Capturing the Fun of a Wedding in the Alps

With Will and Kate's wedding now (finally) wrapped up, preparing for our own guests' upcoming weddings is getting quite busy and exciting.  While researching this week we stumbled upon some great alpine wedding shots from a US photographer, including this great chairlift shot!.  His photos are so much fun and have proven to be great inspiration for our couples' own wedding preparations.


It made us wonder what other sort of fun shots we could come up with to capture the spirit of an alpine wedding... like a gondola painted 'Just Married' with toilet paper and tin cans... or a snowman in a dinner suit... or ....  I think we might be getting carried away.


Chilled champagne toasts on a remote mountain top, wintery white landscapes and wildflower bouquets are more in keeping with the awe-inspiring natural landscape.  As our previous bridal parties have found, great wedding photographs are quite easy to achieve in the Alps, where the scenery is ideal for artistic and timeless images.

Here are a few of our own shots from the Ferme du Ciel wedding gallery!

Farmyard Puzzles

Ferme du Ciel - Farm in the Sky - does live up to its name and before Su and Andy took over it was a working farm.  Just have a hunt around and you will easily come across the remnants of a past way of life. Here is part of our collection and the items that raise the most questions.

Our mill wheel probably did mill wheat although there are contending theories and a few puzzles! For instance,there are no obvious grinding marks on the circular faces, and what is the function of the hole in the base? Why does the bed stone have a lip on it? Come along and have a look. Explanations welcome!

We know from the previous owners that a cider press once existed here. Probably, this photo shows a part of it - the screw thread certainly looks large enough to be part of such a mechanism. Also there is an orchard adjacent to our property which might have supplied the necessary apples!

This item is a puzzle to us. The cogs in the wheel are wooden although the ring is of metal. Obviously part of something, but what?






Other artifacts around the farm include items such as wagon wheels and animal yokes which are easily identifiable. Other bits and pieces are unknown in use and we await suggestions!

Whatever the answer to these puzzles, the items decorate the Farm in an attractive manner and are
a reminder of how life used to be lived in this area. If you have an interest in rural history, why not visit the nearby Eco Museum (a short walk up the hill from the Farm).

Wild Strawberry Season

With a warm, dry Spring has come a wonderful season of strawberries and cherries here in the Alps.  Apparently the same conditions have produced a bumper crop in the UK too, where the season has arrived so early they're worried there'll be no strawberries left for Wimbledon.  Oh, the horror!

Here at Ferme du Ciel we've discovered with great delight an abundance of tiny wild strawberries in our garden.  The conditions have been just right and our neighbour Edmund tells us he hasn't seen such a beautiful crop of fraises du bois (strawberries from the woods) in decades.  We've looked them up and officially, these little strawberries are known as 'Fragaria Vesca'.


So after an hour spent picking delicately on our hands and knees we realise that making a big tarte des fraises du bois is going to require more dedication than we perhaps have to offer.  A tartelette is more realistic!  It won't be large enough for a dinner party dessert, but just perfect to accompany a nice coffee this afternoon ...

And the prize goes to ...

During the last week of the winter season, our fabulous group of guests voted on their favouite meals of the week.  Yes, this post is appearing a few weeks late, as the results were lost - and then found!  Here they are :

3rd places

Entrée : Pumpkin & nutmeg soup w/ a parmesan crisp

Main : Braised oxtail & mushroom ravioli w/ mesclun salad and warm crusty bread

Dessert : Caramelised pear tart tartin w/ a frangelico cream

Runners up 

Entrée : Prosciutto wraps w/ calamari, rocket, dates & manchego

Main : Pork Belly w/ sautéed savoy cabbage, apple & honeyed celeriac

Dessert : Chocolate & caramel tart w/ whipped cream

Favourites of the week

Entrée : Moules à la Normande

Main : Braised lamb rack w/ Roquefort potato gratin, caramelised shallots & baby leeks

Dessert : Apple & rhubarb crumble w/ vanilla ice cream

As usual, simple, flavoursome dishes are the hands-down winners.  Our weekly guest feedback helps us to create an interesting and ever-changing menu.  We aim for nothing too complicated; just good quality food, cooked to perfection, the way you like it.

Its all uphill from here ..

Waking up to brilliant sunshine - again - Su and a few friends took advantage of yesterday's scorching Spring weather and took the day off to go walking.  The route chosen was the Pas de Sales, an ascent through an increasingly narrow pass that bursts open into a valley at the top, where the tiny village of Sales is found.  The village is remote and inaccessible enough to be completely abandoned in winter; the farmers and their cows return each summer to graze the rich alpine grass.

Su has committed (well, not 100% quite yet, she says) to climbing Mt Blanc with friends this summer, and this hike is the first in what will be a series of 'training' hikes.  With that in mind, she unwrapped her walking poles - purchased several years ago with good intentions - and got serious.  While walking, we tried to decide what being a 'serious' walker involves.  Poles are imperative, obviously.  Packing an appropriate bag seems to be the other key, we've decided.  Dried fruit, nuts, hearty sandwiches and no-nonsense chocolate seem to all be 'proper' walkers' fare.  A plastic bag lining your backpack in case of rain is a sure sign you know what you're doing.  Trousers than unzip into shorts go beyond 'walking expert' and veer dangerously towards 'walking nerd', however...


The beauty of walking to Sales is the variety of landscapes that you encounter on the way.  Forests, rivers, waterfalls and cliffs line the route, making every turn of the path exciting and new.  This route is also renowned for reliable sightings of mountain animals, and we certainly got a treat yesterday.  Just before arriving in Sales, we spotted four young bouquetins - sturdy mountain goats with impressive curved horns when they mature.  At the same time, a fat marmotte ambled across the rockface below the goats.  Brilliant.


The village of Sales itself would usually be full of snow at this time of year, but due to the lack of snow this winter, its almost totally snow-free already.  Herds of rather intimidating bouquetins have moved in and were totally unperturbed as we sneaked closer and closer to photograph them.  They don't seem to be upset by walkers at all - or perhaps, just maybe - they just recognised us as 'proper' walkers...

Recipe of the week

A true mountain meal full of cheese, bacon and chunky bread, the Croûte Savoyarde (Savoyard Crust) is a local delicacy and just the ticket after a morning's hard skiing or hiking.  Cheese, potatoes, bread and meat have sustained the hardy alpine population for centuries, so if you're going to visit the Alps, a simple, hearty dish like this must be tried!

Croute Savoyarde

Croûte Savoyarde (to serve 1 person)

Ingredients :
A large chunky slice of rustic wholemeal bread
2 rashers of poitrine fumée (smoked bacon)
A few slices of cheese (ideally Abondance, Compte or Beaufort)
Vin blanc de Savoie (white table wine from the Savoie region)
An egg (optional)
Garlic, single clove cut in half
Nutmeg, finely grated

NB : This dish is served in the plate it's cooked in and due to its simplicity, the quality of the end product is a direct result of the quality of the ingredients.

Rub the garlic clove around the interior of the cooking dish, and all over the bread.  Next, soak the bread in white wine and place it into the dish.  Place the bacon rashers on top of the bread.  Sprinkle a small amount of finely grated nutmeg over the bread and bacon, then cover it all with slices of cheese.

Cook the Croûte in the oven at 200°C for about 20mins or until the cheese is melted and golden brown with crusty edges.

Traditionally an egg is added, but many people prefer not to.  If you fancy adding an egg, break it on top of the cheese to one side so that it stays relatively whole.  Put the dish back into the oven until the egg white is properly cooked, then remove and serve it.

Serve with a glass of white Savoie wine, a simple green salad and some fresh bread.

Voila - an authentic Savoyard meal to feed a hunger grown from healthy outdoor activity!  Bon appétit!

Create Your Own Rockery

Inspired by our upcoming Alpine Gardening Weekend this 11-12th June, we're keen to create our own alpine rockery at Ferme du Ciel in the style of the alpine natives featured in Samoens own "La Jaÿsinia" botanical gardens.

Alpines are generally native to rocky soils and sunny locations. You can exploit their natural requirements sucessfully in containers. They are also very drought tolerant, so they are ideal for rock gardens or for planting in cracks between paving or walls, and window boxes. But the traditional way of displaying alpines is in stone troughs.

Planting up a trough, with advice from BBC gardening guides
- Choose a real stone trough and place it in your chosen location.  Cover the drainage holes at the bottom of the trough with a layer made up of broken terracotta pots (these are known as crocks and will prevent drainage holes becoming clogged up with compost and soil from falling out).
- Fill the trough with free-draining compost to within 5in of the rim, level and firm with your fingertips.
- Arrange plants in the trough, ensuring that any trailing plants are placed near the edges.
- To finish, sprinkle a thin layer of grit over the surface. Not only will this look good, but it will prevent leaves that touch the soil from rotting.

Aftercare
- Remove fallen leaves from the container's surface and snip off any dead or yellowing foliage.
- Don't let your alpine collection get too drenched by heavy, persistent rainfall. If you can, move the container to a sheltered space in the winter, or in summer, create a temporary shelter during prolonged bouts of wet weather.
- Feed plants with a liquid feed in spring.

Five varities to try

- Sempervivum tectorum - vigorous perennial which forms a mat of rosettes of purple tinged leaves. Often used in minimalist planting schemes
- Stonecrop var. floriferum 'Weihenstephaner Gold' - spectacular trailing red-tinged foliage with bronze flowers in late-summer
- Saxifraga 'Theoden' - forms low green clumps with attractive purple blue flowers in spring
- Pulsatilla alpina - alpine with pleasingly textured leaves and white flowers in spring followed by feathery seedheads
- Allium flavum - covered in masses of whiskered yellow flowers in June and July

To see the real thing, join our special Botanical Weekend this June 11-12th, when Samoëns holds an alpine gardening festival in honour of its world-renowned alpine botanical gardens.  Europe's largest and most comprehensive alpine garden is right here in the village and we've put together a special package to help you enjoy it to the full. Contact us for more details.