Bonjour
Well who knew the season moved that quickly. We did our last couple of runs today and took our hire boards back. They were largely unnecessary, but gave some closure to the Winter's 'boarding exploits. We actually had one of the best days of the season last Wednesday (our final day off) when it absolutely dumped it down for two days before affording us uninterrupted sunshine for a day. There was no-one on the pistes and we smashed some serious "pow" both on- and off-piste.
Our last week was actually a culmination of all the things we'd learnt work-wise over the season: 16 guests in a mixed group with all kinds of dietary requirements. The final full day's 'boarding similarly drew on all our experience for maximum fun and antics. We revisited all our old favourite runs, whilst taking in some off-piste all around them: Belette, Comborciere, Arandelieres, Grand Col/Refuge, Bosses, L'Aigle and Ecureuils. The first couple of runs down Ecureuils were absolutely amazing. We even managed a black run we hadn't done before from the Varet lift, Dou de L'Homme, although I tried smashing myself into the ground a couple of times on the way down.
I think my favourite runs this season have been:
1. Belette - Never had a bad run down this quick red. Loads of accessible off-piste both sides, generally reassuringly consistent and fast!
2. Comborciere - Seriously hard work at times but great fun, pow or no pow. Always moguly, quiet and far too hard for the chumps. Also provides the "deep burn" that make your thighs feel like real pros. Hardcore.
3. Ecureuils - Our "finisher" most days, and the last run of the season. Not a particularly difficult black, but very enjoyable, with tree-lined top and vertiginous bottom section.
We had a lovely few last weeks and, overall, have been blessed with pretty decent guests. This is good because we've also had a huge number of them. The fact that we were still packing 16 people in on our last week sum up our occupancy rates pretty accurately. Got to have averaged 13 or 14 guests a week for 17 weeks (so probably around 220-240 clients overall). I've learnt a lot of names surprisingly quickly: most Saturdays I learn all the guests names within a couple of hours of their arrival, however bizarre they may be). Even at the end of the season we were learning how to do things a bit better, or differently, to amuse the guests or ourselves. This one-off cheeseboard is such an example, resulting from a smooth and quick dinner service with a slight excess of cheese to use up.
This season I've probably made around 200 chocolate mousses, cleaned about 360 toilets, been to hospital 5 times (3 different ones for myself, not counting the one we just walked around in Chambery before going to the correct one in the city centre), poured away a year's worth of wine, done some serious snowboarding in all kinds of conditions (from -27 to about 20 degrees in powder, ice, slush-porridge, cardboard, and regular snow), and worked between 70 and 90 hours a week. Tough going, but a hell of an experience. I never want to see Hungarian goulash or mini blinis ever again.
Having listened extensively to RFM, I now have recent experience of most of Phil Collin's back catalogue, Michael Jackson's "Thriller," Toto's "Africa" and lots of things by Maroon 5.
Anyway, back to the last few weeks (which I'm yet to furnish you with the details of). The Moomahs visited, which was absolutely awesome. We did cross-country skiing, drinking tea, sitting on a sofa (more impressive than it sounds), watching a French "You've Been Framed" marathon, and went up in any number of telesieges. This was all the more impressive considering my Moomah is mortally afeared of heights/being more than jumping distance away from the ground. It was good to show them the joys of mountain life, although (as we had 15 guests) we suffered from a little lack of sleep. Still, we got to drink wine, eat tarts and generally live like normal people after around 2230.
The snow came and went, and came back again. It's been a good season in that respect, but apparently lacking some of its usual sunshine.
But now we're all done. The chalet's pretty spotless and we're enjoying a little time to ourselves before we start the tandem journey. We're very excited about it, and really hope people haven't forgotten about us and throw a couple of quid into the charity pot. I may well add a few more things about our snowy season in Peisey-Vallandry as I recall them, but for the time being this is pretty much the end. We've snowboarded hard, been the best chalet hosts most people have ever seen (their paraphrased words, not ours), and lived the mountain life for 5 months. I think we'll miss it. It has been epic.
Bonjour!
This is only a tiny update, as we're currently cooking jerk chicken with rice and peas whilst our current clients are out eating (and, to be honest, we don't fancy seeing them when they get back, or tomorrow, or ever again).
Although this week hasn't been the best, the previous two groups of guests were excellent. The first one had four different groups, all of lovely lovely people. They thought they were outrageous, but other than some late-night jacuzzi usage, were entirely considerate and friendly. Really enjoyed the week, and we now have a friend in China who we hope to visit at some point this year. But yeah, were really sad to see them all leave, which is a pleasant but unpleasant experience.
Last week we had a genuine group of Flemish-speaking Belgians, complete with eight kids. Again, a really nice group, who left us with some amazing beer and a couple of bottles of stunning wine. It was great to have a different (non-English) perspective on the chalet, our hosting, and everything. Also so interesting to have comprehensively mulit-lingual guests around all the time.
Both groups were very friendly, complimentary and generous. Really make the job, and the long hours, feel worth it.
Also, we tried a bit of "skating" cross country skiing again a couple of times. The first time we even did 10km of pretty strenous terrain. The last time wasn't so successful My ankles are poorly designed for this type of exploit. We may go back to the traditional "Nordic" style next time. It's lovely to be down at Pont Baudin though. Quiet, beautiful and good.
Today we went to Albertville, bought treats (including the less-spotted houmous) and bought a tandem bike online. But more about that to come.....
A point of practice. I've now figured out how to allow comments on this blog, so feel free to do that by clicking on the individual post and using the comments box at the bottom. It's nice to know someone's listening/interested/has some free time/nothing better to do.
Also (plug) my Mum's got a better blog than me. She's travelling a lot more than we are at present (Albertville and back). Apparently that's how the world works now. Check it out here: www.blogspot.travelswithacockroach.com
No finishing picture today. Chicken almost ready. Mmm chicken.
The last two days off we've enjoyed have not been spent (simply) snowboarding and recuperating from work. In fact we've done some very exciting things. It's almost time for another day off (tomorrow) so I thought I should update on the last couple of Wednesdays and the amazing pastimes we've experienced over the last couple of weeks.
Two weeks ago we snowboarded across to Arc 1600 (which was a route we had not travelled before) and took the funicular down to Bourg St Maurice train station. It definitely put the "fun" in funicular. We walked around the town (which I belatedly realised I'd visited once in the Summertime) and went to an actual shop (Lidl, also visited during that previous visit). It was my first venture down the mountain, to a place with even ground and traffic lights, for over 5 weeks. Awfully exciting all said. We then 'boarded back, which was fairly uneventful.
Our guests this week, after days of fairly restrained behaviour, turned up to Thursday's dinner absolutely rocking. Apparently they'd found Jimmy's Bar and had been hitting the Jagerbombs, as well as the complimentary caramel-flavoured shots. It made for quite an evening of singing, chanting and general madness.
In the general meantime I've been trying to write postcards where possible, and reach the outside world with tales of our continuing adventures.
The following week, on our day off, there was the Festi'Nordic down at Pont Baudin. We therefore took the "lobster pot" Lozagne lift down to Peisey, had a look around the village, bought some interesting postcards (cute little place, with lots of cool dilapidated-looking buildings) and boarded the free bus to the Nordic area. Once we'd had a wander around the area (former lead mines, and general forest) we signed up for some free biathlon, nordic cross-country skiing (alternatif), and snowshoeing. The laser rifles are awesome, with genuine feedback. I shot five in five, with holding your breath key to accuracy. No idea how they actually do it after skiing, even at rest it's tricky.
I donned some skis (that's right, skis) for some "alternatif" cross-country. The boots are like the most comfortable slippers ever conceived by mankind. However, I was quite bad at it. This has not deterred me from wanting to become semi-professional by the time we leave the resort. I think a lesson, followed by some pretty intense practice may be "on the cards." I think we might try to take up the "skating" or modern form of cross-country though, rather than the Nordic. Not sure. Was absolutely fine going uphill, but really struggled to get into a snowplough position with the super thin/light skis when on a slight downhill incline. The area was gorgeous though, between La Plagne and Les Arcs, with Tignes over the other side. Definitely enjoyed the peace and quiet (not that Plan Peisey is a bustling metropolis).
Furthermore, the Nordic area is home to dog- and horse-sledding. We also did some snowshoeing, which is essentially walking through really deep snow with special plastic duck-feet on. Oh, and we had free chocolat chaud. On the way back we visited a local bar, before ascending via the lobster-pot to our regular abode. That evening we had Tartiflette and local sausages with crozets at Le Solan restaurant: all local dishes, all overpriced and all a terrible idea. I recommend not eating meals which are primarily made of cheese and fat.
Leading up to now I've had a massive cold, which has been pretty rubbish. The weekend was absolutely horrible, with both of us employed doing client transfers when we should've been "turning-around" the chalet. But at least we can say we've done it, and hopefully will never have to do it, whilst trying to do everything else, again.
Yesterday, we got some fun 'boarding in, with some genuinely high-speed high-jinx, as well as the obligatory off-piste dicking about. Definitely pretty proficient now. Looks like there's snow on the way, so hopefully there'll be plenty of "Pow" about tomorrow (that's for you Charles). Oh, and last week we got up the Grand Col a couple of times for serious off-pisting in thick snowy stuff (as we only had 10 guests, and so a good couple of extra hours free time).
Finally, we managed to get over the £400 mark with our charity website www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/snow
which we're very pleased with. Thanks to everyone who's helped the total along. We'll keep adding as money comes in.
Ok, that's some of what's happened. I'll try to keep you all informed of future developments. To finish, enjoy this photo of a cloud pretending to be a fire-breathing dragon.
