Something in the Air...

So, having realised I left you all in the lurch at the end of the season with a few days to go and then been massively busy since doing my other 'oh-so-terrible' job down on the French Riviera, I thought I would quickly bring you all up to speed.

Phil and I had a fab last week with two very good friends. We mostly skiied in the mornings, had lunch and chilled in the afternoons once the snow was too slushy for skiing on. Chris, first time skiier, got the bargain of the year by buying a weeks worth of group lessons and, although he only did 3 mornings (9 hours), he had one on one tuition for the bargain price of about £10 an hour!! Unfortunately on day 3, his ski instructor brought him back looking a little worse for wear and Lucinda, a usually very attentive girlfriend, had not heard her phone and we were soon to discover that Chris had tried off-piste in the mud but not waxed his skis! This resulted in a very bruised rib.

Injury aside it was a fab week. After that we had a couple of days to pack and finish the chalet and that's it we were off. Only we weren't leaving as the pair that we came as, we were leaving as a three...

Some people do their ski season and take home some French produce for their parents, or some designer gear for their friends or jewellery for their girlfriend. Some leave with less desirable things like a ski-bum boyfriend that the parents will just love or a vague memory of some 'great' nights. Others, like us, leave with great memories of fab skiing and an amazing company to work for, but this time we got more than we'd bargained for...

Sure enough, we've left with our own little ski bump due at the end of September just in time for the snow of 2014! 

For now, I'm enjoying a sunny summer on a yacht in the French Riviera and will get home to the UK just in time (legs crossed) for the bump to make it's grand entrance into the world...

Our Last Working Week.

This week has seen me up to my armpits in Cif and scrubbing parts of showers I never knew existed with a toothbrush! I have one handy hint for chalet builders/designers and owners: Do not use those nasty pebbles surrounded by white grouting in a shower - the pebbles fall out and the grouting turns a nasty shade of orange! Luckily for our chalet owner he has me cleaning the showers...

We've had a fabulous last week with just 4 guests and my Dad for a night before his 'adventure' home resulting in the wrong train, the wrong bus, a missed plane and an unexpected stay in Geneva! He did eventually make it back to Liverpool airport none the worse for wear and he certainly did have an adventure! Just don't tell him that it could well have been me that sent him to the wrong train station to begin with...

I've now finished cooking for the season, minus breakfast tomorrow morning for two, and the fridge is looking rather bare! The freezer has been defrosted, the unused wine sent back to the hotel, useful food stuffs have gone to Charlie and we've got enough carrots for a small rabbit family to see us through the next week. We're actually being treated to dinner at the hotel most nights next week as we have two friends staying there. We're rather excited to see them and have to lots to catch up on and tell!

Megeve is slowly changing from a Winter Wonderland into a pretty Spring village. Little crocuses are popping up out of the grass, the snow has gone from the lower unpisted slopes and the meadows are coming through and turning very green in the beautiful warm sunshine. Don't be fooled though - the weather is changing and with it will be the return of the snow - the famous late dump! Hopefully it'll arrive just before we leave so we can have a couple more super ski days!

Talking of super ski days, we had a fabulous day yesterday with Tasha (the lovely chalet girl at the hotel) and Torie (a chalet girl that shares a room with Tasha). We skied the Rochebrune area with refreshments courtesy of Phil's magic backpack and chocolate courtesy of those lovely French guests we had at half term. We were supposed to meet the rest of the Ski Royale team at Le Boitet restaurant in St Gervais but Adamdiscovered it was closed and we were diverted! We went instead to Chez Ernestine and had a tasty lunch that Trade Descriptions would probably have had an issue with as 'Moussaka' it was not, but still, it was tasty and filling! Raspberry ice cream and raspberries was pretty good too and would definitely have passed Trade Descriptions.

We then skiied a bit more in the afternoon, took Tasha down a steeper red and then had to retire to the bar! After a well-earned hot chocolate, we tootled on down to the bottom, had showers and went into town for an aperitif! I have a sunburnt nose and panda-eyes to prove how sunny it was and legs that ache to prove how far we skiied!

Today Phil and I have just done a few runs over at Jaillet before all the snow disappears and, after battling with the snow grabbing at my skis all the time, we had lunch with a view and made our way home again. Tonight we have two guests but they're eating at the hotel, so it's carrot curry for us and an early start tomorrow as I think the clocks go forward. just two more showers to clean and that's it, our season is done!

When Daddy Came To Stay...

Since the little people left us we've had more glorious sunshine than you could ever hope for up a mountain in March. Well, more than you could hope for up a mountain in North Wales perhaps but not, it would seem, in the French Alps! The locals are fully prepared with strappy tops and light walking trousers, the skis are left behind and lift passes are purely a 'bus ticket' to the restaurants or their surrounding deck chairs.

Phil and the staff at Les Cimes took advantage of the beautiful weather last week and the fact that our chalet owner is a high mountain guide and took a trip up Mont Blanc. Sadly for me they were doing a rather tricky route, made even more difficult by the fact that there had been no new snow for several weeks and by all accounts it was pretty difficult, hard-packed and icy.

From what I can work out, their morning consisted of a very early start, a couple of big lifts up the mountain, a trecherous trek across a ridge in harnesses and whilst roped together, followed by a lot of slipping, swearing and sliding. Once down at the bottom, some sensible peopple decided to have a long lunch but Phil, Martin and Alex - the chalet owner/guide - went up onto the glacier a couple of times just to make sure they were completely and utterly worn out!

I spent the day with our lovely guests and guided them from Rochebrune to Cote 2000 with lunch at La Radaz (a special day off treat for me) and back again. We had a great day and the snow was excellent. Since then the snow has stayed good but is getting very soft in the afternoons - something I don't mind as I prefer soft snow to ice any day! However, as I write, the snow is falling, the temperature has dropped and we are back in our little snow globe. Daddy, who arrived on Wednesday to 18 degrees of sunshine and not a cloud in the sky, is rather excited!

We had a lovely family at the weekend who were here to celebrate a 60th birthday. I enjoyed their company very much and hada great time decorating the chalet and making a yummy birthday cake!

We currently have just 4 guests who leave tomorrow when 4 more arrive for a very short break and then at the moment we have no more bookings (book now - the snow's good!) and our flights are booked for the 8th April back to sunny England! We do, however, have friends coming for a week and we can't wait to see them, ski with them on the new snow and show them the beautiful town of Megeve.

When Little People Came To Stay...

We've had a fabulous few days with our brother-in-law Sean and our nephew and niece, Maurice and Beatrix. At 4 and 3 these two have only shuffled around the snow on plastic skis at the Chill Factor and could only be described as super excited - fully wound up by Grandad! On arrival (after some very helpful baggage handler strikes in Geneva on one of their busiest days) the exclamations at the amount of snow, the chalet, the hot tub, their beds were worth every bit of windng up!

We took a trip to the ski shop to get skis and boots for them and of course Beatrix had pink skis with a unicorn on them and boots to match whilst Maurice had red boots and monster skis! After a little play around on them and the discovery that Maurice was much more suited to an adult-sized snowboard, it was back to the chalet for a hot tub, dinner and bed (including me!).

 I particulalry enjoy the early morning visits and even after 16 hours of constant action the day before they both appeared into our room at 0615 with an excited 'Hi Guys'!! After a breakfast of chocolate porridge, chocolate croissant and chocolate anything else you can wangle out of Auntie Kate I left the men to it and went shopping. Charlie and I were in and out of Metro before 10 o'clock and must have set a new record! Charlie certainly doesn't think we'll break it this season! I unpacked, had a cup of tea and some rather nice carrot cake that I'd made last week and then wandered along to Rochebrune to meet them for lunch.

After a sandwich, hot dog or bread and ketchup (Beattie), I sent the men off who were itching to get up the mountain and Maurice, Beatrix and I bundled into the telecabine and went to the top of the mountain. Maurice now knows the names of all the mountains around us, even if a lot of them had the same name as I didn't have my postcard with me! We decided to ride back down the telecabine, dump the skis and get the bus to La Livraz to go sledging. After a couple of hours the blokes rang, admitting defeat on their boards and we took the bus into town to meet them. They actually managed to catch the same bus as us! We enjoyed hot chocolate and chose a cake for pudding and a horse for our sleigh ride before heading back up for tea, bath and bed.

After another rather Nutella-fuelled breakfast, we were ready for action. This time I had the children in the morning so we did some hoovering - it's amazing how far croissants can get spread! We then made a cake for the ski shop guys, vanilla and chocolate chip, and then had a lovely walk over to the ski shop to deliver our fabulous cake and pick up the skis. We took the bus up to La Livraz and did some sledging before the men joined us and we had huge burgers for lunch!

We had a very successful afternoon and discovered that the walking tracks are just the right incline for Beatrix and Maurice to practice their skiing on and on the uphill sections a ski-pole between the legs, with an Auntie or Uncle at the other end to pull, is a much faster and easier way to get along. Beatrix picked it up very quickly and today she wouldn't even get pulled up some hills, she prefers to shuffle! She also has the hang of 'pizza slice' stopping. Maurice, however, is definitely his father's son, and has an inability to concentrate, listen or control his feet! Maybe when he's 28... He actually did pretty well and his inability to turn left just meant that he stopped by turning right every few yards!

After their fabulous efforts, the promised horse sleigh ride was done and we chose a rote through the Rochebrune area as it's somewhere we haven't really seen. It was really good, quiet and just at the right time for some beautiful evening light on the mountains.

We've had a fabulous few days with them and they've both gone back thinking they're experts at skiing! I'm looking forward to sleeping past 6am tomorrow and after a few more sleeps, Daddy will be here!! We also only have 3 and a half more weeks left of the season. It's all gone so quickly and I hope there's more snow before we leave as currently it's rapidly melting in these glorious warm and sunny days!

Two 4 Year Old Boys and a Whole Lot of Snow!

This week we've had a noisy, superhero-filled, snowy week. Let me set the scene for you...

They arrived on Saturday lunchtime just as I was finishing the upstairs rooms and it wasn't long before I had two little visitors asking 'Who are you?'. The boys are twins, but thankfully very easy to tell apart, and they arrived with their mother and father and their lovely nanny, Melba. It wasn't long before the boys were demanding Nutella on a spoon, even though one has Type 1 diabetes, and the pot was opened and the tantrums started when the word 'no' was muttered. Let's just say that the idea of discipline was a long way away from Megeve this week!

Most evenings I cooked the boys a healthy meal, and I soon learnt that it should contain no carbohydrate as this would mean the blood sugars would go soaring but it wasn't from the mother who had no interest in letting me know what she would like them to eat, just complaining about what was on their plate when it arrived! My popcorn chicken made with chicken breast, egg white and cornflakes went down well (after some protests from one) with the boys but the mother was not impressed! I still cant work out where I went wrong with that one! The adult meals where healthy, vegetarian and within the guidelines they had given me such as quinoa stuffed butternut squash, vegetable lasagna and we even sneaked in a raclette.

When the boys were playing nicely it was great. We've had slipper-clad ice man, mega-wotsit as well as dogs, babies and various other creatures that make interesting and loud noises and are usually naked! We're now proud owners of an igloo, several beautiful sculptures, we've had the snow planted with logs so we get trees in the summer and sledges too, although I'm not sure what they were hoping to get from those! The walls have new colourful drawings all over them and not even my trusty Cif will shift them. Various keys keep turning up in odd places which is unfortunate for the gentlemen who have to use the middle loo - we've resorted to whistling when on the loo!

It's not been a difficult week but I've been doing a lot of guessing and Phil's been doing a lot of running around! He's even managed to ski with the boys and they were rather excited to show him the magic carpet! I did feel sorry for him when I had to leave him mid-week to make a quick trip home but he was prepared with veggie lasagna, panna cotta, sausages for the kids and a day off as well! He managed fine and didn't look any the worse for wear when I got back! He also got an amazing ski in on Saturday morning. It had snowed overnight and he was the first person up Mont Joly, a big off-piste area, making tracks in the snow.

Today we changed guests and swapped a relatively easy 5 people for 8 adults. We then have a full change on Wednesday for another 8 adults and then next Sunday my brother-in-law and nephew and niece arrive. So it's all go here and whilst the French holidays are starting to slow down, our chalet bookings certainly aren't!

PS I cannot believe that this blog has had over 1000 views since I started it! Happy reading, whoever you are and please feel free to leave a comment...

Things I've learnt about the French...

So this week saw the start of the mammoth French February holidays which also tied in with Engish Half Term. Thankfully it's not been as busy on the slopes as everyone made out it would be but then maybe we know where to go to avoid the masses. We have a lovely French family staying in the chalet who basically don't want us around other than to make breakfast, clean the cooker and take them places! So it's been a pretty easy work week and I'm very grateful for that as I'm currently stuffed full of a stinky cold and rivalling Rudolph for his job next Christmas!

So things I've learnt about the French:

1 - When on holiday (even a ski holiday) the French do not get up early! Whilst the majority of our guests have been British and very keen to get up and off in the morning to get the best snow of the day, the French couldn't care less what time they make it to the slopes. We've been doing breakfast at 9am (very loosely) with a lift to the slopes at 1015! Craziness!! I did however take advantage of this and took some time to teach the children how make Coke/Mento fountains!

2 - The French know how to make a right royal mess of your cooker! Every morning I have cleaned my cooker and washed the entire contents of the pan cupboard that has made it into the sink. I don't know what they cook but they use a lot of olive oil (I use 1 bottle in 3 weeks - they've used 3 bottles in 1 week!) and make a huge mess in the kitchen.

3 - They cook enough for an army and eat enough for a bunch of mice! Every morning the remnants of the night before's dinner has been left on the hob. This morning, for example, there was enough pasta and salmon for 10, a pressure cooker full of something (I don't know what because I couldn't work out how to open it!) and a large pan of rice from 3 days ago!

4 - The French are terrible and very impatient drivers! Now, whilst I already knew this, today it has been reaffirmed. Whilst waiting for the bus (the safest mode of transport at the moment), a car stopped on the roundabout to pick up an elderly passenger. There was a bit of a faff with which side she should get in and then the door was locked but after roughly 30 seconds she was sorted. Within this time 5 cars were continuously honking their horns at the rudeness of the said car for stopping in their way, shouting out of windows and then some decided to bypass the problem by driving over the roundabout!

When it snows, they also struggle with which side of the road they should drive on and whilst they know it's the right, there's no white line, which obviously causes them much confusion as well as a temporary loss of memory resulting in other road users having to drive precariously close to the edge of the mountain side and constantly getting wingmirrors bashed!

5 - The French can't swim in straight lines! I've taken to swimming at the local sports centre and it's usually a relaxing hour where I can swim at my own pace up and down the lane. Occasionally I have to share, and that's fine as I am polite and let the faster swimmers through. Some seem to think they can fit between two swimmers already passing each other (surprisingly they don't fit!) and some just attempt to swim over the top of you! I particularly enjoy having my feet tickled and water thrown in my face by very 'splashy' swimmers! Today I tried the wider slower lane but that backfired when two young boys who thought they were better than they are got in and proceeded to swim under, over and alongside everyone else. They didin't understand the swim on the right rule and may have had a helping 'push' from several people!

6 - The French Ski like crazy people! There's no accounting for bravado in France. If you say you can and talk the talk then you better get down that hill as fast as you say you can no matter what the conditions, who gets in your way and never mind that you can't stop! Yesterday was rather icy and slippy in places so I was skiing within my not-so-comfortable zone at the edge of the pistes in the softer stuff with crazy Frenchies whizzing past definitely not in control!

7 - The French do not queue. Whether it's in a bakery, at a bus stop, at the ski lifts or in the supermarket, there's no such thing as a queue and the only way to get yourself seen, heard or a seat is with your elbows out and an ability to see that you are the only person there that matters learned directly from the French. Goodbye manners, British politeness and 'after you'!

8 - They know how to make pastries! It's not all bad and after most activities I do enjoy a little trip to the bakery. I believe that so far in Megeve I have sampled at least 4 different patisseries and boulangeries but, believe me, there are many more! My particular favourite is a Croix de Savoie - a delicious bricohe based cross with custard inside the arms of the cross and icing sugar liberally sprinkled over the top. I also like Torsade Chocolat - a brioche twist with custard and chocolate chips and today I tried something I've never seen before, can't remember it's name but it was delicious - a croissant style flaky pastry with custard and berries. There are many more delicious things in a French bakery like Flan, Croissant Amande, Brioche sucre, and all the cakes that Phil likes! I could tell you about each one individually but it may get a little boring for you...

All of this said, I love to be in France and actually a trip back to the UK reminds me that people in the UK are no longer how I thought they were. So for now I'll stick with my Frenchies, with their stinky cheese, love of garlic and lack of manners and enjoy working my way through Megeve's bakeries in my little snow globe!

Love is in the Air in an Eventful Week!

It may be some time since I last posted a blog but I'm going to make up for it with a very eventful week! We'll start at the beginning with some more corporate skiing. We left the chalet heading for Mont d'Arbois with 7 guests. This may not sound particularly challenging but when they're hanging out of their arses (for want of a better phrase) it's a challenge! To add to it we were also experiencing the heaviest snow of the season so far - so much in fact it was sticking quicker than the ploughs could clear it and we were skiing in about 6 inches of fresh snow on each run! We enjoyed the blue and red Princesse runs with a trip in a dry telecabine at the end of each run and then it was time for coffee so we skiied all the way back to the bottom of Mont d'Arbois and enjoyed an hour in the warmth of the Club Mont d'Arbois. We did have to de-snow before we went in but luckily the radiators were pumping out hot air and my gloves dried whilst I enjoyed a hot chocolate.

It was a little bit windy as well so when we first started skiing our route to lunch at L'Alpette was not open but by some stroke of luck by lunchtime it was open and we took the lift across, skied to the chairlift and quickly lost three to the warmth of the restaurant! The more hardy of us skiied a red run and then a black run - properly earning our lunch - before heading in to enjoy copious amounts of Savoie wine and food! Needless to say after lunch we skiied one run and retired to the chalet!

Our next guests arrived, a group of 5 gentlemen with a penchant for red wine, and a couple who spend a lot of time in Megeve with Ski Royale. We guided the gentlemen for two days and were rewarded with one gentleman declaring it was one of the best days of his life! Sadly on the second day one gentleman took a couple of big tumbles and the second one resulted in a lift down the mountain on a back-board sledge. Luckily he was ok, although not happy he missed out on lunch at the Forestier.

We're now back onto corporate skiing and whilst rather well behaved on their first night, last night was much bigger and this morning's guiding was a challenge. Add into the mix the heavy snow and it's not surprising we didn't start skiing til 1030 and stopped for lunch at 1230! Phil and I enjoyed lunch at Le Face au Mont Blanc very much but I think the others were struggling slightly! I enjoyed the salad buffet and soup followed by the dessert buffet and Phil had some salad, chicken and chips and then destroyed the dessert buffet! Needless to say there was no more skiing and the only things happening this afternoon are hot tubs, football watching and sleeping!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's day whatever you got up to. We were very lucky and had the day off so we had a lie in, a late breakfast, a box of Ferrero Rocher, went for a swim and then went for pizza in the evening. Whilst we might not have had the most romantic night, from what I can gather, there was plenty of romance on the cards for other members of Ski Royale with a hot date in the Wake-Up bar and a market-fresh meal for one lucky lady!

We've got a busy couple of weeks with a French family for half term and another family with twin 4 year olds after that! Then we're into March and the season of family visits. I've been checking out things to do with my niece and nephew and at the moment, if they're being a little bit trying, the threat is no horse sleigh ride! There are plenty of horses to choose from - I just hope they choose the right one!