So we arrived in Paris, Dad had said we were catching the metro to our apartment, which for Alex and was standard, but as I walked down the platform and saw a lady holding "Mr Hunter" I realised that this was going to be a very different holiday then we were used too. Doesn't sound like much, but when you have 5 people and 5 big bags, getting into a car instead of a metro is something short of incredible... plus Mum doesn't have the muscle mass nor height of the rest of us, so it was usually left to Dad to carry her rather large (enormous) bag up and down the stairs. Although I can't really talk, my bag was pretty massive and ridiculously heavy by that stage, I needed Alex's help.
So we got to our apartment in Republic, the penthouse apartment... with a balcony! Honestly, we got to stay in Paris in apartment that had a balcony, a balcony that looked out into the street, not just the next apartment next door, the street, like an actual view! Dad really hit the apartment jackpot with this place, in the middle of Paris, with incredible views, close to the canal and just generally amazing.
We got the loft bedroom, with a round bed... not Hugh Hefner style, more Ikea... Well exactly like Ikea, cause I'm pretty sure that's where they got it from! We unpacked and headed off to explore. We walked down to the canal, looked at a lock and then in true Hunter style we found a pub.
People-watching in Paris is a great past time, the people in Paris are utterly amazing, James saw his future wife about 20 times, whilst I just envied random women's hair, boots, jeans, tops, scarves, sunglasses, make-up... life! On arriving in Paris, I realised that I had slipped in to a unfashionable rut whilst being in Courchevel. Jumpers, converse and ski jackets are sooooo comfortable it's not easy to give that sort of outfit up... until you arrive in Paris and quickly realise that no, you can't wear a ski jacket out in public, that no, a denim jacket is not warm enough and that no, wine in large amounts is not the same as wearing warm clothes... So off we went to H&M like a happy little family! After purchasing a jumper and enormous scarf I was ready to tackle the rest of Paris without constant shivers and only a few choice words.
The Champ De Elysee is a busy street... wow, sorry that song is terrible! But it has taught us how to say "I speak french" in French, which we don't, so that really helps... ANYWAY... We wandered up the Champ De Elysee to the incredible Arc De Triomphe, a place I've always wanted to see and it completely lived up to my expectation. I think I've mentioned it before but I love how the streets in cities frame their monuments, the Champ de Elysee is the perfect example of this, you can see bits of the Arc De Triomphe walking up the street and then BAM, it's there! We walked down Avenue Marceau towards the Eiffel Tower and took in the amazing streets and sites. Paris is seriously beautiful, with the tree lined streets and old buildings, I enjoyed just walking around taking it all in. We made it to the Eiffel Tower via the Trocadero Gardens. It's pretty breath taking seeing something in real life after seeing so many photos of it over the years. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast, I really want to go back when it's bright and sunny, I'm sure it will look completely different again.
After a delicious meal we wander through the streets of Paris, all the way to the Notre Dame. By that stage I was walking like a little old granny, my cons were cutting into my toes and my legs decided to give out... There is a certain level of fitness that you need for travelling and I had unfortunately lost mine, although looking back the walk to the pub everyday should've counted for something.
That night James, Alex and I went on an adventure... a "find Gabi sushi" adventure! I hadn't had sushi since I'd left Australia and it was starting to impact my life... heavily! We managed to find Planet Sushi and proceed to spend 60 euros on dinner... I might have gone slightly overboard but I regret nothing...
The next day was spent seeing more amazing sites in Paris, including Montmartre, Sacre Coeur and walking around Madeline. We visited the Maille shop and bought our fair share of amazing mustards for us and other people... shhh! I found the beautiful Laduree store and bought some amazing macaroons and then walked around all the designers shops. What a lovely reminder as how poor we are...
We made it home and then headed off to the local Irish pub for a drink, a drink turned into drinks, which turned into hunger, which turned in drunk hunger and a walk around the road to a lovely Italian place. The irish man from the irish pub told us to head around the corner instead of eating there, it was one of the best decisions we've ever made because we had one of the greatest meals of the trip... All a bit pissed and very happy, each of ordered the most incredible dinner, Alex and Dad got the most incredible balsamic beef! We drank 2 more bottles of wine, ate our delicious meals and then had a shot of limoncello. The walk home was memorable, James decided to leave us to find somewhere fun (he ended up sitting on a bench drinking champagne out of a cup listening to Drake with a black guy that didn't really speak english!) and Alex and I heeled clicked our way home... Well Alex heel clicked, I more or less just ran and then jumped, but don't worry I'm still practising!
We wrote up to a very rainy day in Paris, dreading the fact that we had to get on the Metro. We made a mad dash to the station, completely soaked we got on the train to Gare de Lyon. We picked up our hire car and hit the road towards Belgium, our next destination was Ippers....
Friday, 24 October 2014
Sunday, 19 October 2014
And it's back…
Ok, so wayyyyy too many hilarious/ridiculous/standard life things have happened since my last post, so to get you up to date, I thought I'd start my delightful blog again… So where to start? I'm thinking our first day of holidays which was the 20th September and I had begun writing a post from then…
20/10/14:
The last few weeks have been really fun, we've drank too much, ate too much, had a few drunken stacks (Alex on a retaining wall), late nights, early mornings, completed a week long cooking course, had an english breakfast (blisssssss), cried over breaking my phone, cried over a hairdresser ruining my hair, made new friends, enjoyed lots of laughs, camped at La Rossiere twice (Alex & Jimbo) and just generally had the time of our lives.
We are looking forward to a few sleep ins and just generally relaxing before Mum & Dad arrive and we get back into travelling again. We are beyond excited to be exploring the world, for me particularly PARIS! Arhhh I can't wait, especially to be witnessing it with Mum and Dad (& James the sneaky shit).
The last few weeks have been much the same, we worked but had a few fun weekends thrown in there as well. We had a day off mid week and went to Lake Annecy with everyone, Alex rode a BMX off a ramp into Bozel Lake, I bought a snowboard and a few pretty things from Zara and H&M, we ate an amazing Indian Feast cooked by the lovely Katy and I did a cooking course.
The Cooking Course:
When I found out that I would be cooking for 22 people each night, I thought it would be a good idea to invest in a course to help me with cooking in altitude. I arrived first, as all of the other students were coming from the UK, there was 8 of us, most were 18, my room mate and I the older ones. All had minimal or no experience in food, and no one had jobs for the winter, so doing the course was an awesome advantage for them to get winter jobs. I instantly clicked with the course convenors, Martyn & Alysha, they've done heaps of winter seasons, as well as Summer seasons in Greece, and the Resort Managers for Green Rides over in La Rossiere. The course was awesome, it gave me heaps of confidence with what I needed to do for the winter. Cant wait to head back over to La Rossiere in the Winter, it's only a 40 minute ski to Italy from there :)
Alright so back to the present day…
19/10/2014
Mum, Dad and James arrived on the 2nd of October, Alex and I were beyond excited to pick them up from the airport. We had volunteered to take two english women to the airport with us, as it's about 2 hours to Geneva, funnily enough they were heading to Australia, so we had heaps to talk about on the drive there. So the family arrived and we headed straight back to Courchevel to relax, have some wine and cheese and then head to the pub. It was awesome to introduce our friends to my family and have some extra Australian back up when chat turned to our accents and the way we speak.
In the morning, we headed up to the Altiport (Courchevel Airport) to show Mum, Dad and James the amazing views around Courchevel, I'm sure you've seen the photos. We showed them around 1650, 1850 and down to Lake La Rossiere. We went back up to 1850 to have lunch with Sophie, at Le Chaichou. It was a hilarious lunch, firstly our waitress had spent a bit of time in Mt Isa & Townsville and apologised that she didn't have any goon to serve us, then I thought that the Menu Du Jour was minute steak but St Jacque in french actually means scallops, so James, Mum and Dad were rather surprised when their main came out. After two bottles of wine and a beautiful meal, we headed back to the Chalet and filled the hot tub for James… Mostly so he could tell people he had been in a hot tub in the french alps!
We decided to take everyone to Italy on Saturday, as Alex had been a few weeks before. To get to Italy, we had to go down the mountain and across to the next valley, Bourg San Maurice, then up the mountain. We headed up and over La Rossiere and into Italy. The road into Italy is pretty full on, Mum was beside herself and couldn't look out the window for most of it… and she was on the inside of the road. We arrived La Thuille and headed to a restaurant that had been recommended to us by Martyn & Alysha, what ensued was the funniest family lunch we have ever had…
Mum, Alex and I decided to order the 3 course menu du jour, plus shared a starter of bruschetta, Dad and James were going to share a carbonara for entree and have a chicken dish each for a main but that didn't really go to plan… James' main came out the same time as our entrees, so dad was left to eat an enormous plate of carbonara, whilst watching James struggle to eat his even more enormous main… the same main that dad had next. Mum struggles to eat a normal sized serving at the best of time but we were in Italy (we're still not sure why she decided on the Menu Du Jour), she asked Alex to finish her gnocchi as he had already finished his… he then got in trouble by Nonna for not finishing his meal! We were all besides our selves laughing. The food was incredible accompanied but the most amazing wine. We were full, a little drunk and very happy, when the mains came out… I've never enjoyed and not enjoyed a meal at the same time before, but after a whole plate of gnocchi and then a spicy pene dish, I was full… seriously full. To make matters worse/more hilarious, James was so full from his main, he wasn't able to eat any carbonara and dad was left to eat a hugeeee serving of chicken toped with ham and cheese with a kilo of spinach… I've never seen Dad laugh so much in my life! We will remember that lunch forever!
We headed back towards Courchevel, but dropped in to see Martyn & Alysha on our way back down the mountain. The chalet, where that the cooking school was held and where Martyn & Alysha live, is the most amazing 18th centenary Chalet. We dropped in for a glass of wine, not that we needed it, and sat out on the terrace in the beautiful sunshine. We could have sat there for hours, but we were all ready to head back, pack and then head up to 1650 to have a fish & chips at the amazing La Boulotte.
In the morning, Jimbo picked us up at 6:30am to take us down to Moutiers for the train to Paris…
But that my friends, is a story for another day…
20/10/14:
The last few weeks have been really fun, we've drank too much, ate too much, had a few drunken stacks (Alex on a retaining wall), late nights, early mornings, completed a week long cooking course, had an english breakfast (blisssssss), cried over breaking my phone, cried over a hairdresser ruining my hair, made new friends, enjoyed lots of laughs, camped at La Rossiere twice (Alex & Jimbo) and just generally had the time of our lives.
We are looking forward to a few sleep ins and just generally relaxing before Mum & Dad arrive and we get back into travelling again. We are beyond excited to be exploring the world, for me particularly PARIS! Arhhh I can't wait, especially to be witnessing it with Mum and Dad (& James the sneaky shit).
The last few weeks have been much the same, we worked but had a few fun weekends thrown in there as well. We had a day off mid week and went to Lake Annecy with everyone, Alex rode a BMX off a ramp into Bozel Lake, I bought a snowboard and a few pretty things from Zara and H&M, we ate an amazing Indian Feast cooked by the lovely Katy and I did a cooking course.
The Cooking Course:
When I found out that I would be cooking for 22 people each night, I thought it would be a good idea to invest in a course to help me with cooking in altitude. I arrived first, as all of the other students were coming from the UK, there was 8 of us, most were 18, my room mate and I the older ones. All had minimal or no experience in food, and no one had jobs for the winter, so doing the course was an awesome advantage for them to get winter jobs. I instantly clicked with the course convenors, Martyn & Alysha, they've done heaps of winter seasons, as well as Summer seasons in Greece, and the Resort Managers for Green Rides over in La Rossiere. The course was awesome, it gave me heaps of confidence with what I needed to do for the winter. Cant wait to head back over to La Rossiere in the Winter, it's only a 40 minute ski to Italy from there :)
Alright so back to the present day…
19/10/2014
Mum, Dad and James arrived on the 2nd of October, Alex and I were beyond excited to pick them up from the airport. We had volunteered to take two english women to the airport with us, as it's about 2 hours to Geneva, funnily enough they were heading to Australia, so we had heaps to talk about on the drive there. So the family arrived and we headed straight back to Courchevel to relax, have some wine and cheese and then head to the pub. It was awesome to introduce our friends to my family and have some extra Australian back up when chat turned to our accents and the way we speak.
In the morning, we headed up to the Altiport (Courchevel Airport) to show Mum, Dad and James the amazing views around Courchevel, I'm sure you've seen the photos. We showed them around 1650, 1850 and down to Lake La Rossiere. We went back up to 1850 to have lunch with Sophie, at Le Chaichou. It was a hilarious lunch, firstly our waitress had spent a bit of time in Mt Isa & Townsville and apologised that she didn't have any goon to serve us, then I thought that the Menu Du Jour was minute steak but St Jacque in french actually means scallops, so James, Mum and Dad were rather surprised when their main came out. After two bottles of wine and a beautiful meal, we headed back to the Chalet and filled the hot tub for James… Mostly so he could tell people he had been in a hot tub in the french alps!
We decided to take everyone to Italy on Saturday, as Alex had been a few weeks before. To get to Italy, we had to go down the mountain and across to the next valley, Bourg San Maurice, then up the mountain. We headed up and over La Rossiere and into Italy. The road into Italy is pretty full on, Mum was beside herself and couldn't look out the window for most of it… and she was on the inside of the road. We arrived La Thuille and headed to a restaurant that had been recommended to us by Martyn & Alysha, what ensued was the funniest family lunch we have ever had…
Mum, Alex and I decided to order the 3 course menu du jour, plus shared a starter of bruschetta, Dad and James were going to share a carbonara for entree and have a chicken dish each for a main but that didn't really go to plan… James' main came out the same time as our entrees, so dad was left to eat an enormous plate of carbonara, whilst watching James struggle to eat his even more enormous main… the same main that dad had next. Mum struggles to eat a normal sized serving at the best of time but we were in Italy (we're still not sure why she decided on the Menu Du Jour), she asked Alex to finish her gnocchi as he had already finished his… he then got in trouble by Nonna for not finishing his meal! We were all besides our selves laughing. The food was incredible accompanied but the most amazing wine. We were full, a little drunk and very happy, when the mains came out… I've never enjoyed and not enjoyed a meal at the same time before, but after a whole plate of gnocchi and then a spicy pene dish, I was full… seriously full. To make matters worse/more hilarious, James was so full from his main, he wasn't able to eat any carbonara and dad was left to eat a hugeeee serving of chicken toped with ham and cheese with a kilo of spinach… I've never seen Dad laugh so much in my life! We will remember that lunch forever!
We headed back towards Courchevel, but dropped in to see Martyn & Alysha on our way back down the mountain. The chalet, where that the cooking school was held and where Martyn & Alysha live, is the most amazing 18th centenary Chalet. We dropped in for a glass of wine, not that we needed it, and sat out on the terrace in the beautiful sunshine. We could have sat there for hours, but we were all ready to head back, pack and then head up to 1650 to have a fish & chips at the amazing La Boulotte.
In the morning, Jimbo picked us up at 6:30am to take us down to Moutiers for the train to Paris…
But that my friends, is a story for another day…
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