All Fur Coat and No Knickers!

Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that it's Spring here in Megeve. The sun is shining, the streams are flowing and the fields are green! Phil and I took a walk into town today to purchase a little something for our guests for Christmas and to check in with civilisation. We did try yesterday afternoon but ended up in the van, in a car park with no parking in it, just a few buses, and when we tried to leave some electric bollards had come up! We did a few circles and decided to use the exit barrier and press the help button. When we explained our predicament and that we were here purely by accident a very deep, resonant, understanding 'ooooh' came over the speaker and the barrier was lifted! Having made our escape we thought it best to abandon the mission and try again today! We wandered down the beautiful track through the old mountain farms and negotiated some tricky ice, thankful we weren't in the van when the gradient suddenly became 40%!! We'd sort of guessed our way down and somehow ended up right in the middle of town by the church!

Now, the town centre of Megeve is not just any town centre, it has a pretty church typical of the Alps, a very French lay out with lots of twists and turns, a huge Christmas tree with baubles that change colour and then there's Hermes! A beautiful shop with very nice clothes and prices to match (as I've discovered most shops in  Megeve have)! Today there is also a nativity scene created out of ice.

So whilst wandering around I found a lovely little shop that smelt of chocolate so of course we had to go in! We restricted ourselves to buying for others only and purcased a little something that is only found in Megeve. I don't know what they're called but they say they're praline covered in glace icing. They're hard, white and very light so you actually get quite a few in your 100g! 

Whilst wandering around we noticed that Megeve has suddenly become a lot busier and it's easy to see where the reputation of lots of fur coats, sunglasses and rather wealthy visitors comes from. However, I'm not sure I'll be joining in with the Megeve fashion as for most young ladies (and those dreaming of a few decades ago) the fashion is to wear skin tight jodphur-style trousers with a bum-skimming fur coat, leaving nothing to the imagination as to what sort of knickers are required with this outfit, and then the ugliest 'moonboots', snow boots or, even worse, wedge-heeled 'moonboots' with, of course, as much fur as possible! Top this off with sunglasses, gold jewellery and some furry ear muffs and you're bang on trend for a walk through Megeve!! 

Having seen enough, we decided to get the ski bus back up the hill as we didn't fancy the ice climbing required on the road. Our guests this week are lovely and are enjoying some good skiing in the sun as well as trying out some fabulous mountain restaurants. Yesterday's lunch, from what I can gather, was a whole wheel of Reblochon cheese! The forecast for the next few days is snow on and off so hopefully we'll have good runs for our day off on Boxing Day. Christmas dinner is all under control and I've even made the cranberry sauce!

We had a visit from our handsome chalet owner this morning as we keep running out of hot water. Turns out he had only got us running on one tank, not both. So, with the problem sorted, we wished him a happy Christmas and sent him off to teach his skiing with a pocket full of Amande Croquante, yesterday's afternoon tea!