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!

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!

A Great Week for Skiing!

So the snow has arrived in Megeve and we've been very spoilt with the slopes to ourselves for three days. Unfortunately today the excellent weather forecast and fabulous snow conditions meant that the Genevoise arrived in their dozens making the pistes a little busier and also inducing a little piste-rage at moments! There's nothing like skiing carefully down a green path, watching out for kids and beginners, and then nearly being run off the edge by a crazy nut shooting straight down taking no prisoners! I won't tell you the words that involuntarily flew from my mouth! It was worth it for the view though.

Earlier in the week Phil did some guiding whist I took Charlie shopping and then on Tuesday we both did some guiding. We were guiding our 4 guests plus two more from the hotel and somewhere along the way I had 4 with me and had lost Phil and the other 2 in the off piste somewhere! We waited for ages, decided to move on and if all else failed we'd meet up at coffee. We had some fabulous skiing and stopped for coffee at Chalet Bachais in Jaillet. Two of ours decided not to stop and then we lost them! 

We've also managed a little ski with Charlie the chef, Natasha and Toria and I have to say that I wish when I learnt to ski I'd been as good as Natasha is after only a month of trying out this crazy sport!

We enjoyed a ski today from Rochebrune to Cote 2000. We haven't been able to ski this bit until now because it's been icy and hard packed snow. We had a fabulous time playing on some long runs under the Petite Fontaine lift before heading up the steepest drag lift ever - 50% to be exact! But I still managed to take a picture of it! 

We had a lovely time until we met the crazy French and Swiss teenagers and young adults bombing it down to the air bag and ski park! I've had fun trying out some new skis although I think they'll be even better when there's new snow. Still, it gives Fred a chance to wax my other ones and sharpen the edges (when they're not eating all the cake we take them)!

We've got another busy week coming up with shopping, guiding, and a family of 5 arriving on Wednesday. But I'm sure there'll be plenty of skiing fitted in as there's also the promise of more snow on it's way...