Big week...

We've had a pretty massive week, we've painted 8 rooms, a kitchen, dining room, two 13 foot ceilings, 8 shelves, 3 coffee tables, and 4 hooks... Oh and everything needing 3 coats. We've put up two sets of skis and 6 poles, reattached 8 shelves, 1 heater, 2 mirrors and 3 paintings. I've vaccummed and mopped three levels 4 times and cleaned endless amounts of paint off the walls, skirting and beams. We've climbed ladders and chairs, leant precariously over stair case banisters and worked out our calves going up and down on tippy toes. Alex has fixed a toilet and started to render 2 ceilings and I've lost at least an inch off both arms and legs. I also managed to dip my hair in paint, so I had to cut almost an inch off.  Most days I manage to coat myself in paint, my tights are covered in various colours and I've had a lot of questions about whether I get the paint on the walls or just myself. 

We finished our manic week with a dinner party with Farmer John, Alice and Jack. I cooked red curry and it as delcious, we've missed thai! It was so awesome talking to Alice and Jack as they have done about 7 seasons, plus Jack is a chef so has been giving heaps of tips, like everything takes longer to cook in high altitude. 

Jimbo came over after he closed up the drop inn! We sat and drank until 2am, it was such an awesome night with awesome company. We accidentally spent a lot of time talking about all the things that can kill you in Australia (a lot of people's favourite subject) so we may have three less english people visiting our shores! Sorry Tourism Queensland! 

We've made another friend, a lovely French girl Sophie. She's currently living in Georgie's apartment in La Praz, he ex boyfriend used to be he Handy man, Alex has actually replaced him this winter. She has lots of advice which is so welcomed. We met her last week when we needed to fix a few things in the apartment and have seen or spoken to her almost every day including a lovely dinner. She's amazing, I love spending time with her. 

We spent Saturday relaxing at home and then headed up to the international junior ice skating competition, Sophie had gotten us tickets for the Gala event and it's was amazing. Most of the winners were from France, Japan, Ukraine and Russia, they were incredible! I hope some of you saw my snap chats. 

Alice rang after we'd left and told us to come down to the pizzeria. It was 7 degrees, but luckily I had my ski jacket. Everyone had been to Meribel that day, as there had been a downhill mountain biking comp. We were going to go but couldn't be bothered to deal with the traffic. Wish we had of gone as an Australian won and supposedly 'Ausssie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi' was dismal, only 3 people were yelling it back. 

Everyone was pretty well on their way, so we were a bit behind. We stayed in the pizzeria for a while and then followed Jimbo up to the tent to see what was going on. There was a tough mudder event the next day, so it was mental! French people jumping, singing and just generally being crazy. It was all a bit full on for us, we weren't really feeling it so we walked home with a very drunk and seriously hilarious Jimbo! Telling us stories about how he met and hugged Rat Boy, a mountain biker. We've never laughed more then we have in the last few days! 

We woke up in the morning and went to meet Sophie to watch the Tough mudder event. It was pretty hilarious watching people all dressed up running around Le Praz. They had to jump into the Lake which was only 9 degrees, we had a good laugh listening to them scream as they hit the water. 

One group of people were dressed as priests and were carrying a massive cross. 

Jimbo was competing for the Drop Inn, but we didn't see him. Farmer told us that someone had written Drop Inn on his forehead but had spelt it wrong, and wrote Dropp Inn and then had to crossout the extra P. 

We decided that we would all go up to Suliere which is the highest point in Courchevel which is over 3000 metres. It was -1 up there, so we rugged up and drove up to 1850 with Sophie. We got the lift up, which was pretty full on as I'm a little (a lot) scared of heights. We then got another, even more full on lift to go up the rest of the way, and funnily bumped into Alice and Jack, who had packed a picnic and we're walking back down to Le Praz. We walked up and down the mountain for about an hour with Sophie, which was an eye opening insight into how unfit I was. It's pretty hard to breath that high up, especially having done no serious exercise for almost 6 months. We saw some seriously breathtaking views, it was amazing to see all of the surrounding mountains including Mount Blanc, the highest point in Europe at height of 4,810m. After the walk, we realised that we hadn't had lunch and it was 3:45pm. We headed back down in the lift (me with sweaty palms) and grabbed some lunch. We did a bit of shopping with Sophie and then came home and jumped in the hot tub. It had finally been fixed and we were super excited to get in, it was so nice after the walk. 

Tomorrow we're back at the apartment to paint the lounge room and hall way. Sophie is headed off to Geneva tomorrow so hopefully we won't intrude too much. 

All in all, we having an awesome time. We've met the most amazing people!!!  We spent the weekend laughing, talking, drinking and eating. It's been such a great weekend, I wish we could do it all again! 

Life in France

After working 7 days straight, we only had to work 3 days, so with Friday in sight, we were in good spirits as we headed to clean one of the chalets. Georgie had friends staying for a few nights so we made up three bedrooms and cleaned the chalet for their arrival. Alex is pretty good at cleaning bathrooms, might put those skills to use in the future. We headed to the Elise Chalet basement which was a dumping ground for all the other chalets shit from the end of winter. We bumped into Farmer John (who works on the place next door), he ended up having an enormous Saturday night, so we were glad that we didn't stay longer. 

We cleaned up the basement and headed back to the chalet to start prepping the paint work. I managed to slam my thumb between two cupboard doors, so trying to tape the skirting boards was some what difficult.

Georgie called me that night to ask if I could cater for 11 on Friday night. Her friends were coming down for dinner, so she invited a few extra couples. 

After painting all day on Thursday, it was nice to spend the morning cooking on Friday. I didn't even to bother to get out of my pajamas, I put my hair in braids so I wouldn't get hair in the food and got everything set up... And then my skype starting calling... The lovely Carley and Hessen caught me in clothes and hair I would not be caught dead in outside of home, but I was so excited to talk to them I forgot about all that!!

'Beer wench' 

Photo credit: Carly Perry 

Hair & styling: Gabrielle Hunter 

Cooking and chatting to them was amazing, Alex arrived, after spending 2 hours mowing Georgie's, and we spent a good hour talking, with me running back and forth to the kitchen. 

With everything sorted and organised for dinner, we met Georgie at the basement to help load up the van with stuff for the car boot sale and headed back to the chalet to get ready for dinner. 

Dinner was fun, everything when to plan. Everyone enjoyed my cooking so that was a great confidence boost. 

We had a bit of a sleep in on Saturday and a lazy morning. We headed up to 1850 to have a look around and went into the Forum which has a few ski shops. It was fun to explore Courchevel more, we went up to the airport and just generally took in the views and mountain air. We headed back for lunch and then went back up the mountain to see one shop (bloody siestas here are ridic!) and bumped into Charlie and Gina. We had met Charlie one morning at Georgie's when he was putting in a door. His wife is Aussie and grew up in Ulladulla, just down the New England (her words not mine). We actually didn't recognise Charlie, we were too busy staring at their dog... An Australian cattle dog! I actually didn't recognise Charlie after that anyway, we've met a lot of people and we are really easy to remember being the newbies and Australian! We had a nice chat and then headed home to get ready for dinner and drinks. We went to the local pizzeria, which was awesome as we've not really eaten out in ages. At home, we ate out a couple of times a week, and that's not including lunch everyday. We have made breakfast, lunch and dinner almost everyday for weeks, minus the occasional sneaky crossiant. 

We bumped into Georgie's son, Ben, and Jack, a young guy that works with Farmer John (who managed to piss off Georgie when he pulled out of being a chef two weeks before a winter season... She didn't forget either, poor kid felt her wrath when she saw him working next door). After a delicious dinner, we headed down to the Drop Inn. We saw Jimbo, met Welsh Tom and then Farmer John arrived. We met Sherry and the owners of the Drop Inn, oh and Dave. Ben was there as well. So many names and faces!

I think we became the rowdy table, but it was just so much fun. We had the best night, telling jokes, trying to defend/disown Rolf Harris and figuring out who knew who and how long they'd been here for. I really enjoyed myself! 

Jimbo told me that I should buy a snowboard and he would help me if I needed it. It would be easier than hiring one for the whole season as only ski's were included. 

We wandered home at 11:30pm and didn't really feel cold AND I was wearing thongs... definitely getting used to it! (Could have been the wine!) 

Sunday was relaxed, we headed down to Moutiers to see Georgie and Natalie at the car boot sale and had a bit of a wander around Moutiers. We went for a drive up into the mountains and then headed home to pack a picnic and head to a lake in 1650. It was stunning, we found a spot in the sun, with the most amazing sound of the trickling water. The water in Courchevel and around the alps is bright blue and freeeeeezing! The melting snow runs into streams and makes it's way to the lake, it's stunning. Surrounded by trees and running water was perfect place for a picnic and very relaxing. It's easy to get caught up in work, shit French drivers and challenging supermarket visits. It was good to be reminded that we are in one of the most amazing, mesmerising and visually beautiful places in the world... And it's only summer. Winter will be a while other ball game of beautiful. 

Today marks 3 months since we left, how things had changed. I would have never of thought we would be doing up a chalet in the French Alps, living in an amazing village and meeting a bunch of super friendly people. We are seriously blessed. Nothing about us has notably changed (except Alex's hair... 2 and half months without a haircut) except maybe that I find myself looking forward to Grand Designs each night, and generally enjoying cooking. I've always been one to follow a recipe but trying new things has been fun! Well that might be because I'm missing some food... I made garlic butter so we could have garlic bread, oh and I keep mixing soy sauce and mayo together to make a sauce (it's amazing) for my chicken and sweet potato fries... I think I need sushi! My vegemite is slowly dwindling, but I have marmite as back up. Plus mum and dad will be here in September so I will be able to restock. 

We are very happy in our little chalet and the progress were making on it, we are both excited to come home and make our own mark on a house... But that's agesssss away! We've got wayyyyyy bigger things to decide, like whether we should go to Turkey for 3 weeks before the winter season starts... :) 

From our chalet of green, pink and brown walls! Xx

(I'm not even kidding, it needs some work!)