Girls on Tour

In the interests of research (and the chance to blag a free trip to the mountains) us office-bound girls set off for our new resort in the 3 valleys, Reberty Village.

During the summer months, Jules heads up our recruitment operations in the UK, so it was a good opportunity for us both to reccy the area, and for her to see her new recruits in full swing.

We made the journey by train (courtesy of our friends at Rail Europe) and departed St Pancras at 3pm. 2 hours later, we were in Paris and getting to grips with the RER transfer between the Gare du Nord we’d arrived at, and the Gare de Lyon we needed to be at for the journey to Moutiers Salins. After some head-scratching, and a few exchanges of Franglais, we made it safely across, and caught the train with no problems. We arrived at Moutiers at 12:15 am local time, where our resort manager Kirsty was there with a cheery, if somewhat jaded greeting. 45 minutes later we were tucking ourselves into bed in Chalet Katie, in preparation for a long Friday ahead.

Friday 15th Jan
An early start, but a very sunny one, and we headed off with a hearty breakfast inside us, courtesy of our host Frankie. We made the 50 metre walk from our chalet to the edge of the piste, (also the ski school meeting point), made a quick survey of the ski hire shops and the well-stocked local Sherpa supermarket, then headed down into Bruyeres, just 2 minutes away on the ski bus. This is where the childcare team live in their (very cosy) apartments. There are plenty of shops and cafe’s at Bruyeres, along with an inviting looking heated outdoor pool, open in the afternoons. 15 minutes walk along the piste (against everything we stand for, walking on the piste – especially when the snow looked so amazing) or another 2 minutes on the ski bus, and we arrived in Les Menuires. Not the most appealing architecture in the Alps, but plenty of activities on offer including a sports centre with indoor pool, gym, soft play area and more, and a plethora of shops, bars and restaurants.

Market day offered us more shopping opportunities, and then we headed back to our (much prettier) local hamlet to investigate what the ‘Ferme de Reberty’ had to offer in the way of lunch. The Ferme is situated beside the blue run which is only a few metres from our chalets. There’s a sunny outside terrace where you are assured of a warm welcome and great food at reasonable prices. Most Ski Famille guests have eaten here on the chalet staff night off.

After lunch we headed down to St Martin de Belleville, a pretty village at the bottom end of the Vallee des Belleville. It’s very quiet, but attractive and easily accessible on skis from Reberty. No skis for us sadly, so back into the Kangoo and ‘home’ to Chalet Katie where a freshly baked cake was awaiting us. We made a thorough examination of all the rooms in all the chalets. We resisted the hot tub and sauna (largely because we hadn’t thought to bring swimmies) and after a delicious dinner we wandered back up to the Ferme which had transformed itself from ‘laid back lunchtime’ to ‘post-dinner party time’, with a lively atmosphere being enjoyed by all. Being the old fogeys we are, we didn’t stay too long, and left to see whether any noise from the party filtered down into the village (it didn’t), so it was off to bed for another good night’s sleep.


Saturday 16th Jan
Up and out this morning for our return journey from Moutiers direct to St Pancras. It was very painful leaving Reberty with its early morning sunshine and fresh snow, to come home to, well, leftover slush and grey skies.

A bit of a whistlestop tour, but an invaluable trip for us both in terms of information that we can pass on to prospective guests. I’m also very excited about returning to Reberty in March with my own family, and this time I’ll definitely be skiing!

Sheila & Jules