White Christmas for the snowbirds

CHERIE SIVIGNON

HO, HO, HO: Hugo Sivignon, 12, and Tom Sivignon, 6, wait to meet Father Christmas (Pere Noel) this month in Macon, France.

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OPINION: So, the busiest time of year is upon us, writes Cherie Sivignon in this week's L'expat.

As if to order, the snow has arrived en masse, covering the French Alps in a soft cotton wool-like coating.

And it's dry snow. Really. It's the driest snow I've ever seen. A fluffy type of snow that you simply brush off if you fall into it. It doesn't cling to your ski jacket like a cold, wet cow pat before slowly seeping its way through.

To augment Nature's gift, the ski resorts in the Abondance Valley have been flat out making snow to provide piste-perfect conditions for the winter holidaymakers now arriving in the mountains of Haute-Savoie.

The school holidays started on Saturday and families are gathering to enjoy a white Christmas.

While holidaymakers come from many places in the world, accommodation providers in the Abondance Valley bid welcome to mostly French, English and Dutch visitors. I haven't had much experience of the latter group – the hotel where I've worked every winter since arriving in France three years ago serves mainly French and English guests.

The evening service for each differs widely. The French holidaymakers tend to linger over the food and, after an aperitif, usually consume a glass or two of wine with their meal. Their English counterparts from across the channel tend to drink at the bar, sit briefly to eat, then return to the bar. There is often an earlier service for the children of English guests, while the French of all ages dine together.

I met some Dutch residents of the valley last week. They have several apartments that they rent for a week or two at a time during the winter and summer seasons. After initial pleasantries in French, we spoke English with one another. I'm not sure if that means my French is in drastic need of improvement or just that I have an impenetrable accent. Or perhaps, it's simply that to the multi-lingual Dutch, the English language is a doddle.

Whatever. They spoke English well – every one of the six that I met. I asked one of the women about her high level of English and she said it was imperative that Dutch people learn another language if they want to work or travel outside the Netherlands.

I suppose that's true. I've never heard of anyone learning Dutch as a second language. Okay, the French-speaking Belgians are supposed to learn Flemish but I haven't heard of anyone choosing to learn Dutch instead of English, French, German, Spanish or even Latin. I haven't even heard of a school offering Dutch as a language option.

English is certainly a (if not the) major international language. There we were; a Kiwi and a Dutch woman choosing to speak English in the midst of the ancient French Alps, once part of Italy and just a stone's throw from Switzerland.

It's a small world.

Merry Christmas everyone.

» Cherie Sivignon is a former Southland Times journalist who has moved to France with her French-born husband and their family.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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