Celebrating 4 years of Skiology with 18 gems of our best ski trivia
30 July 2010
Next month Skiology will be 5 years old. Skiology founding brother Dominic Turner looks back on some of the wierd and wonderful things that he has learned during his first 4 years in the French Alps ...
1. You can bluff your way through most French conversations simply by nodding your head and saying 'vraiment' a lot ... Vraiment means 'really'.
2. Almost every French ski resort has a piste called the 'Dahu'.
A Dahu is a small deer with two long legs on one side of its body and two short legs on the other side of its body. The different length of the legs enables the Dahu to walk upright as it traverses the steep mountain slopes. Unfortunately Dahu’s are not real :( more about the Dahu
3. Fribourg and Reblochon FERMIER cheeses are two cheeses you must try.
Reblochon Fermier is not like your average Reblochon! Most winter sports fans are familiar with Reblochon as the cheese on top of the famous mountain dish Tartiflette. Normally in cooking one will use a factory produced Reblechon because as an ingredient it is less expensive however to do justice to this famous mountain cheese one should really try the farm produced Reblechon Fermier, it is a world of flavour away from the factory produced taste. Most ski resorts will have a market or a shop where you can try the two side by side.
Fribourg is a bit rarer, it is like the Swiss Gruyere but better ! Firstly don’t get confused and buy a French Gruyere which by French Agricultural law must have holes in, we are looking to a hard non-holey yellow cheese. Fribourg is matured for so long that it starts to form salt crystals in the cheese which gives it a wonderful texture. Fribourg is closely related to Gruyère Premier Cru which is the only cheese that has won the title of best cheese of the world at the World Cheese Awards.
4. Reblochon means to pinch a cows udder again.
This process of holding some back some of the milk from the first milking and leaving it to mature in the cows udder is what gives this cheese its characteristically strong flavour.
5. The barriers at the toll booths on French motorways will not smash into a million pieces if you try and ram them.
I was once witness to a supreme example of road rage... There was a huge queue building up behind a car whose driver was struggling to find money to pay for the toll at the toll booth. After a minute or so of the driver fumbling around the whole queue started to beep the flustered driver. Another minute of beeping passed and without warning the driver changed plan and rapidly wound up his window, the whole queue went silent, we all knew we were about to witness ... a barrier ramming ! I gave the heads ups to all the passengers in the minibus and we waited with baited breath, the previously flustered driver now calmly revved his engine and with a screech of burning rubber he was off ! To everyone's surprise/ disappointment it turns out that the barrier can also swing out as well as up ! if you look at the barriers when you drive past, they are double hinged for such eventualities.
6. The baguette might not be French in origin.
I am not going to back this one up as I don't want to be guillotined, just putting it out there.
7. Cold gloves will not make your hands warm !
No matter what super dooper hand warming gloves you have, if they are cold when you put them on, they wont warm up your hands. First blow into your gloves to warm them up and then put them on or better still use one of the hand dryers in a mountain restaurant toilet.
8. You feel colder after lunch as your body digests what you have eaten. If the conditions are cold then you can try and lunch near a lift which is sheltered from the elements like a cable car or mountain train, this way you can digest in the relative warmth of the enclosed lift .
9. Skiing is as much about confidence as it is about skill
10. You often pay for convenience with mountain restaurants in France
In my experience, the restaurants that are not as easily accessible have to work harder to get your custom and therefore offer better, less expensive food. This is not a black and white rule and there are many exceptions however logically a restaurant owner will pay more rent for a 'better' spot so less accessible restaurants are often less expensive.
11. When wearing ski boots and walking on a hard surface, you should walk with flat feet to preserve the top and bottom ends of your boot.
If you walk normally i.e heel to toe in ski boots, you will slowly wear out the ends of your boots with the roll of your foot and they will not fit safely back in your bindings.
12. On average temperature drops 0.6 degrees with every 100m of elevation HOWEVER altitude is not the only thing to guarantee that a resort is snow sure
Orientation REALLY matters too South facing slopes receive 10 times more sun that north facing slopes, for example at 2000m the snow on a North facing slope will last 2 months longer than on a South facing slope ! This is why for example Les Carroz at only 1200 m with a North facing slope has a better historical snow record than many resorts at 1600 m N.B There are many other factors that contribute to a resort's historical snow record which I could and would love to bore on about however what really matters is that both resorts where we have chalets have historically proven great snow records if you want to chat Mont Blanc weather system please email me.
13. France beats any other Winter Sports destination in visitor numbers from the U.K Winter Sports market 2 to 1 in because it is awesome.
14. A rule of thumb for making 1 liter of the mountain liquor Génépi is to add 40 Génépi flowers to 40 g sugar and top up with 40 percent alcohol then shake 40 times and leave for 40 days - there are many variants however all seem to revolve around the number 40.
15. Grole is one of the best drinks I have every discovered. More about Grole
16. Making cheese fondue is not as simple as melting cheese. .
17. A cooking pot with some form of food that appears to be welded to the bottom of it can often be cleaned by adding hot water to the pot, then a little a washing up liquid and brining back to the boil on a stove then scraping the bottom with a wooden spatula.
18. Megeve was the first ski resort in France. Les Carroz had the first and the longest button lift in Europe and Morzine was once a border town.
Skiology now entering it's 5th year offer catered chalet holidays in Morzine and Les Carroz with a focus on good food. Come and join us this season ...
