Joyeux Noël!

Christmas...

Well Christmas has pretty much passed us by with little more than a blink of an eye.  It was just a normal day at work (well for me it was - my guests are Jewish and so didn't have Christmas Dinner... in the big chalet, however, it was a little more manic as they had to do the full works!).

We did manage to get out and ride in the afternoon so that was pretty cool - it just lacks Christmas atmosphere around here, despite the Christmas lights and decorations in the town, and the guy dressed up as Santa skiing down the mountain!  I guess people who come here over the holidays just want to escape Christmas?

We had planned to go out for a Christmas drink after work but ended up just having a glass of vin chaud in Dan & Becky's apartment and then we went home!  We'd opened our presents in the afternoon and spoke to my family on Facebook Video, and managed to get hold of Ian's family in the evening so we got to speak to everyone to join in with some of their Christmas cheer!

Guests & Work...

We're one day away from having finished our first two weeks of having proper guests... we haven't poisoned anyone and the chalets didn't burn down - all round success I'd say!  We're getting into our routine now which doesn't feel so great at 6.30am!  The last week or so hasn't been so bad in the morning as the roads have been quite clear so it only takes about twenty minutes to get door to door.  Today, however, took somewhat longer due to the heavy overnight snow and Ian losing the car keys whilst digging the car out!

We're getting quicker in the mornings doing our food prep and cleaning so have been able to leave at around 11am - except on changeover day which is Saturday.  Last week we didn't leave until 3pm and had to be back at 5.30pm... Rubbish!  Hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad.  After the New Year the little chalet has its changeover day on Sundays so at least we won't have to blitz two chalets in one day then.  Evenings aren't too bad - we start at 5.30pm and have two hours to cook the meal ready for service at 7.30pm.  We serve three courses (plus coffee and cheese, if the guests want it), clear everything away and get things ready for breakfast the next day.  We usually finish at around 9pm, sometimes have a beer with Dan and Becky but usually go straight back to the apartment to have a snack or a beer whilst we chill out before bed.  Rock and roll!

But here's a couple of good reasons for doing it all...

Tips and amazing scenery to ride around!

The Riding...

We've had some really good afternoons/days out since we've been here... There's tonnes of good runs around La Plagne, the resort is so big it'll definitely keep us entertained for the next five months!

We had a lesson with Oxygene Ski School a couple of weeks ago - Dan and Becky paid for us to go on a lesson especially for seasonnaires... a bit of a 'get to know people' and also for us to be able to promote Oxygene.  The lesson was quite good actually - a bit of a shame that it was blizzards and visibility was so poor we could barely see a thing!  Still, we got a few good tips to help us improve.

We've also enlisted Dan's help, as he's an ex-pro snowboarder - he took us out on Wednesday and showed us how to carve properly... can't wait til he starts showing us some freestyle moves!!

We've taken some more GoPro footage so as soon as we get round to making it a bit more interesting than the last video, we'll get it uploaded.

Until next time!

November signing out.

A quick upload...

We've finally got internet in the apartment so we can carry on adding bits and pieces onto here - has been a bit difficult getting on the laptop over at the chalet since the guests have arrived.  For now, just a quick upload... we had a nice afternoon of sunshine so had a bit of a cruise around some of our favourite runs.  The vid is a little long but it shows some nice parts of the mountain and towards the end there's a wee bit of the mini-half pipe!

If we get chance, we'll tag in a few timepoints to highlight some what's/where's etc. in the vid.

White Out Baby!!!

We didn't go out boarding on Monday as the snow was coming down so hard it wasn't really worth it.  The roads were really clogged up as the ploughs didn't have enough time to clear the snow as it came down - it's a bit of a trek up to our apartment so we decided to stay in and have a relaxing afternoon instead.  We didn't mind so much as the forecast for Tuesday (yesterday) was for sunshine so we had decided just to make the most of the good days.

On Monday evening we had a visit from a massage therapist who offers services to the chalet - we got to try one so that we could decide whether we would recommend it to the guests... not bad work hey?!  I chose a back massage and asked her to be firm as my shoulders were pretty tight from boarding on Sunday - man, did she go to town!  I felt like I was being punished for something I'd done wrong!  That said, it did feel good.  Dan and Ian both had massage too, judging by their faces when they cam back up it seems that they experienced the same too!

So much for a Bluebird Day...

Tuesday started off looking quite nice so after our morning prep we headed up to Plagne Centre to collect our gear and off we went.  As soon as we got to the top of La Grande Rochette it started snowing and the skies went grey... and it pretty much didn't change all afternoon!  Visibility was dire, the snow kept smearing our lenses, we got soaked on the lifts and I fell over a lot.  All in all, pretty rubbish - but, still quite good fun.  We tried a couple of new runs that were't open on Sunday and they were good too - haven't found a run I don't like yet, which is good!

We were supposed to be going skidooing on Tuesday evening but because of the weather that was postponed.  So we made red onion and goats cheese tartlets instead!  The salmon dish we had for mains was delicious - orange and parsley crust topping, and I made an amazing Hollandaise sauce!  Yum!!

November signing out.

And we're off (piste)!

Yesterday was our first proper full day off and as we now have our lift passes it would have been rude not to go on the mountain. Dan took us up to show us some good runs and to help us get orientated with the pistes.

We knew Dan was a pretty good boarder, but it turns out he's much better than we thought and we set off at pretty much full pelt! I don't think I've boarded so fast in my whole life! Thankfully the snow was close to perfect and my board is so much better than my last one so it was quite good fun!

On one of the lifts you pass right by some of the mountain ridges and Dan was pointing out some of the advanced off piste that you can get to in the area - terrifying just to look at, never mind to contemplate going down! Over the other side of this ridge was a nice and (comparatively) shallow gradient off-piste slope down from the ridge back to the piste. We decided it would be a good idea to try it and get an introduction into off-piste riding.

It was a bit of a hike to get to because the lift obviously doesn't take you up to the ridges, but we weren't going to the very top so it was only about five minutes. Thankfully when we got to the point that we were going to descend we looked over the edge and it really wasn't that bad. A bit of a steep bit to begin with but then shallowed out and then just rolled nicely all the way down.

Ian set off first and made a nice sweeping arc for his first turn, whilst shouting back up the slope about how amazing it was - good multitasking. He made it down in about twenty seconds flat and it looked pretty easy so off I went.

My descent was somewhat less smooth, although my somersault probably looked pretty cool (had I meant to do it!).  Off-piste boarding obviously involves a different skill set than regular boarding!

The rest of the morning we spent on a few other slopes, seems like there's plenty of nice Blues around the place.  I had the chance to take a few pics whilst Ian dug himself out of some side-piste powder...

We had a quick lunch of crepes and coffee with Dan and Becky who had come to meet us, then Ian and I headed back up the mountain for a couple more runs followed by an apres-ski pint in La Refuge in Plagne Centre.

Feeling pretty battered from a hard day on the mountain, we spent the rest of the evening watching Strictly Come Dancing, the X-factor final whilst eating spag bol, homemade by Becky.  All in all a satisfying day!

Had quite a few aches today although would have gone out again - except there were more snow blizzards - yey!

So we did our morning prep - Ian prepared the pigs cheeks and made a mackerel pate (which we just ate for lunch... yum) and I made an apple & cinnamon cake and a pastry case for tonights Whisky & Treacle Tart.  Can't wait!


Also, tonight we are having a very well timed visit from Massage Me! Double Yey!


November signing out

Ready Steady Cook!

Plagne centre ready to go.

   Hello again, we've had quite a busy couple of days since our last blog, we have spent the most part of our days in the larger of the two chalets learning, prepping, tasting, and eating all of the gorgeous food on the menu which we will be serving to paying guests in a week. Foodie highlights thus far have been my coffee and walnut cake that came out of the oven a cake and not a biscuit, baked camembert with Nina's red onion marmalade, lemon and passion fruit possett and the astronomical chocolate and a baileys croissant pudding!  As well as the cooking we have also been kept busy doing shopping trips, wine tasting, snow shovelling, jacuzzi testing, exploring and of course washing up so all in all we're really enjoying ourselves and beginning to settle in.

It has also stopped snowing and we have been treated to a couple of bluebird days and all of the scenery that surrounds us, which is good as took me 20 minutes to dig the car out of the parking bay after just a day of snow. After digging said car out of said big pile of snow we got to spend the yesterday afternoon just relaxing in our apartment in La Plagne centre further up the mountain from the Chalet and were the main ski resort is, was quite cool to take a quick walk around as all the pistes are being prepped and looked amazing yet there was no one around as the season does not open until Saturday, just a shame we could not jump on the boards and carve a few lines.

Dude, where's my car!

Today the world championships for Bob and Skeleton were being held in La Roche where the track is literally about 30 meters from the Chalet so we got free entry to the track where we're hoping to negotiate a free go of the marketing manager as we can sell it to our guests too. It was amazing, we could stand right next to the track! The noise and speed that these guys do and within a few feet from you is unreal so I had to put a video link in, really quite scary!!!! Great Britain were there but I think we finished 7th in the two man bob.

After a couple of days spent in the kitchen we're off cooking duties for a couple of days. Tomorrow Nina and I are off to go shopping for supplies to Bourg Saint Maurice in the morning and in the afternoon we're on a fact find finding mission on tourist activities, restaurants and where everything generally is so we can inform our customers once they arrive. On Sunday it's our day off so Dan our boss is taking us out boarding for the day to get to know the mountain range and where all the good pistes are and also hopefully where all the off piste lines are, def going in the off piste this season. On Monday it's back to practicing the menu but a massage company is visiting the Chalet trying to push some business so we're all getting free massages (sweet). We also found out a friend of Dan's runs a Skidoo business so one evening next week we're going for a night ride around some really remote parts of the Alps on Skidoos for an hour or so but more of that in our next edition of its not all about the snow.

India Signing off.

Some pics...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well, we must be good snow omens... it snowed all last night (we presume) and the majority of today.  It's literally shin high!  Up until yesterday the whole place has apparently been green!  We're definitely set to have an open resort for the first weekend of the season... yey!

Other exciting news - we moved into our apartment this morning.  We managed to get all our stuff in and we've even been given a sofa and a coffee table by Dan and Becky.  Should be pretty cosy!  It's a new(ish) purpose built block of flats specially built for seasonnaires - apparently, all the shop/bar/chalet/hotel owners in the area clubbed together to get it built because previously it was really difficult to get anywhere for the staff to live.  Pretty cool, huh?!

We're still going to be living in our adopted home for the couple of weeks whilst we are doing our training and initiation.  Not that we're complaining - this chalet is amazing!  This is where we're working for the next five months or so... www.skilaroche.co.uk .


Tomorrow we're going to be starting our cooking training and also going into Bourg Saint Maurice to do  a "big shop"!

November signing off

Premier etage...

So, a couple of nice days in Paris to help us recoup from the overnight drive/ferry from Nottingham to France. The hotel we were booked into turned out to be pretty much perfect for us (Paname Hotel Bastille), with a lockable garage space for the car! Certainly put us as ease, considering all our belongings are stored in the car! Great area of Paris too, plenty going on but in a friendly homely kind of way. Would definitely go back there.

Spent both days just generally mooching around the place - we did all the tourist spots last year so didn't feel any pressure to do any of that again.  We did go tot he Military Museum (Ian's request!) which was quite good... Saw Napoleon's Tomb - and his horse, randomly!

Set off from Paris at 9am and started the 7 hour journey to the Alpes... pretty uneventful really - not worth saying much about it!

Oh, apart from my tripe sausage experience.... The less said, the better!

November signing off

And so it begins...

Here we are sat at Dover ferry port waiting to start our French adventure. The weather is horrendous and I think we have a fairly unpleasant crossing to look forward to!

We'll arrive in France approx 5am this morning (Dec 3rd) and we'll spend a couple of days in Paris before completing our journey by ending up in la Plagne where we'll spend the winter chalet hosting. (for anyone who wants to read about our experience so far, as first-time newbie seasonnaires, watch this space - we'll post info on how we got our jobs, arranged transport, etc etc).

Anyways, first we need to survive this Channel crossing! 'Ere we go! :D

November signing off