Usually I get treated to the delightful company of the hotel chef, Charlie, but today when I arrived in my not-so-trusty steed (will explain later), he announced with a rather sheepish look that he would not be accompanying me today as he had to go on Saturday due to something he had thought was in the freezer not being there! However, being the lovely sort he is, he presented me with a very carefully drawn map of our very wiggly route down the mountain (although I'm pretty sure he missed a couple of big bends!) and gave me the magic card which, when presented at the checkout, allows me to fill the van with all my goodies without handing over any real money!
So, back in the van and with no radio as it doesn't work below freezing, I wiggled my way down the snowy mountain, ignored Charlie's directions, took a route with a slightly wider road suitable for driving big beasts down and arrived at the chalet girl's dreamland called Metro. Now there's no point even trying to go to Metro if you can't park a van as there is usually only one space and a very small, mini-sized space at that, that you have to park in. I can do it, but how the cars either side get out is a mystery to me! After that the only vehicle you need to drive is a rather unruly trolley - forget supermarket trollies, these are another breed altogether! Mine, yet again, made a beeline for the champagne stack at the entrance as I made my way through to the rather empty veg section!
I find the easiest way to shop here is to dump the trolley in a place that is as in the way of everyone else as possible and run up and down the aisles, grabbing things from the shelves and then running back to the trolley to check what else is needed. The trick is to leave the cold section for last or to do it in shifts so that you don't loose any fingers or toes due to frostbite setting in! Some people stop to have conversations in there, but even with hat, scarf, gloves, snow boots, thermals and ski suit, I think you'd still risk loosing your nose whilst chatting!!
Once you've got everything, (this is where Metro is worth the trip), you hand your magic card over to the checkout guy, leave your trolley with him and go and raid the coffee bar. It's all free and there's usually some yoghurts and nasty cake things to work your way through! Then it's off to load the van, no mean feat by yourself I might add! Then it's a quick stop at a real Supermarket for the bits wholesalers don't have. I might have also treated myself to a yummy little thing called a Scoubichoc this morning! Whatever it was, it wasn't healthy or nutritional, that's for sure!
Whilst this all might not sound too bad, bear in mind that yesterday we did a full chalet changeover, dinner for 9 last night, up at 7.30 this morning ready for breakfast at 8 (and yes, the cake for afternoon tea was already in the oven!), two runs to the ski lift and to top it all off my husband got the job of guiding the new guests round the slopes, having a whale of a time skiing on beautiful new snow! That's the part that makes it the worst day!!
Anyway - it's over for another week and next week I won't have to get up to breakfast before going as we won't have any guests! And I left the rooms for him to do on his return...
As for my not-so-trusty steed...It's been good to me and I did drive past a Jeep in the ditch this morning with a rather smug smile on my face, but on Saturday night it did not behave so well for Phil. Our lucky guests had been invited for a drink after skiing at an apartment in town. (I say an apartment but it's actually the top and bottom floor of an old grand hotel right in the centre of Megeve, worth about 10 million!) They asked to be picked up about 7.15 and so Phil duly left at 6.45 only to discover that in the ast two hours 6 inches of snow had fallen. He got the van out, and slipped and wiggled his way through what can only be described as carnage to the the very big corner and decided that the van was just not going to make it back up if it kept snowing. He rang Adam, who, with a German-made heavy-duty beast picked the guests up and got them back to us no problem. Phil arrived back with hands shaking and what I think was relief that he hadn't joined the Jeep or the LandCruiser in the ditch. He was fine after a beer and some chocolate!!
So now we have two families for New Year. All I can say is that cooking for 9 is like feeding an army compared to last week! So if you need me you'll find me up a mountain, skiing the good stuff, avoiding the inevitable pile of potatoes that need peeling!
PS. The yummy chocolates that our guests gave us for Christmas that probably cost a small fortune, were delicious and as you can see did not last very long at all!
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