The Staff at Oaks and pines
Mrs Francine Ahlers
Mrs Francine Ahlers a native of French speaking Valais, Switzerland 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 honours 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 she joined O&P for the more sedate job of managing its kitchen staff…
She shares a house in the grounds of O&P 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 Rollo Tusque
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, and French kickboxing competitions.
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 reconstructed an old wooden cabin within the O&P woods and made it his home.
Jacques Dupuy
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 armoured brigades and retired with the rank of Adjudant.
He returned to the shore of Lake Leman, 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 of O&P with Mrs Ahlers, the chef and catering manager…
Mr Jean-Philippe Leboeuf
Mr Jean-Philippe Leboeuf is a native of Villeneuve near Montreux, born to a farming family as the name implies, but 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.
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.
Mrs Chantal Duparc
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.
