The Staff At Oaks And Pines

Mrs Francine Ahlers, a native of French speaking Valais, started working at the age of sixteen in the kitchen her parents’ hotel and restaurant. She proved to have quite a talent for the alchemy of cuisine and her father recommended her to the Chef of the famous palace hotel Beau Rivage of Lausanne.

After a few years of apprenticeship in Lausanne she was sent to a renowned cookery school in Lyon, France. Not only did she graduate with honors she also competed and won the Cordon Bleu.

She had quite a career in a number of award-winning restaurants of Europe before marrying and taking over the family business.

Eventually she successfully encouraged her son and daughter to follow in her footsteps, and joined O&P for the more sedate job of managing its kitchen staff…

She shares a house in the grounds with her husband and Mr Dupuy, the Chief Caretaker and Head Gardener. It is to be noted that her husband is Mr Dupuy’s first assistant.

Mr Jacques Dupuy is a bachelor; native of Evian, on the French shore of Lac Leman, also known as Lake Geneva. After an informal training as an automobile mechanic in the family’s garage he joined the French military. He had a distinguished carer with a number of armored brigades, and retired with the rank of Adjudant.

He returned to the shore of his cherished lake, and on a leisurely bicycle trek around the said lake he joined O&P where he heads a staff of caretakers and gardeners. He shares a house in the grounds with Mrs Ahlers, the chef and catering manager…

Mr Jean-Philippe Leboeuf is a native of Villeneuve near Montreux, born to a farming family as the name implies. He didn’t have much interest in farming beside driving the tractor as if a formula one.

As he grew older he wanted to go faster and he built a go-kart with two crates of recycled aerosols and a two-stroke engine salvaged from a scrapped Trabant. He soon won the 24 minutes of his schoolyard, but unfortunately he lost a wheel during the ‘tour d’honneur’ and badly scratched his knees.

Later his parents paid for his driver’s licence and he got to drive one of the most luxurious automobiles of Montreux, the O&P Bentley as well as its magic school bus with a trailer for the girls’ bicycles.

He is housed in the apartment above the garage and bike-shed when he isn’t spending his days off on the family’s farm.

Mr Rollo Tusque calls himself a citizen of the world. He was born in Italy, and he has travelled the world over and back. He was originally trained as a veterinarian, but he didn’t graduate. He has always been working with all sorts of animals when he wasn’t involved in his second passion of French boxing.

His last job was with a travelling circus and he had a daredevil number with a few lions. This poorly managed circus abused its animals and after the escape of the baby elephant later named Ellie he was fired.

Luck had it that Professor Simpson hired him to look after the growing O&P menagerie.

He constructed an old wooden cabin within the O&P woods, and made it his home.

 

Mrs Chantal Duparc is a native of Geneva. Her family owns a laundry house and she started working with her brother at the age of sixteen. Life was hard but she was happy till she was told that her brother being the elder he would inherit.

She was given a dowry and she briefly married a gambler who lost her money. Irony had it that she found work as maid at the very Montreux hotel and casino where her former adventurous beau had lost it all.

With determination she rose through the ranks to the position of Deputy Head Maid, but she was considered too young to be appointed Head Maid when the position became available. Very disappointed she left and called on Lady Hardwood who hired her to manage the maids of O&P.

She is housed in one of the apartments above the girls dorm rooms.

Miss Elizabeth Armitage, a native of Birmingham, England, joined a teaching hospital in the Midlands when she was eighteen. She proved to have quite a talent for childcare, and continued her studies at a local children’s hospital.

After a few years as a staff nurse, she applied for the post of assistant matron at a famous English girls boarding school.

She served with distinction, and decided to travel. She stopped over in Switzerland, and joined O&P. She has since become a trusted and popular member of the staff.

She is housed in one of the apartments above the girls’ dorm rooms.