France 3 - Alpine Fun & Food in Flumet

Like I said in the last post...TOUGH GIG!

Yep, we were able to put our friends' ski chalet to good use for four days - you can see it there in the first pic above, plus the view from from the balcony overlooking the mountains, and from another aspect you could see Mont Blanc...yes, we were up in the French Alps.

The chalet is in a very small mountain village called Saint Nicholas la Chapelle, right next to the larger, though still blink-and-you-miss-it, village of Flumet (a big ski area in winter), you can see there in pic 4 the view from the main drag of Flumet looking up to Saint Nicholas. Soooooo perdy! This region is known as the Savoie, which, for any food lover, means cheeeeeeeeeese!!! Oh yes, sportsfans...what a friend we have in cheeses (thanks Geoff)!

This area is soooooo close to the Swiss border and high up in the Alps, so picture lots of rich cheesey food and divine cured pork products...OH YEAH BABY!!!! So take your cholesterol pills, sit back and enjoy the ride!

Speaking of rides...we had a guest come to stay with us in our little chalet. One of HOS's riding mates just happened to be in London for work (what a coincidence!), so he popped over for a long weekend of riding up and down big big mountains, and a spot of cheese eating! Welcome to the gang, Il Falco (you can see him there in the fondue pic - he's tall and gangly, and apparently pretty damn fast going downhill on a bike!).

Now, while the men were out and about puffing up and down lush green mountains and being mistaken for Tour de France contenders (they were in team kit that day!), The Princess and I had settled ourselves into a daily routine of food and "Le Petit Lac" (the little lake), as it came to be known to us, though the real name of the place, thanks to the very enthusiastic local tourist information office (sarcasm), was Plan d'Eau. This is that gorgeous little lake you see above, nestled into a wonderful shady oasis complete with delicious snack bars and the cutest 11 year old parking officer who formed a little crush on The Princess.

I think we spent a part of every day at Le Petit Lac - The Princess sunbaking and reading, and me swimming - it was really delicious in the water, sweet and cool - and reading in the shade. Of course there was some eating going on too, and you can see our picnic on the first day there above - like I said, cheese (local Beaufort and a local Tomme) and some wonderful local cured sausage with bread from the boulangerie. Btw, the Beaufort comes from the village of Beaufort just over the mountain, and it's a bloody special cheese, it's known as "The Prince of Gruyeres" and has a divine sweet buttery flavour. It really was the perfect food for a perfect day in perfect company.

The rest of our Savoie food adventures included an extremely decadent Fondue Night and a to-die-for Tartiflette - both local specialties.

Fondue Night occured purely by accident when we couldn't be bothered driving all the way to La Clusaz (the scene of a crazy fondue night a few years ago) for fondue...we stopped at this place instead (rustic looking restaurant pic above). Not only did they have Cheese Fondue on the menu, they also had Beef Bourginon, which is not what we know as beef bourginon. Here, it's an oil fondue that you dip chunks of raw beef into then season with salt and pepper and different accoutrements such as mustards or sauces. Of course we had to give it a go - so we orded both!!!! Chunks of bread to go in the wonderfully gooey and oh-so-cheesy fondue (made from local Reblechon, Beaufort and Emental) with the tang of white wine and Eau de Vie (to aid digestion) were served with some charcuterie (cured pig stuff) and cornichons...MMMMMMMMMMMMM. Then of course you could dive into the hot oil with your beef and let it sit there till it hit your desired "cookedness" then dip it into one of the 6 mustards! All this with good local red wine, a big salad and big bowl of potatoes and followed up with those fruit tarts you see above - raspberry and blueberry...we were living the Savoie dream!

One of the most bizarre things about being in the Alps, and we noticed it here, at this restaurant, is the clanging of the cow bells. Beautiful healthy looking cows were munching their way around the mountains we were on, and we'd hear their big bells making a wonderful choir of clanging as they moved to better grass. After fondue, I went out for a walk and saw not only the incredible views (pic 11), but heard this quirky lyrical song of cow bells...I started looking for Heidi!

The other richly cheesey dish you can see above is Tartiflette. This is a very very terrible dish for anyone on the verge of a heart attack...I'd still eat it though! It's simply potatoes cooked in cheesy sauce (made from local gruyeres) with lardons, which are thick pieces of smoked fatty bacon, and a bit of onion and butter (well, ok, more than a bit of butter)...oh myyyy...it's sensational. HOS actually had this for dinner on the night of the World Cup Grand Final, we were in the bar restaurant in Flumet...and it was heavenly. It's usually served with everything you see above, to cut some of the richness - I'm not convinced that it worked!

A few other notable mentions in regards to food over these Alpine 4 days. These two things, though, are not specific to the Savoie, but even better, you can get them anywhere in France...though one of them I would recommend you DON'T try!

HOS, The Princess and I spent our last afternoon in Annecy, which as some of you know, is known as the Venice of France. The old town has a number of canals going through it with winding cobblestone streets and bridges criss-crossing all over. It's a truly romantic place, which is further helped by the fact that it has a beautiful and enormous Lake. We actually spent the afternoon by the lake side (and me swimming), ohhhhhhhh so romantic. And a romantic day at the lake wouldn't be complete without a French Hot Dog (pictured above) and blue and pink icecream (also, rather obviously, pictured above).

The French Hot Dog really is something to behold. It's made by grabbing a half a baguette or ficelle, stabbing it with something to make a tunnel in the bread, a spot of ketchup and a heap of dijon mustard squirted in, then a yum smokey frankfurt shoved into it to fill the tunnel! OH YEAH!!! It's really really good, and if you're looking for something special when you're doing major kms in the car...any good French petrol station serves them up as fast food...mmmmmmmm. We had ours by the lake watching some old guys play boules...back to living in that French movie!

Now to finish off our gastronomic post, and I'm ashamed it's included in our discussion of the delights of the Savoie, is something that I believe should be banned. There is no reason for this product to exist in the world. It's AWFUL. REALLY REALLY AWFUL. Unfortunately, it's prolific in France and even other places in the world. It is, of course, Schtroumpf icecream. Now, for those that don't know, Schroumpf is the European name for Smurfs...so this awful blue icecream (pic above) is actually "Smurf" Icecream...who on earth wants to eat Smurfs (unless you're HOS or The Princess)...they're bad enough to watch, let alone eat!