero temperatures in Frankfurt, with gluhwein and sausages to warm the belly!