Night hike and a Folie fiasco

The snow is horrendous. I have to try very hard not to laugh when newly arriving guests ask me how the skiing is up on the mountain. It's fine though, the sun is glorious. It was A's birthday yesterday so we went for a picnic with some friends. Shorts and t shirts, bare footed in the grass for the first time in months and months, it was wonderful. I've accepted the end of the season is nigh and am now looking forward to the summer. I've even booked my first 2 festival tickets. Just have to keep my fingers crossed for some luck on the Glastonbury resale day.

Tuesday night a group of 16 of us decided to do something a little bit different on the eve of our day off. At 2 in the morning we all woke up and strapped snow shoes to our feet and hiked right up to the very top of the mountain, arriving in time for sunrise. We had hidden our skis and boots there the day before allowing us to ski down before anybody had gone anywhere near the pistes.

It was a really special night and waiting at the top, wrapped in blankets, drinking whiskey to mask the cold before the sun finally arrived has been one of my favourite moments of the whole season.

The hike was a lot of hard work but seeing a shooting star at least every half an hour was enough to get us through. Lucia was also an immense source of entertainment. Within half an hour she revealed she had neglected to bring any water with her in favour of a huge bottle of Glenfiddich whiskey. Good work. An hour after that, the 20 a day smoker filled everyone with confidence by asking if anyone had an inhaler and deciding that this was a good time to let us know she suffers from asthma. She never ceases to amaze me.

Well we made it, and it was beautiful, and that's what counts.

The next day after a couple of hours sleep, still feeling a little bit broken, we jumped on our skis to head over to the resort Val Thorens to go for a party at a famous bar known as the 'Folie Douce'. It was a great ski over and I managed to forget about how tired and sore I was...mainly by Lucia once again pouring a large amount of whiskey down my throat!

So today was the last transfer day of the season, it feels like summer, our last guests have arrived and after this week we can count down the days until we head home. It's been a hell of a season that I'm pretty sure myself and A will never forget. I predict maybe one or 2 more posts on here before shutting the laptop to enjoy the summer... Still, there is always next season to look forward to.

The Easy Life

Last week was far too easy. We had 6 guests. Between 2 of us. This of course did mean that A thought it was acceptable to roll into work 2 hours late in the morning but even then it was still a breeze. And don't worry, it's all being added onto the tab.


We have just greeted our guests for this week, back to a full chalet and 7 children. Alice in the chalet downstairs has a guest called Alex. He is 3...and brilliant. I'm so jealous, it's fine though because I have already made great friends with him. I walked out onto her balcony earlier and young Alex came bounding up to me shouting 'I FOUND A LIZARD, I FOUND A LIZARD, I FOUND A LIZARD, I FOUND A LIZARD, I FOUND A LIZARD!!'.


He had found a lizard.


The 2 of us followed the lizard along the sunny chalet wall for a while before it disappeared into a crack I assume it had adopted as its home. Being the sheep that I am I disappeared into my own crack(den) to roll myself a cigarette after a hard transfer day. Behind me I hear a small high pitched voice say 'Oh so this is your bedroom!'. I turned around to find 3 year old Alex rooting through my belongings and making himself at home in my flat.


Once I had finally ushered him out of my 'not safe for children' living space he started eating dirty brown end-of-season snow from the ground. I told him it probably wasn't a good idea and he might get sick. He ran away so I assumed he had taken what I said on board.


30 seconds later Alex reappeared with a large stick with a big dirty snowball on the end of it. 'Here you go, I brought you an ice cream'.


As far as guests go I think this week will be fine, nothing out of the ordinary. We have, however, just received our manifest for next weeks guests. Wow.


QUOTE: 'Mrs ***** only eats plain salad, steamed/boiled vegetables and steamed/baked fish or tuna'.


What shocked me was not the fact that I only just found out tuna is in fact in a whole different food group to fish, but the fact that this guests requirements spilled onto the next  line of the manifest...


'Furthermore, guest and partner have very recently split up, please can they have separate beds.'


To be honest, I'd have dumped the fussy cow too.