COOKING AND YOGA

Warren was raised on a wildlife lodge in South Africa. He was one of South Africa's top sprinters and was on a strict athlete's diet from the age of 14.. which may have prompted his interest in food. For the last 5 years he has been travelling the world perfecting his art and passion; cooking!

He is now head chef at La Source in the Alps where he has started running cooking workshops along side the yoga and multi-adventure weeks.

We have had such great feedback from Warren's food. When Emily arrived from Canada this week, she said that 'The food here is better than in a 5* restaurant!'

I asked the guests how the first workshop went?

'We cooked parmesan crisps which we thought would be really difficult, but they were actually very easy (and top secret!), banana and walnut bread, kebabs on a stick of rosemary, a pastry basket filled with chutney, and for desert... strawberries dipped in white and milk chocolate. Yum Yum!!'

'I learned so much! I am going to buy a bread-maker as soon as I get home!'

'That was a great afternoon! We spent 3 hours learning how to make everything and then sat down for a delicious lunch!'

The children thought it was the best thing we did all week.

Yoga Retreat October 4th 2009

We started our 6th yoga retreat a few days ago. We have 5 wonderful yogi's from Canada, Switzerland and the UK. The climbers join us in the morning so there are 12 of us. Everyone is physically able and even though there are some beginners everyone is managing to try some fairly advanced postures. Some of the beginners surprised themselves by going into full lotus today. It is a fun and lively group and everyone bonded on the first day! It is great to have KGB and Sophie back. KGB punched a mugger in Switzerland the day before she arrived and saved her bag! This is her third visit since May and each time she comes, something immense happens! The first time she changed her career from marketeer to mountaineer, the 2nd time she quit smoking... and we await what will happen this time!

New La Source Blog

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Hello cyber surfers, we have moved the La Source Blog to the above link. Thanks for visiting.

Gearing up for the Ski Season

La Source has found a fantastic UIAGM guide to work with this winter. A local, Didier Tiberghien spent his childhood scouring the Grand Massif back country. Apart from his extensive mountain knowledge, Didier had just graduated with a PhD in Earth and Universal Sciences! He will guide on all of our ski touring courses and our eco-ski week.

Sean Newsom, the ski editor of the Sunday Times will be our first client on our eco-ski week pre X-mas.

Philosophising...

Our right brain sees things as they are.. as whole, interconnected, as one... our left brain organises everything, creates form and creates 'reality' as we know it. In our society.. we favour the left brain way of seeing the world. We are part of the growing momentum and shift towards opening right brain awareness and creating equal balance between the 2. Left brain is masuline (pingala) and equates to the right nostril and right side of the body - generally males get injured on their female or left side... Right brain, female, equates to left nostil (ida) and left side of the body. Females usually injure themselves on the right or masculine side.

We are like mini power stations.. every one of us... our energy, thoughts, feelings, spread in waves and vibrations to everyone around us and to the larger universe. Houses, rooms, cities, streets, mountains.. all carry a particular energy and we all sense it, albiet, generally on an unconscious level. We need to become more aware and have to make conscious choices about what we emit. Fear and negativity emit fear and negativity. Love and compassion emits love and compassion. Integrity emits integrity. Many of us feel we have not got a choice, but when we feel a strong emotion, the chemical and celluar reaction lasts for 90- seconds after which it is our choice. We can choose to hook into the feeling and emotion or we can choose to let it go. This requires self training and awareness. I have started to train the kids and it is amazingly affective. They have 90 seconds to go crazy and scream and shout.. Jay had more sweets than me! It is mine... I don't want to do that!... SCREEEEAAAMM and then.... they have the choice. Do you want to carry on feeling like this or are you ready to choose another way.

Family Adventure Week

Our first summer is over.. and we have been overwhelmed by how many wonderful people have come to share our space and adventures. We already have guests coming back for Autumn Rock Climbing and Yoga courses and, then Ski Touring Courses in the Winter. We have spilled over to the neighbours house as we have run out of space at the Lodge, but luckily our massive dining room can cope with 20+ people!

The last busy week was the Family Adventure. There were 5 families including ours - 9 children of 8 and under and 12 adults. The highlight of the week was swimming under a waterfall in Fer a Cheval. Closely followed by... hiking to a high mountain refuge with 2 'out of control' donkey's! We hiked to Refuge Anternne and on the way the kids stripped off for a dip in an icy stream.

Places have certain feelings, and this place just enables you to relax deeply and let go of 'reality'. There were 1300 sheep in the distance under an enormous cliffband. The shepard lived in a hut near the refuge and explained that under the cliff the grass was dry and therefore his sheep fattened better! Dunc, Warren and I slept under the stars, and everyone else was warmly tucked into a big open plan dorm on mattresses on the floor.

Another great day was the day Respect the Mountain had a rubbish collecting event. We all cycled to the Gorge du Tines and collected rubbish, had a BBQ and then went rock climbing or white water rafting. It was a great day.

Ski Touring

I have just posted our winter ski courses! We are really excited about meeting Didier - an unassuming lovely guy who will by our Mountain Guide. He is an aspirant UIAGM guide who spent his childhood scouring these mountains. He knows the area like the back of his hand and will be an indespensible part of our winter team. We will be discovering all the best off piste ski runs this winter! Didier, at 29, is also a Doctor of Earth and Universal Sciences. These amazing people just seem to appear like angels at the right time.

Climbers from all over the world are discovering our unique Climbing Holidays! It is great to meet such an interesting group of people every week. We are running back to back courses due to popular demand. Both Agniezka and John Falkiner who are instructing are really enjoying the weeks. It gives John a break from guiding the 4000m peaks!

Climbing, Yoga and Hiking Weeks at La Source

There were 14 guests at La Source this week, full capacity! Considering we only started in May, things are going swimmingly. We were honoured to have our very first clients from the deep South, USA! Quentin is South African and arrived on a big shiny red motorcycle, Ralph came from Dublin, Sarah came from Geneva, and the rest of the crew were from the UK.

There seems to be something that yoga people have in common. They are well read, well travelled (at least in spirit), and open. I think we love our yoga weeks as much as our guests.

On the first night, everyone was a little shy but we put into practice our new pre-dinner ritual (it is top secret!) and by dinner the conversation was flowing…. And it was torrential by the end of the week. Everyone had so much to say to each other. Friends for life were formed this week.

There was a mix of yoga virgins and advanced yoginis. We had 18 hours of yoga ahead of us, so started gently in the dojo and worked up throughout the week to quite a rigorous flowing practice. In the morning we started with a little awareness meditation, pranayama, a good warm up and then a Hatha based series of asanas. Everyone progressed very quickly. In the evening, we did a more spiritually focussed practice with meditation. Eva, who was a little quiet at the beginning of the week, and struggled with some of the postures requiring arm strength, stunned us all with a perfect headstand!

A lot of the guests came to relax and relax they did. I think our library was very well used and appreciated. Some people came to be active, and they went on some 9 hour hikes and rock climbed.

On our last night we went out to a Yurt for a fondu dinner. We celebrated Duncan and Agniezka’s birthday (Duncan is my husband, and a climbing coach and Agniezka is our climbing instructor and hiking guide). Our lovely guests gave us all presents to thank us for the week.

Here are a few comments that people have e-mailed us:

I owe you much from this week - a good rest, good company, good spirit, good inspiration, good healing, good yoga, good heart, the right place to be at the right time, and a good welcome.... thank you so much.

I thought it was all perfect.

I just wanted to thank you all for last week. It was very easy to stay with you, I never felt awkward and I haven't laughed or cried so much in years. What you're doing is very special.

I think all of my 120 staff could benefit from what you gave me!!! They can't believe how much better I feel and how I am hitting the ground running............that's the magic of La Source xxx

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