A fête worse than the Chalet School

[EmilyAlice]

Roll up, roll up!
Bid for a mortgage on the doll's house! Pin the tail on the St Bernard! Guess the weight of the handsome doctor! (Or pin the tail on the doctor and guess the weight of the St Bernard). Knit a lime green liberty bodice against the clock!
The Chalet School fête is open.....

More waffle from me later as I absolutely loved Maids, but for now - I'm finished with Cheddar's copies of A Head Girl's Difficulties and Maids of La Rochelle, would anyone else like to borrow either/both?

Oh and thanks Cheddar!

Did I mention that I am loving the LRs?

Halfway through Janie of La Rochelle now. Quaintly impressed at the level of mystery Julian maintains on his honeymoon by disappearing to change into his swimming trunks whilst hidden in a cave with his new bride.

I loved Maids especially. Something beautifully idyllic about the whole setting - not just the place itself but also the lovely simplicity of their lives together, just the three young adult/nearly adult sisters looking after themselves and going to the beach and getting the bus to town and back and getting chased round their kitchen table by a random goat etc. And while it certainly wasn't the highlight of the book for me, I was pleasantly surprised at how EBD handled the various romances, compared with most of her CS courtships. There's a definite sense of female agency, and actual attraction.

The burglar storyline in Heather was a bit lol though. With little more than a random hunch, Janie predicts the burglary right down to the two-hour window it will happen in. And then Major Raphael has a similar and instantaneous understanding of what has happened, simply by arriving at Saxonhurst to be told that Alured has rushed off to his. (I mean, you'd be a bit 'hmm, someone has lied to lure us both away from our homes tonight and that must be dodgy, but wtf is going on?' at first, right? You wouldn't be able to immediately "warn the servants what to expect" and then rush off back home?)

There is so much more but I must rush. I also couldn't help noting the closeness in age of the various LR couples, compared to what feels like a CS norm of 10+ year gaps. There's only a year or two between Janie and Julian, 6 years (iirc) between Elizabeth and Paul and I think 2-3 years between Anne and Peter. Then Janie and Julian ponder whether Rex Willoughby is making eyes at Con Atherton who is actually a couple of years older than him, and suggest that it might be as well that and is older than him... It seems a refreshing change! And has made me rethink somewhat how 'one true way' EBD really is about some of this stuff. Likewise (and less frivolously), I thought her treatment of schools and governesses in Heather quite interesting. There are so many occasions of 'wayward girls who need to be fixed by school' that it's quite interesting to see that Heather is 'fixed' not by a good school but by a mere governess/family/Janie. Janie of course manages perfectly well without a school, and Pauline is initially deemed incompatible with school.

Might be as well that she is older than him.

I was on this thread last year but have name changed since then.

I picked up a copy of new mistress yesterday in a charity shop, I haven't read it for a few years. I found myself wondering why OOAO felt so snubbed by Kathy Ferrars. She replied with "a pleasant smile" and Mary Lou is supposed to be soooo perceptive and older than her years, yet despite constant telling by her peers about her over familiar manner she can't deal with a new teacher being slightly cool in her tone.

Oh Nell, you can't diss the plot in Heather! It's a classic - right up there with Redheads in terms of loopiness! and I read it when I was too young to have any sort of critical faculties and accepted it all blindly, despite being a bit confused by Heather's potential brain damage from hitting her head on a table-leg

I've been reading Janie of LR today as well and it just doesn't grab me as much as the others. It's a bit too much of a pale copy of Anne's House of Dreams but without the tragedy. You do start to wonder just how well all the families actually knew each other - particularly, say, the Raphaels and the Athertons/Willoughbys, who never actually meet in Heather. Do you think Peter Chester loses all his money because someone pointed out to EBD that all her families are pretty wealthy? I know it says that the Athertons aren't, but they seem to spend an awful lot of time holidaying in Guernsey for poor people.

Oh gosh agreed - it is mad brilliance exactly like Redheads, possibly even better because I already knew of the madness of Redheads before I read it whereas this came completely out of the blue and I was delighted by it!

I really liked Janie of LR although not as much as Maids. I haven't read AHOD though so don't have the pale copy perspective. There is an amusing bit quite early on where either Janie/Julian comments that she's likely to have a constant stream of visitors, before hastily remembering that most of her friends are in England. I can see how the Gornetz Platz became appealing to EBD after the challenges of that - at least in Switzerland everyone is trapped there together!

I thought it was a super interesting read on ideas about relationships and parenthood. There's a lot of stuff about suitable matches, suitable ages for marriage etc (Allegra Atherton is worldly enough to marry younger than her sister Con, because she's already worked in theatre and lived in digs etc ; it's apparently totally legit for creepy Cuthbert Clitheroe to take a liking to Maidie Willoughby based on some photos of Janie's and then track her down; Janie and Julian's relationship is very obviously meant to be very pally and egalitarian; Lal breaking off her engagement in a fit of jealousy is quite interesting too).

The parenting stuff is also quite interesting I think. Bad Billy Ozanne is one of EBD's designated "children who need a good spanking (and respond well to it)" - that's made clear when he wrecks the wallpaper and Pauline is blamed for having tried to reason with him because she doesn't believe in smacking children. Janie and EBD both remark that Elizabeth would have smacked him and that would have settled him. But my vague CS understanding is that the Ozannes are largely held to be neglectful and indulgent parents - did I misunderstand that? That doesn't seem to be the story here at all.
There's also the stuff when Julie is born, and at first Janie is inclined to carry her everywhere, rush to her every time she cries etc. Of course by the time Julie is mere months old, Janie has been convinced of the error of her ways and falls in line with Elizabeth and Julian's harsher regime (which is obviously completely of its time etc), but I thought Janie's initial greater compassion was very sympathetically treated, compared with how EBD often is when criticising poor parenting.

I am now in to Janie Steps In and already enjoying it less than the earlier LRs, though. :( Janie appears to have rapidly become beloved centre of the universe, much as Jo does.

Some LR amusements:

• When even on Janie's wedding day EBD can't resist once again remarking that she will never be pretty or beautiful
• "Ninian is a doctor [..] so he'll be cultivating a bedside manner - you know; all smarmy and treacly"
• "So Rex has made up his mind, and Con is to be the next Lady Willoughby?" "Yes; but it sounds rather horrid put that way." YES. Yes it DOES, so why is poor Len later betrothed in this horrid fashion?
• Bonus cooking disasters! (Janie uses whitening instead of sugar in her cake.) Without any need for dommy sci!
• Bonus laundry disasters! (Janie boils Julian's flannel shirt to death.) Without any need for camp!
• Everyone, but everyone, has a horrible crossing to Guernsey. Are we to presume that EBD had a bad crossing? Or were boats invariably unpleasant in ye olden days?

I do love the setting though. It's very well captured I think. Which reminds me, actually. Achensee with a four year old - is there any point? I had vaguely earmarked it as something to do when he's much bigger (and willing to walk fairly substantial distances). But - and this is so chaletian that an intervention may be required - his asthma is getting a bit worse when I'd hoped it ought to be getting better, and I wonder whether a week in the mountains might do him some good, quite apart from anything else.

Frogspawn I sometimes think EBD must have meant something different by 'perceptive' than I would usually mean. I sort of can believe in ML as being able to join in with and understand 'adult conversation' better than her peers, but she rarely seems able to appreciate anyone else's world view / needs. Joey too is repeatedly described as being perceptive but for me the evidence is somewhat lacking here...

New Mistress is interesting to me because for a long time, it seems to entertain the idea that not everyone will automatically love ML and realise/accept "it's just ML". Kathie doesn't seem to be 'wrong' for being pleasantly cold towards her. Unfortunately the interesting idea goes nowhere because ML bloody saves her life and Kathie sees the errors of her way and that's that! I would love to read a version where that tension gets explored a bit more. I think New Mistress resolves it rather too hastily.

Greetings, fellow Chalet School fans. I've loved the series since childhood and have about 15 or 20 of the books, hence I've been lurking on this thread for a few months.
I tonight discovered that libraries in Staffordshire (we live in an adjacent county but close to the border) have loads that I haven't read! So I've just completed a membership form online and once my card arrives, will be ordering away.
Just wanted to share my awesome news - so excited .

Marking my place. I have about 40 of them and only dss so no one to share my love of cs with. I'm also an Antonia Forest fan and if anyone has transcripts of these i'd love a copy.

40 CS books, Tigger! Jealous!

Hello, new girls! I'm sure your sheepdog can tell you which dormy you're in. Of course, you'll have read the prospectus so you'll already know all about the trilingual system.

Nobody came on here to tell me that Achensee with a 4yo would be a bad idea, so, erm, I've gone and booked it! The sporthotel at Achenkirch, rather than Pertisau itself, but still. So excited! We go in August. It won't be the same trip I'd make without a child in tow (don't imagine we'll go in search of the dripping rock etc), but I think/hope it'll still be brilliant to see the general place. And quite apart from that, I think it'll be a lovely holiday.

Did nobody else want a borrow of Cheddar's LRs? Shall I just post them back to you then Cheddar? (Feel like I should have one of EBD's acknowledgements of repetition / 'scant regard for grammar' after that, but I'm too tired to make it any better!)

Nell my indulgent parents took me there when I was a teenager. It really is beautiful - you'll have a great time! Not jealous at all...

I would love to read the LRs but still have half an Abbey book and a historical drama from Cheddar to finish - new job is cutting badly into my reading time.

of your Tiernsee trip Nell. I'm sure you will find a sonsy local who will look after your charmingly lisping DS while you go off to fall down rocks, take refuge in a herdsman's hut and get rescued by a handsome Alpinist Doktor.

Yay, so glad you're going to the Achensee Tiern See at last, Nell. Be sure to pop into the library (it's teeny, in a back room off the tourist information office) in Pertisau Briesau to see EBD's plaque. It's worth getting the card whose name I can't now remember which lets you hop on and off the steamer as much as you want - it's a fabulous way of getting around. The landing at Gaisalm has a children's playground if I'm remembering rightly, and if your partner is willing to child-sit for an hour or so there you'd have plenty of time to get to the Dripping Rock and back. The area is lovely and even if you don't do many explicitly CS-connected things it's wonderful to get a feel for the place. How long are you going for? And I do hope you're not going to funk your cold plunge in the lake.

Ohh, would love to go one day.
I have found my people!

Do it, Papergirl1968. I went last year and now I can't work out why it took me so long to get there.

Alas, mornington, no partner (for this holiday or indeed generally these days) so everything is either with DS in tow or while he is in the care of a sonsy local. I shall be keeping an eye out for an English girl with eyes like old sherry and an elusive beauty which will come to mean more to me than her SIL's, then I can leave wheezyboy with her indefinitely, for the good of his delicate lungs, while I stride around Europe being important.

We're only doing five days, but definitely need to fit in at least one trip across the lake and back, as well as a ride on the steam train. Other than that, a feel for the place is exactly the idea. and ambitions of being rescued by a handsome doktor

Actually, I just know I'd end up being rescued by the burly bearded mountain-peasant instead, but that's perfectly OK - my tastes are rather more oriented towards schoolmistresses anyway.

Ooops, sorry Nell, I thought I'd heard you mention a partner. My forgettery memory's not up to much these days. Never mind, hopefully there'll be a schoolmistress (with or without eyes like old sherry) staying at your hotel, and you know that schoolmistresses just love looking after other people's children when they get a slack moment, leaving you free to bound around the mountains with girlish energy.

The boats do a kind of circular trip around the lake - I can't remember how long it takes, but probably more than a four-year-old will want to do in one go. Which gives you an excuse to hop off and do some Chalet sightseeing. The Hotel Furstenhaus Kron Prinz Karl by the landing stage in Pertisau Briesau has a lovely garden where you can get kaffee und kuchen (and ice cream if you're four) so I'd recommend that, and then a stroll around the village. Last year one of the hotels by the lakeside had a fantastic outdoor display of photos of its history back as far as the 50s - so not quite back to EBD times, but probably not that different to how she would have seen it. Well worth a look if it's still there. I went on the steam train (unchanged since EBD's time) and spent the journey wondering how on earth the whole school fitted in towards the end of the Tirol period, and suddenly it made sense that poor old Herr Anserl was always in such a temper - imagine having to toil up all that way just to teach some ungrateful girls to play the piano. Five days should give you a very good idea of the area, and I do hope the Tyrolean air works its magic on your little boy's asthma.

Oh, I did your memory is fine! I have tried to think of a CS cliche to borrow here but of course nobody breaks up in CS land as far as I can remember - although I was mildly intrigued by the woman who nearly breaks off an engagement in one of the LRs (the more worldly Atherton, I think? But then her fiancé also turns up on Janie's doorstep and they all live happily ever after after all).

Holiday recommendations very much appreciated - thank you! I am extremely excited. I may have to send myself to bed with milk laced with a sedative, or maybe spend a day drinking brandy(?) by the fire, while more capable folk nod sagely and note that I always was highly strung.

Oh, it's just occurred to me that Grace Nalder is subtly divorced. Or at least, reappears at least 10 years after being married off, using her maiden name and making no reference to her missing husband. Id assumed that this was an EBDism, but actually I'm now convinced she got a divorce and it wasn't polite to mention it!

I also always accidentally think that Cornelian Flower married a divorcee, but presumably he was a widower. I could totally see her marrying a divorcee, though. And being perfectly understanding of Naomi the heathen, rather than all speechless shock like OOAO.

(To clarify: I'm clearly not divorced, but short term relationships and their demise seem not to be a thing in CS land...)

I lurk on here occasionally. Now delurkng to say Achensee with a 4 yo will be fab. We are taking 5yo DD in July. Staying at the Post in Pertisau (couldn't afford the Kron Prinz Karl). DH and I have been before, about 10 years ago. DH was very patient with my Chalet School spotting (he was not told of the acas connection until we got there).

Definitely get an Achensee card. I am expecting DD to love the steamer and the train. You can also get a steam train through the Zillertal, as they run occasionally through the summer from Jenbach to Mayrhofen. Probably only for the dedicated small train enthusiast, as it takes a couple of hours. Also, go up the Rofan seilbahn (cable car) to the 'Sonnalpe' (DH and I did a v long walk up there, to the summit, and I was convinced I saw Robin's Cave!).

I will be making a start on a Reread of the Tiernsee books soon, in preparation for the trip. Am very excited. I hope DD enjoys it. And wants to return in few years time, having read all the books herself. More likely she will think these weird books her mum keeps trying to get her to read are rubbish and that mum is a sad loser for still reading old fashioned children's books. But hopefully she will love the Achensee enough to want to visit again anyway. I am plotting to make Achensee a return holiday destination for the YorkshireTeaDrinkers!

Isn't there a mention briefly somewhere that Grace Nalder's dh and dd were killed in an air raid.

Didn't Evadne marry a widower? I think she talks about having a ready made family.

Ah, could well be Evadne. I remember Evvy being pregnant I think - which obviously doesn't confirm or refute the stepmother angle! I'm sure Corney does have stepchildren too though, doesn't she? Isn't she living with stepchildren when she sorts out Yseult?

I don't recall Grace Nalder's husband and child killed in an air raid - although I am not so good on the later books so v v possible I missed that. I think I remember that happening to Marjorie Durrant, though :( - I know it's largely covered in the CS Headmistress fill in but I'm pretty sure it's referenced in canon too.

YTD I am now even more excited about my own trip to Achensee Tiernsee! Am taking note of all the useful info.
I think taking children to CS-land before trying the books on them is an excellent idea! It's a good hook. You will have to report back in a few years.
I wish DS was old enough to get him into the books now. This would add much needed variety to our cultural conversations, ie. he might not ask me every single day who my favourite character from Frozen is, he could alternate with 'who is your favourite CS character' instead.