Chalet hosting - Week one

Cheeky Vino on Christmas Day, Choice!

The best thing about working in hospitality is that you deal with people who are enjoying themselves, the worst thing, when they don’t. To date we have been lucky enough to have wonderful clients, granted is only week one. I will attempt to keep a running log of each week as they pass, this way Anna and I can look back on the blur that is chalet hosting and you can enjoy the quirky goings on in the lives of a couple of Chalet Hosts.

Week 1

Not an ideal start; pulling out of Geneva airport, 100 kms from Chamonix, with a van full of weary travellers the petrol light suddenly begins to glow suggestively. Shit! I knew I forgot something. It is very late on a Saturday night and no petrol stations are open so what’s a man to do but cross his fingers and pin all his hopes on the economy of the vans diesel engine. 52 kms to go and the light shines persistently, I’m sure it’s smirking at me. 14 km’s to go, no sign of running out of gas and all the humiliation that would come with having to ask the guest’s to politely ‘get out and push’. I have been going 90 the whole way and keeping revs below 2000, thanks Dad for that old trick. After what seemed like an eternity we finally made it Safely home! My god, a genuine miracle.

Week 1 consists of 6 Adults and 7 children. It quickly becomes obvious that while one might be little, one can be very hard work, and that there is always one. No, honestly the children were immaculately behaved; pleasant, polite, inquisitive and chatty. So were the adults now I think about it. Funny that.

Among the day to day dramas of misplaced gloves, helmets and ski poles three events in particular ensured a lively week. Firstly two guests became lost ‘off piste’ (back-country) at Le Tour, second was having a guest slip on ice and crack a rib, last but not least two batches of cookies disintegrated in the oven one morning. Not to worry, all crises were averted; Anna, ski patrol and I facilitated a mountain rescue for about 4 hours while the missing persons were escorted out of the woods in chest high snow, vin chaud (mulled wine) was topped up regularly and on request for our incapacitated ice victim and the botched biscuits were rescued with a last minute yoghurt cake. In retrospect a successful week.