The Ski Famille Blog

EUROSTAR VS EASYJET

2012-01-20T12:50:00.007Z

As directors of Ski Famille we often make visits to our two resorts, typically flying into Geneva from Gatwick via Easyjet. Just for a change we decided to check out Eurostar.

During the ski season there is a "Ski Train", which goes direct from London St Pancras to Moutiers (ideal for our Reberty chalets), Aime La Plagne and Bourg St Maurice. Unlike the normal service it bypasses Paris.

Our tickets cost £269 per person return, although adult fares can be as low as £149 and children £100. To really put the rail network to the test, we used the train for the trip from our home to St Pancras too.

Our Alpine Odyssey began on a tiny deserted rural platform at 7.15 on a bitterly cold January morning, yet just over an hour and two trains later we were already in Continental mode, enjoying delicious coffee and croissants at one of the many excellent cafes at St Pancras.

Check-in consisted of passing the ticket though a machine, having you and your bags scanned and going through French (that’s right) passport control. It took three minutes. You can keep your belts and shoes on, leave your laptop in your bag and you don’t have your favourite shampoo and nail scissors confiscated.

We found our seats in carriage 15. Most of the seats are aircraft style facing in one direction. There are one or two for groups of four which were almost all taken by families.

We travelled Standard Class, although Standard Premier may be a better bet for families with youngsters. It costs about £80 per person more for a return trip, but gives extra leg-room, refreshments and a socket to charge the all important laptop. Details of the options and the Ski Train service can be found here >>

If you associate Eurostar with an air of luxury as I did, you will be disappointed. Standard class is akin to a regular, though fast British Rail journey. The seats are comfortable but, according to my 6ft 3in husband, the leg room is less generous than the feeder train on our journey to St Pancras.

The first two hours out on Eurostar passed quickly as we sped through south east England, under the Channel (absolutely no sense of occasion – just blackness) and across northern France. We had brought a picnic with us, assuming the food on board would be expensive and possibly unappetising. In fact it wasn’t bad. The buffet car serves sandwiches and paninis and pots of noodles all for around £5. They also sell beers, wine and spirits along with hot and cold drinks.

Cracking across the French countryside at up to 186mph is great for a while, but after lunch I had a snooze and my husband watched a film on his laptop which killed another couple of hours. We finally approached Moutiers station at 6.15pm French time – just over seven hours after leaving St Pancras.

Reberty should have been a quick 40 minute drive up the mountain from Moutiers, but it was the day after the ‘Great Tempest’ as the French called it, so it took a boring 2½ hours as we queued behind sliding fools who had decided they could manage the climb without snowchains.

Under normal circumstances, the door to door trip would have been 11 hours – including the two local trains to get to St Pancras. If you live in London and assume half an hour to get to St Pancras, it would be a doddle at about 8½ hours.

Had we been flying we would have allowed 3½ hours to get to Gatwick to allow for M25 holdups, another 2 hours to check in and pass through security, an 1½ hour flight, an hour to collect luggage and walk the miles through the airport and a 2½ hour transfer to Reberty Village. Total journey time 9 ½ hours not allowing for possible flight delays.

For us the train took a bit longer and the cost, once we had factored in petrol and parking fees for the week was about £50 per person extra. On the plus side, the journey was relaxing and hassle free and we arrived at the resort refreshed instead of exhausted and stressed out.

We also noticed that all the children on board seemed happy with the freedom to move around and play games if they wanted to. In our carriage at least we didn’t hear any little ones crying or moaning - not even the inevitable, ‘are we there yet?’

We are definitely converts and suggest that if you are bored and unhappy with today’s cattle truck airlines, try Eurostar for a change and let the train take the strain.

Mel and Steve
www.skifamille.co.uk

Stunning January conditions

2012-01-18T16:39:00.005Z

This blog post comes to you from a sunny Annecy. As I near the end of a week in and around the mountains I can’t help but reflect on the superb conditions I’ve enjoyed (sorry if this sounds a bit smug but they have been brilliant!).

As a general rule I don’t expect to get much skiing in in January but have enjoyed 4 days on this trip. Following on from a massive dump of snow on 6th/7th Jan (which fell on already well covered pistes) the sun came out and it’s been as near perfect up in the mountains as I can remember. I had to go out and play …

I’ve skied in Les Menuires, Les Gets and La Clusaz/Grand Bornand and all three areas were lovely; snowy, sunny and quiet. The best snow was in the top bowls of Orelle (3 Valleys) but the lower resorts were only just behind. On every piste I visited the conditions were smooth and grippy; the temperatures have stayed low and preserved the snow incredibly well.

With more snow on the way this weekend this is shaping up to be a fantastic winter – I’m looking forward to being back in the 3 Valleys in the first week in Feb. If conditions are half as good as they have been this week we'll have a fantastic family ski holiday.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Reasons to be cheerful 1, 2, 3

2011-12-21T10:59:00.003Z

The festive season has done little to tackle a nagging feeling of gloom in the UK. It’s not limited to the economy; we saw a lot of disheartening speculation regarding snow conditions in November. It can kind of drag you down …

… however, we believe there are three fundamental reasons that family skiers and boarders should be cheerful. The end of the world is not nigh and there is plenty to be happy about.

Snow
We can’t remember a start to the season like it. There is, in simple terms, staggering amounts of snow across the French Alps. Both of our resorts, Les Gets and Reberty Village, have seen vast quantities of snow falling over the past 10 days and conditions on the slopes are fantastic. Have a look at the snow conditions page on our website for more details. This is not a winter to miss!

Exchange rate
In historic terms it doesn’t warrant a street party, but sterling is now nudging €1.2/£1. For much of the summer it was nearer €1.1/£1. This means lunch on the mountain is now going to leave you with change for an après ski beer … or you could simply pocket the cash and sample Ski Famille’s free pre dinner drinks (new in all chalets for 2011/12 and one more reason to be cheerful – but we didn’t want to muck about with Blockheads reference!).

Flights
There’s no doubt about it, despondency is making people hold off from booking holidays. However, one man’s gloom is another man’s gain and flight prices to the Alps are looking pretty attractive. £67 per person return for weekend Gatwick - Geneva flights at the end of January; we don’t mind if we do!

Cast aside the gloom – be cheerful - and Happy Christmas!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Great snow and (lots) more on the way

2011-12-13T16:38:00.008Z

I have been in Reberty Village for the last two days enjoying the Ski Famille warm up week with our first guests of the season. Ten days ago they were all a little nervous about conditions (see my last blog post) but over dinner last night everyone was reporting fantastic conditions out on the slopes.

The weather today has been pretty clear (although sadly I am now back in our Farnborough office and did not have my first ski of the season) but another weather front is rolling in. According to snow-forecast.com Reberty looks set to see over a metre of snow before the end of the week! This will give us fantastic conditions in the run up to Christmas ... and we do have space for one family in Chalet Eva from 23rd at a pretty amazing price (even if I do say so myself!).

Les Gets was open for weekend skiers on Saturday and Sunday and will be fully up and running from 17th. The slopes are already looking good and the resort won't be escaping the snow forecast for later in the week. Tomorrow may see rain at resort level but the temperature is set to drop from Wednesday and there could be a metre of powder to play in by the end of the weekend (... and I aim to have my first ski of the winter in Les Gets next week).

We have space for two families in Les Gets at Christmas staying in ski in/ski out Select Chalet Grand Mouflon. Our last spaces are available with a saving of over £1,000 for a family of four.

After a relatively precipitation free autumn this could turn out to be a pretty astounding start to the season.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Snow gods don't read Metro ...

2011-12-08T15:20:00.011Z

I had a rather odd experience on Monday. At 6.00 am my alarm went off in Chalet Katie 2 in Reberty Village. I got dressed, wolfed a bowl of cereal and stepped outside; it was snowing hard.

After five minutes I had cleared the snow from our trusty little Kangoo 4x4 and started what turned out to be a snowy, sleety, rainy and generally grim drive to Geneva. I then hopped on a plane to Gatwick where I picked up a copy of the Metro to read on the train to the office.

The front page of the Metro was a little ... frustrating. It seemed to be guaranteeing that as a ski operator I was doomed. Alongside this there appeared to be a suggestion that all of our guests who had booked early season holidays were either unlucky or stupid. Fortunately I knew from my own experiences that they were very wrong - the weather had well and truly turned.

Shift forward three days and this rather ill informed and and lazy article is an utter irrelevance. Reberty Village (sitting at 2,000m in the 3 Valleys) has seen around 70cms of snow and Les Gets is not far behind.

First thing on Wednesday Reberty Resort Manager Dan sent across a picture showing a rather impressive 40cms of snow on the (fairly sheltered) Chalet Eva balcony. Five hours later that had topped 55 cms.

Today the sun is out in both of our resorts. Les Menuires opens this Saturday and Les Gets will open on 17th December (although there is limited weekend skiing this Saturday/Sunday).

My favourite picture of the day is this beauty from one of the Les Gets webcams, simply stunning!

I love the press being wrong!

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

When is a family holiday not a family holiday?

2011-11-08T13:25:00.008Z

The answer for me on this one is very simple. A family holiday is no holiday when you are all crammed together in one room.

The Thompson family is fairly compact and bijou (in numbers if not in stature). This does not, however, mean that we want to sleep within a few feet of each other for a week. I do not want a tossy turny grunty four year old in my room!

This morning I have been trawling various holiday websites (ski and others) looking for ideas and holiday inspiration. What has stuck me is how difficult and/or expensive it is to find accommodation which isn’t based on a family sharing a single open plan room. We don’t do it at home, why on earth would we want to pay for the privilege of doing it somewhere else?

Ski Famille does offer some family rooms – I appreciate not everyone shares my views – but for the most part we have family suites with separate sleeping areas for children, or offer adjacent double and twin rooms. Our child prices apply no matter which route you go down. Occasionally a family of three (like my own) may have to pay an under occupancy charge, but generally we’ll waive it if it's not a busy week. We'll also count babies towards room occupancy.

From a position of enormous bias (!) this seems like a logical approach if you are truly focused on the needs of families. I now need everyone else to catch up in order to holiday anywhere other than our family chalets in Les Gets and Reberty. Fortunately both options seem to be amongst the best available at the moment....

Chris
skifamille.co.uk

Skiing? No, not that bothered …

2011-11-02T14:48:00.004Z

As I run a ski company it is often assumed (not surprisingly) that I do a lot of skiing. This isn’t the case. I’d estimate that in the 8 years since I started running Ski Famille I’ve averaged around 4 days a season on the slopes. Given that I got in to the industry through a love of the mountains, coupled with the unique sense of freedom one gets from sliding around on a pair of planks, this is pretty poor.

On learning that I don’t ski much people generally express shock and ask whether I am bothered or not. My response is that I’ve had my fix (I was a guide in the Alps for two winters) and can take it or leave it. That’s not the whole story though … increasingly I think I just say that to make myself feel better about working too hard and playing too little every winter!

This Autumn I have visited both the London and Birmingham ski shows as a “punter” and have been surprised to find that they have genuinely fired up my enthusiasm for getting out on skis this winter. I’m itching to head to the mountains, and not just so I can meet suppliers, sit in on management meetings or check chalet standards; I really really want to go skiing.

There is a second factor at work. I am, in the nicest possible way, the subject of pester power. My four year old daughter hit the slopes for the first time last winter and absolutely loved it. Whenever ski related paraphernalia appears in the house I get a question along the lines of “Daddy, when are we going skiing next time”. I try and avoid the subject as I have singularly failed to get organised and plan in a family trip to the Alps.

Conversations with guests on the phone remind me what I could be missing out on if I don’t get it sorted out though. There really is nothing like playing in the mountains en-famille. I have decided that this is the month I pull my finger out, before I head off to the mountains on 24th for my first tranche of set-up and training I’ll book a Ski Famille holiday.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

The Ski Famille holiday timeline

2011-10-08T13:38:00.005+01:00

So, how can you expect your days to pan out on a Ski Famille holiday? If you haven't been on this kind of family ski trip before it can be difficult to visualise what it's all about. Hopefully the table below will help.

Time	Parent	Child
07:45	Potter downstairs for breakfast. Welcomed by the chalet host with a mug of coffee.	Run down the stairs for breakfast. Decimate 3 pains au chocolate.
08.30	Hand children over to the childcare team and pop back upstairs to get into ski gear	Mob the childcare team as they arrive and get ready for ski school
09.00	Grab another coffee in peace	Get taken by the nannies to the ski school meeting point
09.15	A1 minute walk to the slopes and skis on	Great fun - the start of the ski lesson
11.30	Leisurely hot chocolate stop in the sun soaking up the mountain views. Nod off briefly then decide it would be respectable to put a few more runs in before lunch	Childcare staff pick up from ski school - a quick snack and hot drink and time for some snow man building
12.30	Lunch stop at a stunning mountain restaurant for some Alpine treats and perhaps a small beer in the sun.	Lunch with the nannies. Help decorate the home made pizzas into smiley skier faces.
14.00	Time to get back on the slopes and explore a new bit of the mountain mentioned by your chalet girl - discover quiet slopes and more stunning views	Toboggan races followed by lots of fun games in the chalet playroom
16.00	Head back towards the chalet to catch up with the children	Mum and Dad are back - show off new skiing skills for the day on the slope next to the chalet
17.00	Afternoon tea, homeade cake and a nice cuppa ... after all lunch was hours ago ...	Kids tea prepared by the chalet hosts - tasty treats at the end of a busy day
18.00	Pre-dinner drinks offered by the chalet hosts. A quick sip in front of the fire before getting the children in to the bath.	Watch a DVD to relax and unwind before heading up to bath and bed
20.00	A delicious three course meal served by the chalet team. Free flowing wine and lots of interesting chat followed by more relaxation in front of the fire	Sweet dreams!
22.00	To bed ... bouyed up by the thought of being able to do it all again tomorrow!	Sweet dreams!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Reberwhere?

2011-08-25T14:01:00.004+01:00

In 2009, after 18 seasons operating in Les Gets, we committed to branching out into new territory. The resort chosen for our initial expansion was Reberty Village.

If you’ve never heard of Reberty Village there is no need to be ashamed. In conversation with people outside the ski industry I have only ever come across one person who knew exactly where it was.

So why, having looked at more well known resorts including Courchevel, Meribel, Megeve and La Plagne did we opt for this relative unknown?

There was one massively important factor – LOCATION

We knew that guests wanted to travel with us to the 3 Valleys (it repeatedly came up on guest questionnaires) and the area was therefore a key focus from the start of our search. We found chalets in Meribel, but the access to the slopes was dismal. We found chalets in Courchevel, but the costs were astronomical. We had seen chalets in La Tania, but they tired with compromised layouts. Finally we had fallen for St Martin de Belleville, but failed to find a property that would work for families.

A few people had, by this point, suggested we have a look at Reberty Village. I had put it off for a couple of key reasons. Firstly I knew it was a satellite resort of Les Menuires; an unattractive purpose built resort which I perceived to have a lot of pretty low rent accommodation. Secondly I knew a competitor had chalets there – I won’t name them but the most basic of Google searches will allow you to compare our offerings!

After a couple of seasons of searching and with nothing else that really appealed on offer it was time to visit Reberty. I’d be over dramatizing to declare it love at first sight but it was certainly “hmmm, this is a lot better than I imagined and really rather interesting” at first sight. Given the chalets are in a location beside the slopes at 2,000m with a ski school meeting point around a minute and a half away I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised to discover I liked the place.

The chalets were (indeed are) quite different to our properties in Les Gets but I could instantly see them working for families. All rooms are en-suite and it’s very easy to pair up doubles and twins for families. These are chalets designed to be commercially let, unlike our Les Gets properties that are typically family owned second homes, but they still have some traditional character and the south facing terraces are a great place to be on a sunny day. There is also the benefit of a spa room in each chalet.

We took a leap of faith and committed to three chalets in the place that nobody had ever heard of. Over the past two seasons we have tried to make the properties more homely (more is being done this Autumn) and we have learnt how to help guests make the most of the area. The skiing needs little selling but we have genuinely become rather fond of ugly ducking Les Menuires and the facilities it is able to offer guests.

I have even reconciled myself to being neighbours with a close competitor. We are both there for the same reason, we believe it to be one of the best locations in the 3 Valleys for skiers and boarders with young children.

Chris
skifamille.co.uk

Financial security

2011-07-26T17:29:00.005+01:00

This is not the most fascinating blog title I could conjure up but humour me, this is important.

I’ve had a couple of conversations over the past few months with tour operators around our size who are looking at the cost and constraints of bonding. At least one has now decided to “unpackage” their holidays and will no longer operate a bond or trust account.

I can see the thought process that’s going on here. Bonding is expensive, there are constraints on how you operate and manage finances and if you are not offering flight inclusive holidays it's quite easy to rejig things and present yourself as an accommodation only provider. Is this really the time though?

Five years ago I could count on one hand the number of potential guests who asked us whether we were bonded each season. Now I’d say it’s pretty much a daily occurrence, and fair enough. Travel firms have failed, more may follow and the money needed to pay for a decent holiday is hard won. With so much choice in the market it’s not worth taking an unnecessary risk.

When you book with a bonded tour operator you can, should that operator fail, expect to receive a refund of all payments made or, if abroad at the time, be repatriated where travel was booked through the operator. If you buy accommodation only or book with an unbonded operator you join the queue of creditors in the event of failure (and sadly you may be quite far down it).

We have chosen to protect our holidays with an ABTOT bond. You can find out more here >> . If you've got a lot of time on your hands and an unhealthy interest in the subject you can read the Package Travel Regulations in full here >>

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Ski Industry Report

2011-07-06T16:59:00.003+01:00

The annual Crystal Ski Industry Report was published yesterday and confirms a fall in the UK outgoing ski market of 5% last winter. When combined with figures from the previous two seasons this means the total drop since the 2007/08 peak is around 30%. Whilst the Crystal figures are not bullet proof, they are a pretty good indicator of trends. Our own experience reflects the 5% decrease for last winter - although that came on the back of significant growth in the previous two seasons.

A number of factors combined to make last winter a tricky one. Christmas and New Year fell on what would normally be a “change over” day, Easter was very late and snow conditions were not good (although the reality on the ground was often far better than skiers had anticipated before setting off). With continuing economic woes it was always going to be a hard sell.

At Ski Famille we experienced very strong bookings in the run up to last winter (including for the late Easter period) but when we got to mid January and little fresh snow had fallen for an extended period of time sales slowed. This trend extended through into February and March. The chalet market as a whole became discount driven and we opted out of the race to the bottom!

When looked at over the past few seasons France is the big loser. Whilst still the single largest destination for Brit skiers, total visitor numbers have taken a beating. The view of many, and one I share, is that it is perceived as being too expensive. The infamous Courchevel 1850 €8.00 beer and €20.00 spag bol are not representative of France as a whole though. France can still be great value for money if you go to the right place and do it in the right way. From a position of enormous bias (!) I would argue that the catered chalet package is now one of the best value ways of staying in the French Alps.

Christmas, New Year and Easter days/dates are less of a challenge for next winter and we have, of course, put in an order for increased snowfall. Difficulties remain though; over the December to April period last year the exchange rate averaged €1.18/£1 and we’re now back around the €1.10/£1 mark. Suppliers in ski resorts have little leeway to give more and the recovery in the UK economy seems decidedly sluggish.

However … skiing and boarding remains some of the best fun you can have wearing multiple layers of clothing and there is only so long people will go without their fix. We’re seeing early bookings up on last year and the gut feel is that the decline in the ski market has bottomed out.

PlanetSki report summary and interview >>
Crystal Ski Industry Report 2011 >>

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

I didn’t get where I am today by …

2011-07-04T17:09:00.009+01:00

Recently I have met a lot of people who seem to find it quite odd when they discover that I run a skiing company. I either don’t look the part or it never occurred to them that somebody somewhere must be doing it (I suppose I once met a biscuit designer and thought that a bit strange).

I decided it might be worth a quick blog post to show how I ended up at Ski Famille towers. A lot of senior managers and business owners in travel started on the front line in Rep type positions and I am no exception.

My first paid employment in travel was sitting behind a desk at Battle Tourist Information Office being sarcastic to American Tourists. Sarcasm wasn’t required in the job description but it was pretty much inevitable given that the opening question was invariably “Where is Battle Abbey?”. This was a tricky question to answer without an element of rudeness; it was physically impossible to get to the door of that office without walking past the Abbey.

After 3 months of wearing a standard issue tourist board tie, sending Americans off in the wrong direction and endlessly rearranging leaflets for nearby attractions a change was needed. The initial escape was two months of taking down tents (or demontage as it’s known in the trade) in all corners of France for Eurocamp. We drove rented Renault Traffic vans badly, counted colanders, drank some beer and earned a pittance. I was hooked.

Having skied a bit in the past, developed a taste for French beer and got the roof of my mouth accustomed to even the toughest baguette a ski season was probably inevitable. I duly set off to one of Britain’s flattest counties to be interviewed for a job as a ski guide. Whilst sitting in an office in Cambridge I was able to quickly convince Ski Famille founder Steve Sharp that I would guide his valued guests around the Portes du Soleil area without a problem.

I spent my first five weeks “leading from the back” so I could try and get my skiing to a vaguely acceptable level, kept up the intake of French beer, ate yet more baguette and utterly fell in love with the mountains. I unquestionably had the best job in the world despite having managed to stumble across an option that made my meager demontage pay the stuff of distant dreams.

Unfortunately it’s a rare person who manages to find a way of skiing all year, so some summer employment was required. In that I was now capable of taking down a tent I guessed I would be able to live in one and figure out how to look after the people paying to holiday in them.

I managed to get a job with Carisma Holidays and after a training course that further honed my beer and baguette skills (as well as introducing the additional knowledge required to make near criminal margins out of a cheese and wine party) I set off for my site in Biscarrosse in the South West of France.

Biscarosse was very beautiful but mind numbingly boring. Looking back I find it staggering that I managed to stay there for 6 months doing nothing but reading trash novels that guests left behind, smoking Peter Stuyvesant Legere and rocking gently backwards and forwards. However, I knew it could be worse, I could be at home with all of my friends working in an office. A sobering thought.

Another winter of skiing followed and then another summer of camping (in a far livelier location thankfully) and then … I hit a problem. I asked Steve at Ski Famille if I could work another ski season and he said no. He felt it was time for me to break the cycle and go and do something else. I was stumped.

After much head scratching I decided to give working in the UK a shot. Numerous interviews came and went, I accidentally turned down an opportunity that would have made me more money that I could possibly have known what to do with and then I got a job with a large tour operator.

After the excitement of front line tour operating I became a “Client Relations and Quality Control Executive” at Crystal Holidays. The job title made my Granny very proud – everybody else knew with little insider info that this meant “Complaint letter cut and paste reply monkey.”. My position in the food chain was made very clear on Day 1 when my order for a ruler was deemed unnecessary and cancelled.

Five years on Crystal had been bought by Thomson who had in turn been bought by Tui. There were more restructures than anyone who was a part of it can remember, but I prospered despite the corporate carnage. I suspect it was because I was young, I was cheap, I was single (so worked far too hard as I had nothing better to do) and I was tall so people remembered having seen me at some point and thought I might have been doing something worthwhile.

As restructure number 286 (approximately) approached I decided it was time for a move. By this point I was no longer single and my wife to be and I had decided we wanted to run off and live in Spain. This plan had all the makings of a disastrous Channel 4 series until Tui intervened and pointed out that they did rather a lot of stuff in Spain and I didn’t have to run a mountain biker doss house in the Alpujarras to earn a crust. Instead I ran the Simply Spain, Magic of Spain, Something Special and OSL villa holiday operations across the Balearic Islands. I should point out that the death of three of those brands and the comprehensive hobbling of the only survivor is in no way my fault!

After a couple of years of living in Palma (a great city everyone should visit it at least once) we decided that a return to the UK was on the cards. Career options are limited on an island, we would never become locals and the ex pat community was transient, gin soaked or both. We didn’t have a notion what to do … and then I got an e-mail from Steve at Ski Famille saying he was planning to retire …

Chris

We did it!

2011-06-10T17:27:00.005+01:00

For the past few years the Ski Famille office team have organised a summer bike ride. Usually this has involved a few miles of very gentle pootling to end up in a pub garden.

This summer we decided we needed to do something more adventurous and in a moment of questionable sanity I suggested cycling from my back garden in Fleet (Hampshire) to central London.

I knew the Basingstoke canal – located at the bottom of my garden – linked in to the River Wey which in turn flowed in to the Thames. At the very least we shouldn’t be able to get lost! A route was plotted and at a shade under 50 miles it seemed realistic.

As this was to be a little more impressive than our usual pub centered jolly we thought we ought to raise some money for a good cause. The whole team agreed that we would like to support Shooting Star Chase, who run our local children’s hospice. To date we have raised £615. We’re still a way off our £1,000 target and continue to welcome your support.

On Wednesday 8th June Sheila, Jules, Kirty and Angela arrived at bang on nine o’clock and within 15 minutes we were on the canal towpath heading east. Living on the banks of the canal I know that’s a stunning spot, but I hadn’t ventured far in the direction we were headed. It really is an attractive waterway (right until it meets the Wey under an M25 flyover!) and I’d encourage you to explore it if you find yourself in the area.

A short stretch of the River Wey quickly saw us join the Thames and we then had a straightforward run to Hampton Court. Stamina was holding up well although bums were decidedly numb by this point. We’d estimated a lunch stop at around one o’clock and bang on schedule we sat ourselves down for some cracking sarnies at Mada Deli in East Molesley.

After a fairly swift refueling stop (I wasn’t even allowed time for a coffee!) we got back on our bikes to cross the river and headed in to Bushy Park. At this point the heavens opened and we followed the example of the local wildlife and hid under a tree for 15 minutes. A little damp and windblown we then cut through Teddington going towards Richmond Park.

When we emerged from Richmond Park the ride got significantly less enjoyable. We switched from attractive green spaces to the streets of south west London. School run Mums in Range Rovers seemed hell bent on flattening us poor cyclists – I didn’t know whether to swear at them or try and give them a Ski Famille brochure ….

Before we knew it we were back on the Thames and our final destination was in sight. We crossed Vauxhall bridge and sprinted to the finish as another band of black clouds sped up behind us. With seconds to spare we made it to the Riverfront Bar on the Southbank dry and with a raging thirst that only one of their finest Mojitos could quench.

Our time at the Waterfront was livened up by Sheila spotting a local good for nothing trying to pinch our bikes. Her sprint after the bike thieving grot bag saved the bikes but resulted in the only sprained muscle of the day – most unfair!

Fortunately the team at Giraffe on the Southbank were very understanding when we moved on there for a well earned dinner and let us store our bikes inside. They were real stars; this enabled us to enjoy our (very nice) meal safe in the knowledge that our precious wheels were secure …. although in my case only for 24 hours as a local scrote stole my front wheel from the office bike shed the following day!

Next year Fleet to the coast!?!

Chris

P.S. Our sponsorship page remains open. We know we haven’t scaled the Andes but Shooting Star Chase do magnificent work and will be very grateful for any donations, as will we.

Ski Famille are fundraising for The Shooting Star Children's Hospice

2011-04-27T15:37:00.004+01:00

Ski Famille are fundraising for The Shooting Star Children's Hospice

The Ski Famille team (Sheila, Angela, Jules, Kirsty and Chris) are going to cycle from Fleet in Hampshire to the Southbank Centre in London on 8th June to raise as much as possible for Shooting Star Chase.This superb charity supports children and their families when they need it most.

Cycling to London may not sound epic but for the five of us from the Farnborough office this 47 mile route along towpaths, riverbanks and roads will be pretty taxing!

If putting your hand in your pocket to sponsor us doesn't feel like enough feel free to join us in London at the end of the ride and buy us a vat of Mojito ... we think we'll have earnt it!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now >>

The season for late deals?

2011-03-08T14:50:00.004Z

Doing a quick trawl of the internet it's quickly clear that there are a large number of ski offers kicking about at the moment.

A combination of many diverse factors has lead to these late season ski deals, but in my view the three most important ones are:

Minimal snowfall in Jan & Feb
A twitchy UK economy
A (very) late Easter

When combined these factors have resulted in slow January and February sales for most ski companies (I am sure there are exceptions but suspect they are few and far between). The upshot is a significant number of bed spaces remaining, particulalry from 19th March onwards.

Although the first two factors may seem the most significant, the impact of a late Easter shouldn't be underestimated, particularly when combined with lower than normal snowfalls. Families planning to travel at Easter are as likely to head for the Med or Cornwall as the mountains this year.

However ... some of the ski deals floating about are just too good to ignore. Although snowfalls haven't been great this winter it has been cold and resorts have worked very hard to keep the slopes in good condition. There is also plenty of time left for some spectacular dumps of snow.

What are my travel plans? I'm off to Les Gets this weekend and if I spend as much time sitting on terraces soaking up rays as on the slopes that's fine by me ...

Chris

Ski Famille family ski offers >>

20 years of Ski Famille

2011-03-03T09:47:00.015Z

20 years ... doesn't time fly when you are having fun!

This winter season marks the 20th anniversary of the birth of Ski Famille.

The company was started by two couples in 1990. Both had young children and both were keen skiers. They'd failed to find a holiday that truly worked for them and decided they could do better themselves.

The starting point was good quality chalets in great locations with in-house childcare. This is still our main focus today; we aim to make a family ski holiday as straightforward and fun as possible. We don't want our guests wsting time worrying about the availability of cots, where to buy nappies, ski school options for a 4 year old, a ski boot trudge to the ski lifts or child friendly food; we aim to sort it all out for them.

A lot has changed in 20 years of operating out in the Alps, as tastes and expectations have evolved we have taken on new higher quality properties and we now feature the 3 Valleys as well as our original Les Gets base. We'd be forced to admit we've become a more professional outfit than we were in the early days (!) but we've also done everything possible to preserve a small company feel with a friendly and flexible approach.

Another thing that has moved on is that we've all aged a bit and (thankfully) fashions have changed. Pictured here are Fiona Carless (who runs our French office) and Tim Scott of Les Gets Snowsports. It would appear that "Jon Bon Jovi tribute" was the look of choice when they were working for Ski M&M around the time that Ski Famille stated with the first chalet in the La Turche area of Ski Famille.

I also played a role in Ski Famille before rejoining the company as MD in 2003. In the winters of 95-96 and 96-97 I was Ski Famille's ski guide (this was a time when you could take guests out on the slopes without a raft of French qualifications with no fear of ending the day behind bars) and general "resort bloke". I'm pictured here with fellow guide Paul (I am the stylish looking one in the Bolle Venom sunglasses .... I loved those shades). He sensibly became an accountant, I went and got a "proper job" only to return to the Ski Famille fold just six years later!

If you have some photos of your Ski Famille holidays in the early (or more recent) years we'd love to see them. Any quality early nineties general ski holiday shots are also great, perhaps you looked as cool as Operations Manager Kirsty (left) on your 1990/91 school ski trip?

We look forward to whatever the next 20 years brings; what we can say without fear of contradiction is that the focus will continue to be on helping families have fun in the mountains.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

To travel in term time or not to travel at all ...

2011-02-25T14:09:00.003Z

A guest post from Ski Famille founding Director Mel Sharp:

This is for all parents who are appalled at the price of holidays outside term time. Don’t despair. There may be an answer.

As part of a keen skiing family and someone who is involved in running a ski business it was impossible for us to take a holiday at half term or Easter, as the school holidays were always our busiest periods. So I was forced to go cap in hand to various headteachers over the years, to plead my case, for taking the children out of school for a ski holiday.

Though initially usually viewed with disapproval I finally managed to grind them into submission, simply because I was passionate about and had very firm views on the subject. In fact, we had one enlightened headmistress who was wholly in favour of it.

I found the best arguments were as follows:

1. If a child excels at any sport, be it rugby, cricket or swimming, they are usually highly praised and encouraged by their school. Often schools include events like cricket tours and swimming galas within the school term. So if kids can skip a week’s lessons for those why should it be any different with skiing?

2. Taking a ski holiday shouldn’t be viewed the same as taking a week spent lying on a beach. It is an education in itself. Children return from a ski holiday fit and healthy from all the exercise and fresh air having spent a happy week without the need for computer games or TV screens. They experience a different culture, new foods and breathtaking scenery that you will never find on a day out to a Theme Park.

3. Foreign language learning is at an all time low in schools at present, because many children don’t see the necessity and therefore find lessons boring. In a ski resort, they get the point. Children experience a different language first hand particularly with the ski schools and for many it gives them a compelling reason why learning French or Italian at school could be useful.

As long as my children were not in an exam year I always found that they caught up with the missed lessons quickly and easily. The lure of a ski holiday and a week off school was always a great incentive for working just that little bit harder.

By taking a holiday in term time, you as parents will benefit from empty pistes, a choice of restaurant, lack of queues at the lifts and of course a very reasonably priced package. There really is no downside.

Give it a go – I promise you won’t regret it.

Mel
www.skifamille.co.uk

The snow news is good news ...

2011-02-23T16:59:00.003Z

It's no secret that we'd been a long time with no snow out in the French Alps until last week, although conditions were actually pretty good. It had stayed cold, the snow cannons were working at full blast whenever possible and the piste bashers were doing a great job.

However .... things were getting pretty patchy in places and certain slopes were starting to be described as "firm with underlying menace"! We are therefore delighted to announce that winter has officially returned. The picture at the top of this post is from one of the Les Gets webcams earlier today.

We've had decent top ups over the past 8/9 days in both Les Gets and Reberty Village. Timing was spot on as we have now hit the busy French and UK half term holidays. Hitting the peak period without fresh snow was not an appealing prospect.

It was bucketing it down in Reberty Village this morning and more snow is forecast in both resorts for the end of the week. Let's hope the snow drought is finally over and we can look forward to cracking conditions throughout March and heading towards Easter.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Relaxing used to easier than this ...

2011-01-06T12:20:00.008Z

When I look at the Ski Famille product and our chalets I am very conscious of the fact that a key requirement for a holiday is (generally) that it should be relaxing.

Relaxing isn't always that easy though. I like to think I'm a laid back kind of guy but the reality is that I can find it very difficult to properly switch off and unwind.

Modern technology doesn't help. For many people the fact that they can connect to their office via iphone / Blackberry etc while away means that they are expected to ... or feel they ought to. Between Christmas and New Year I switched off the e-mail on my phone but it took proper willpower to not simply switch it back on again. Rather sad!

We provide wi-fi in a number of our chalets but I'm almost starting to see this as a curse rather than blessing. Perhaps people would prefer to be able to say to their boss or employees "Really gutted to tell you this but my chalet is completely cut off from the outside world, figure things out for yourselves I'll be back in a week!".

Another pressure can be spending time with the family. It should be a period of unadulterated joy and expectations in advance of time together are high. The reality may be that your three year old will sometimes be quite annoying across a week of full contact and this is the only opportunity you and your spouse will have to discuss the need to move the mortgage and when the bathroom is going to get re-grouted. This doesn't reduce your love for your family(!), it's just that the reality of a break may not live up to the dream.

So we come to the purpose of this blog post. I don't have a solution to how to better help people relax on holiday (although we already do everthing we can think of to reduce the stresses and strains that a family holiday can produce). I want ideas ...

How could we help you relax on holiday?

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

What is Ski Famille childcare?

2010-12-16T10:35:00.003Z

Following on from a blog post a few weeks ago going into the basics of a chalet holiday, I realised it would probably be a good idea to take a similar approach to our childcare service. We know what it involves, as do our regular guests, but do you?

The starting point for our childcare service is that it is included in the price of all of our holidays. As a family specialist we took the view that everyone who stays with us needs the childcare to some extent, so why strip it out of the price to add it straight back in? This does mean that families outgrow our service (usually when the children are skiing faster than Mum and Dad!) but we’d rather that than try to be something to everyone but not get it spot on for anyone.

The second most important point is that our childcare service is based in the chalet you stay in - although I realize for many parents this may actually be the most appealing aspect of what we do. From day one we wanted to avoid having a vast impersonal centralized crèche “just a short walk from your chalet”. Instead we wanted to create a cozy home from home environment that is relaxing for both parents and children.

When talking to potential guests on the phone they often ask us to summarise the thinking behind our childcare service. In my view it’s to entertain, amuse and tire out. The approach and mix will clearly vary in different age groups, but the philosophy remains the same. This is not about simply child minding, we don’t have an educational agenda and we never forget that children are on holiday too.

Almost all of our chalets have dedicated playrooms (the exception to the rule is the superbly located Chalet Burgrave in Les Gets) and these are the base for indoor activities. All chalets have a great stock of toys, games and arts and crafts kit so there is never a dull moment, even when the weather or tiredness prevent outdoor play.

The great outdoors is the focus of our childcare though. We have chalets located in some of the best playgrounds in the world and we are keen for children of all ages to develop an affinity for the mountains. We want to share our love of the stunning environment we work in so that children come to love their snow sports and the Alps as a place to relax and play.

If you want to quiz us in detail do pick up the phone. All of our small sales team are skiers with young children and we’ll guide you through the ins and outs of a family skiing holiday in as much detail as you want.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Preparing for winter

2010-11-24T12:22:00.005Z

Winter is well and truly upon us. As I write our resort management team are sitting a few doors away from me undergoing their Health and Safety training and they head out to a very snowy Les Gets on Friday morning.

You might imagine that we all pitch up in resort a few days before clients, turn the heating on in the chalets and get some bottles of red up to room temperature, but preparations are a little more involved than that. The process begins early in the spring as we start lining everything up to provide cracking family ski holidays from December onwards.

One of the key tasks is recruitment, as we need to have 50 talented, motivated and experienced staff in place from day one of the season. This year we received almost a thousand applications and we have to filter out the best people who can show a real dedication to helping families enjoy their time in the mountains.

Back in August our menus for the season were finalised and our chalet chefs have been experimenting on family and friends for the past few weeks. I also had the onerous task of selecting new wines for our chalets and two of the other Directors have been updating a number of our chalets and playrooms.

As we hit November supplies start mounting up in the corner of the office and by now it looks like Del Boy’s lock-up. We have everything from children’s toys to porridge oats. This Saturday I’ll be wedging all of this kit into the newly logoed up Land Rover (making sure I don’t forget the 12,000 teabags without which the season would be a disaster) and sending our two Resort Assistants off on a rather slow and noisy road trip from Hampshire to Les Gets. Lucky guys …

Our training course then begins in earnest as we make sure everyone is not just knowledgeable about their new roles but has also had an opportunity to work out where they live and bond with the rest of the team. This winter it looks like there'll be plenty of snow on the ground to keep the energy and excitement levels up – although setting up 11 chalets when it’s bucketing it down with snow adds an additional challenge!

If you can fit in some cheeky pre-Christmas skiing come and meet the team from 12th December.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

It’s a hard job …

2010-10-27T14:05:00.008+01:00

Last Saturday night I had to work at home. I try to make sure that I leave things behind at the office but it simply wasn’t feasible this time around.

The task in hand was sampling 13 wines in an effort to narrow it down to two whites and two reds to join our chalet wine lists. We already have our house wines, which are sourced direct from the vineyard, but we like to offer a bit of additional choice.

Recruiting a team to help out was not as easy as I had expected. It was all very last minute as I am up at the Birmingham Ski Show this weekend and need to get our order into our French wine merchant next week. A few years ago an offer of free booze would have resulted in a disorderedly queue down the street, instead we had half a dozen (almost tearful) calls flagging up failures to arrange baby sitters.

The six of us that made the cut decided to battle on and dive in. A groaning platter of cheese and hams was laid on to accompany the wines and the first cork was pulled as soon as bedtime stories were out of the way in the Thompson household.

In order to ensure a little order to the proceedings everyone was issued with a score and comments sheet and a spittoon was available to those keen to get to make it to the end of the list! This needed emptying early on as it quickly filled with a large amount of Cave de Turckheim Pinot Gris (2008) – not a popular wine!

Most of my tasting team took their weighty responsibilities to wine loving Ski Famille guests seriously, however we did have a weak link whose score sheet included comments along the lines of “Food match – Roadkill” … you know who you are (Jake). Interestingly this comment was for a very hearty Lirac (Domaine Maby, 2008) that really split opinion. I’m not sure it’ll make the final list but it’s certainly an interesting choice if you like your weighty Rhones.

The surprise of the night was a white that was universally loved. The biggest shock is that it is from the Savoie. There are some good Savoie wines but they tend to be far too expensive if you want to be sure of avoiding instant heart burn. Our tasting panel variously described this Chignin from André et Michel Quénard as “light, refreshing, smooth and with an apple crumble aroma”. It’s a great wine that will go well with a number of dishes as well as making a quaffable aperitif.

The most intriguing wine for me personally was a Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Nuits les Dames Huguettes. As a fan of hearty reds this pale Burgundy was a bit of a revelation. It looked like thin Ribena but had lovely flavours and has encouraged me to explore French reds in a bit more depth rather than routinely sticking to sun baked choices from the south.

So, the burning question is what will our guests be drinking this winter? There’s only one way to find out … join them in one of our family chalets!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

What is a chalet holiday?

2010-10-22T09:51:00.004+01:00

With so many return guests and 20 years of providing chalet holidays it’s sometimes easy to forget that the chalet holiday concept is new to some families.

The key thing about a chalet holiday, as opposed to a hotel, is that the environment is a relaxed one. If you want to sit and have your afternoon tea and cake on the sofa in slightly damp salopettes and a clashing polo neck you should feel comfortable doing just that!

Travel writer Mark Hodson summed the idea up well in a piece in The Times a few years ago:

“Chalets provide a comfortable, self-contained environment, friendly hosts and a house-party atmosphere. There are fridges and microwaves for midnight milk runs and you can put the kids to bed or let them watch DVDs while you sit down to dinner ... standards have improved enormously: no more spag bol knocked up by gap year sloanes. Now you can expect three course gourmet dinners prepared by trained chefs”

The emphasis is on creating a relaxing atmosphere in what is your home for the week. Last year I had to sell the concept to my wife as (strange but true) she had never had a week staying in a ski chalet before. It’s fair to say that she didn’t immediately warm to the idea of a domestic type environment where there were staff running about.

When it was explained that those staff were a professional bunch who ensured that we were all watered and fed and cleared up after us all week the penny dropped. This was to be a holiday completely free of all domestic chores. To quite a guest staying in our Negritelles chalets in January 2009:

"Fantastic holiday, had so many "my life is perfect" moments that it became a family joke!! Really enjoyed having no "mummy responsible chores" i.e. meals, tidying, organising kids etc ... Didn't need to lift a finger all week. FANTASTIC!!"

... and that’s the whole point!

When looking at family ski chalets there is often the misconception that you have to book the whole property out. This is not the case. Around 50% of Ski Famille bookings are parties who take over a chalet, but the remainder are individual families who book the rooms they need and will then share the chalet with other families in a similar situation.

As all of our guests are families and we are happy to try and match you up with people with similarly aged children, most groups find they have a lot in common and quickly get on. In fact we have a number of families who have met on a chalet holiday one year and book together to return again the following winter.

If you need more information on how a chalet might work for your family skiing holiday do give the Ski Famille team a shout.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Driving to the Alps

2010-10-07T14:41:00.005+01:00

Over the past few years the vast majority of Ski Famille guests have flown into Geneva or Chambery to start their family ski holiday. However, go back ten years and driving was far more common.

As “low cost” flights become increasingly less low cost and airports become ever more hectic many families are switching back to driving. We believe that it’s a great way to get to our chalets and if you have children who travel well it’s worth considering.

Our Les Gets chalets are around 8 ½ hours driving time from the channel ports and Reberty Village is only a little further. It’s a simple drive too. Forget Britain’s congested motorway network and conjure up an image of smooth uncluttered tarmac.

Some of the positives of driving

Save money by avoiding expensive flights on peak dates.

Travel at your own pace; bundle the children into the car at 3am or set off after a leisurely breakfast. You can do what suits you.

You can make a holiday of the journey. Why not book into a budget hotel en-route and explore Reims?

With no luggage restrictions you can fill your car to the brim.

Take your own skis and boards without paying airline surcharges.

Stock up on speciality food and some fabulous wines on the journey home!

Top Tips

Before you leave have your car fully serviced, check your battery and fan belt, top up your antifreeze, and make sure your windscreen solution is strong enough to cope with the weather in the Alps (generally speaking don't dilute).

French Road Safety law stipulates that all vehicles driving in France must carry at all times at least one reflective safety jacket and one warning triangle in their vehicle. You will also need a spare set of bulbs.

Snow chains are a legal requirement if you are attempting mountain roads (even in a 4x4).

Budget for tolls. They’ll cost around £50 each way.

When in resort lift your windscreen wipers away from the front and back windscreens so they are not impossible to move if it snows heavily.

If parking your car for over an hour or so leave in gear with the handbrake off - it can freeze solid overnight.

Start working on your children's musical taste well in advance of a long trip. Picture nine hours of "Wheels on the bus" ... not nice! I already have a 3 year old who requests David Bowie and the Specials, by our ski trip next March I'm hoping to be able to get her on track with Led Zep and Gomez.

Don’t be intimidated by other drivers. Locals will often sit a foot behind you on a mountain road and swoop past if the smallest gap appears. Just stick to a speed you and your passengers are comfortable with. Accident statistics show that locals aren’t as good as they think…

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

It's all going on in Les Gets

2010-09-15T11:15:00.002+01:00

We're delighted to announce that Les Gets is making a lot of improvements for the coming winter.

First off the Chavannes gondola (or Red Egg to those in the know) is being replaced following a €4.5 million investment. Access to the lift will be easier, particularly for those with little legs, as it is now all on one level. Capacity is up from 900 to 1600 passangers an hour but you'll be delighted to know it'll still be red!

There are further developments to the slopes down in the village as the departure point of the Boule de Gomme draglift (the first ever automatic release draglift installed in France in 1936) will be slightly repositioned. Along with remodelling of the slopes leading down to the village this will make this key area a lot more user friendly for beginners and children.

The Chamossiere area, a long time favourite for skiers who like to test themselves (the leg burn potential of the Chamossiere black is legendary), has always suffered from poor access. A new six man chair will replace the old drag and chair combo and reduce the journey to the summit to around 5 minutes. The views from the top are as fantastic as the runs back down.

The final development on the slopes is a a new boarder-cross run dedicated to local heroine Déborah Anthonioz (she won silver at the 2010 Olympic games). This is being created on Mont-Chéry and throughout the winter sessions will be staged when you can tackle this run in the presence of Déborah ... no pressure then.

The good news doesn't end on the slopes, there are weekly chocolate workshops at the Chalet du Chocolat, three locally brewed beers at the Irish Pub and Ski Famille has a special 10% discount on all lift passes booked before the 31st October.

Reduced price skiing on an even better ski area with an apres ski choice of beer or chocolate - fantastic!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

My Top 5 things about running a ski company

2010-08-18T16:40:00.006+01:00

I was recently talking to a group of business people from a multitude of professions and the conversation came round to “What would you do if you weren’t a xxxxx”. The general gist was that most would rather be doing something else. I was able to say that hand on heart I really didn’t want to do anything else (at least not since choosing exactly the wrong A-levels to enable me to be an architect). Here’s my top 5 reasons why.

I get to work with great people.

This is a generalisation but the ski industry seems to attract energetic, enthusiastic yet laid back people. I have rarely had to work with people who are lazy, overly opportunistic and corporate or downright odd (although I am conscious of a previous blog observation along the lines of “If you don’t know who the odd one is it’s probably you”).

Our clients are happy people

We sell people something they find it very easy to enthuse about. We’re not taking money off them for servicing a car, laying a carpet or dealing with baffling paperwork (apologies to the lawyers and accountants out there…), we’re selling them a week of unadulterated fun and relaxation with their children up a mountain. Fantastic!

A visit to the coalface is a joy

Every MD should spend time with their clients and whoever is delivering their product or service on the ground. For me this means spending time in some of the most stunning scenery in Europe with the great people and the happy people mentioned above. There will clearly be times of stress and/or strain but then the sun comes out and sometimes they even let me have a little potter on my skis …

Nobody expects me to wear a suit

When did you last see someone in a suit in a ski resort? Turn up in one to deal with even the town Mayor or a heavy duty property owner and you will look a little odd. This carries through to our UK office, we’re simply not suit wearing types. My one suit has lasted 8 years so far and I expect it to do at least another 8 (most weddings are out of the way and fingers crossed funerals are a long way off).

I never have to mumble apologetically when someone asks me what I do

I’m not the greatest at networking or en-masse social situations (I think it’s because I’m 6’ 4” so it’s tricky to hide). However, when I get collared, conversation runs a bit thin and someone asks me what I do it’s really easy to be enthusiastic. 99% of the time the other person instantly feels at ease and gets all excited and wants to talk mountains. An awkward silence avoided.

There are more (see the “Why France is great” and “Ski in / ski out Michelin star” blog posts to understand how important access to good food and wine may be as factors) but these are definitely my top 5.

Anyone not in a fixed career or starting out may ask “How do you get into this, it sounds great?”. Well, for me it was working ski seasons and then staying in the ski industry rather than “getting a proper job”. If you want to work in the mountain we are still recruiting for this winter. Who know where it might lead …

Chris

Ski Famille gets up to date

2010-07-30T10:36:00.007+01:00

Those readers of the blog who know me personally will already be aware that under my laid back exterior lurks a slightly OCD business and tech geek. There, I feel better for getting it out in the open.

With no new properties or resorts for next winter, this summer has become all about focusing on doing everything better. This means lots of hard work before December – for everyone that assumes ski industry folk spend the summer months kicking back in the garden this is quite normal – but it opens up some exciting opportunities for the geek in me.

So what are this summer’s big developments that will help us get even better and giving families cracking ski holidays come next winter?

New Website
This is not too geeky, more a thing of beauty! Our existing site hasn’t been with us for long, but putting it together taught us a lot about websites and the gubbins behind them. We decided that we needed to start all over again and do it better. Not an easy decision but definitely the right one.

Navigation for clients will be far easier and there will be a few nice and simple gadgets that allow clearer overviews of availability and pricing. All in all it will let potential guests quickly and easily understand what we do and how we do it … and, of course, why they should book with us rather than someone else.

I can even show you a sneak preview; just don’t tell the guys at ThinkingJuice as I’m not sure I’m meant to let anyone else see it.

Sneaky peak >>

Booking system
Very geeky this one, I like it. Tracking who we have on what week, when they’re arriving, where they’re staying, what ages all the children are and which ones don’t like broccoli is trickier than you might imagine. To date we’ve had an Access database cobbled together by a few of us and a very nice chap called Graham. Backed up by Sheila (UK end) and Fiona’s (French end) phenomenal attention to detail it’s worked, but has not been without it’s “challenges”.

We are now firing on all cylinders using a real live proper booking system with tailored reports, easy tracking of payments, infinite numbers of options and a clear audit trail showing who did what on a booking and when. Mighty geeky to get excited by this development but I am, very. Big thanks to the team at TourCMS for understanding and adapting to our slightly odd way of doing things.

Phones
Every business I know of is pretty much dependent on a phone system and to date we’ve always had something pretty basic that seemed to do what we wanted. Our recent office move prompted me to talk to Convergence Communications up in Cambridgeshire re what might be feasible, even for a small firm like ours.

Phil at Convergence was very accommodating (as one would expect of a skiing addict and long term fan of Les Gets) and came up with some great ideas. We now have a home worker in Suffolk and Fiona out in France on our main office phone system via their internet connection. We can also give resort management a handset when the winter hits, they plug it into a router and away we go.

On reading this back it doesn’t sound like much but it’s quite a thrill, honestly. Ease and clarity of communication are essential to ensure families have everything they need on holiday and this will help enormously.

So those are our three main tech related developments for this summer. There are lots of other things going on but if you thought the IT stuff was boring you really don’t want to read about a complete overhaul of health and safety polices and our new training schedule for winter driving …

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Why France is great

2010-07-09T15:10:00.003+01:00

Around a month ago I popped out to France to look at some potential chalets (thinking ahead to winter 2011/12 rather frighteningly!).

As I arrived in the resort it was clear that everyone had shut up shop; ski resorts tend to be dead in early June even if they have a summer season kicking in a few weeks later. There was however one restaurant open. The clientele was a mixture of locals and trades people working on properties in the off season.

One guy was running the show and had devised a set menu that he could wheel out on his tod with no problems for the 30 ish covers available. It was fantastic. We sat down and a salad starter arrived with a basket of crusty bread, a carafe of very drinkable red wine and a pitcher of water.

With the salad out of the way a pierrade (a hot stone above a burner) was brought out along with a platter of beef and some superb frites. This was accompanied by an assortment of tasty dips. A while later this was polished off and the dust covered builders at the neighboring table passed across a groaning cheese board. We managed to find the space for a slice of Tomme or two.

We weren’t done yet, a chocolatey desert arrived swifty followed by a fresh coffee and we were rolled ourselves out of there just in time for our 2.30 meeting. What was the cost of this lunchtime feast? 13 Euros.

That lunch served to remind me why I love France so much. As the only show in town the restaurateur could have bodged together whatever he liked and picked up a bit of trade. Instead he worked out what he could do exceptionally well at a fair price.There was atmosphere in spades and everyone knew exactly what they were letting themselves in for.

I hanker after this kind of philosophy in the UK … although if a restaurant like that was within walking distance of the office it wouldn’t be good for my health (and he probably doubles his prices when the ski season hits)!

If you have yet to decide where to go on holiday this summer don't forget France - it's still pretty special.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

A jolly day out

2010-06-29T15:35:00.003+01:00

Once a year the Ski Famille team puts the answerphone on and gets out in the sunshine for a bike ride and, very importantly, a spot of lunch. We also discuss a few work related bits and pieces that we rarely find the time for in the office.

This year we decided to cycle locally, partly to explore the countryside on our own doorstep, but also so that lunch could include more than a half of shandy if anyone felt that way inclined.

The weather was on our side and we decided to make the most of it with an ambitious pre-lunch route including canal towpath, off-road paths, bridleways and country lanes. If you want to duplicate the route (which we all enjoyed enormously) it went something like this:

A brief trundle along the Basingstoke Canal from the centre of Fleet to Velmead Common, then across to Ceasar's Camp via the Eelmore Plain and Tweesledown Racecourse (we got a little lost in this section...). We then crossed the A287 and dropped down the side of Farnham on bridleways before heading across to Crondall. From Crondall we cut up to Crookham Village to our lunch stop.

The views from Ceasar's camp were stunning and this must be a prize vantage point when the Farnborough Airshow is on in a few weeks time. All in all the ride made us realise how lucky we are to live in such a stunning bit of England. Admittedly a lot of the land we cycled across is only undeveloped because it's crawling with squaddies practicing blowing each other up and crashing Land Rovers, but that doesn't detract from the views!

Our lunch stop on the outskirts of Crookham Village was The Exchequer. This pub was called the George and Lobster until recently but has changed hands and undergone a revamp. It looks great inside and the menu was very promising. When the meals came out they didn't disappoint. Seafood is a strong point at this pub and most of us went for fishy options all of which were well presented and packed some great flavours. Service was also superb and there were some interesting real ales on tap alongside a well balanced wine list.

Lunch was so good (bar my Summer Pudding - but I am something of a Summer Pudding aficionado ... even if I do say so myself) that I went back again for another meal to celebrate my Birthday two days later. I think all of us will be making excuses to head back to The Exchequer over the summer months.

With lunch out of the way we discussed the business of the day (how best to celebrate 20 years of Ski Famille being the prime topic) before wobbling back to Fleet via the Basingstoke Canal towpath.

A good time was had by all.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Moving on up

2010-05-27T15:29:00.003+01:00

As anyone who follows us on Twitter will know we are in the process of moving offices. The Ski Famille team in Farnborough has grown by a whopping 80% in the past month and we have outgrown our little office.

80% sounds quite dramatic doesn’t it … to put this in perspective we have gone from 2 ½ people to 4 ½. Hopefully Jules won’t get too offended by being referred to as a half … she punches above her weight.

The new team members are firstly Oliver, who will be Sheila’s right hand man dealing with all new family skiing reservations and ensuring that booked guests have everything they need in the build up to their holiday, and Kirsty. Kirsty will be a familiar name and face to anyone who stayed in Reberty last winter. She was Resort Manager in the 3 Valleys and is now our year round UK based Operations Manager.

So the team are in place, what about the new office? We decided to keep it simple move to a larger unit within the same building. We are going up one floor and swapping sides of the building. What could make that complicated? As anyone who runs their own business will know you can always rely on BT to throw a spanner in the works!

We are now in limbo (and I am working from the smallest desk in Hampshire in our interview room). Our phone system is in but sadly it is not connected to anything. BT have, two weeks after the first line was meant to go in, given us an eye watering quote to get lines up from the ground to the 4th floor (and yes the 4th floor is already full of businesses happily using their phones). I could explain the ins and outs in detail but life is too short and I would hate to be thought of as a bore!

Just keep ‘em crossed we get in soon … tempers may flare!

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

No planes, trains, automobiles and volcanoes

2010-05-07T16:52:00.006+01:00

The first comment to make regarding the volcano induced chaos in the Alps is “Thank the gods it didn’t happen in mid February”. Doesn't bear thinking about.

As luck would have it I was out in the mountains when the volcano decided to blow it’s top. Once again I sacrifice my own comfort to bring first hand experience to the Ski Famille blog!

After 15+ years in the travel industry it’s easy to get a bit blasé and convinced you’ve seen everything before. I hadn’t put volcanic eruption contingency plans in the resort manuals – a careless oversight.

My first reaction to hearing about the eruption and the suspension of flights (including my own on 16th April was “You are joking”… although I think there may have been another word in between “are” and “joking”.

As information started to come through it was challenging to convince guests that they would not be flying home as planned due to an Icelandic volcano. Those with Internet access were fine, those without were looking into the corners of rooms for hidden cameras.

Whilst we are not a flight inclusive tour operator it became obvious pretty early on that we couldn’t simply drive people to the airport on Saturday morning as if nothing had happened and we had fulfilled our responsibilities. Chartering a coach was the only sure fire way of moving significant numbers of people in one hit and with any certainty.

Most guests quickly bought into this plan and accepted that it was the only option with any predictability re availability, arrival time in the UK and cost. Some did go it alone and got lucky picking up train tickets in Geneva – it was a gamble not many were prepared to take with children in tow.

After an extra day in the mountains (which our Reberty guests certainly made the most of) all of our remaining clients psyched themselves up for an early start on Sunday 18th April followed by an epic road trip.

I was wavering at this point (nothing to do with an exceptionally late night with our Resort Manager which had included hitching a lift on a piste basher from Reberty to possibly the worst night club in the Alps). I really wanted to get home but a vision of 15 hours on a coach with other people’s children kept flashing in front of my eyes.

I love our guests dearly but I wasn’t 100% convinced that that amount of contact was going to gain any of us very much. At the end of the season I was simply too tired to cope with the coach driver not stopping to allow little Tommy to be sick/have a poo/buy some food/have a run about being my fault. There you go, I’ve admitted it, there is a limit to my customer service ethos!

After much head scratching I decided to go it alone on the Monday rather than get on the coach. I did however get up at 5 in the morning to ensure everyone got on the bus with the correct number of bags, sandwiches, bottles of water and children. It was a genuine relief to see them all heading off and know that they were no longer amongst the stranded Brits abroad the Daily Mail was shouting about in angry capital letters.

After a bit more kip Monday became about getting myself home. Plan A was a train, Plan B a one way hire car to the channel to grab foot passenger space on a ferry. Plan A was going nowhere fast. Websites and phone lines (whether British, French or Swiss) were unable to give me the answers I needed.

After a period of inertia I decided that the only approach was to get off my butt, hit the road and see what happened. En-route to Geneva to try and grovel with hire car firms I decided to dive into Moutiers SNCF station and see if I could get anywhere on a train by talking to a real live person.

I prepared myself for huge queues of angry tired skiers trying to get home and launched myself into the ticket hall. I queued in silence behind a lone French pensioner buying a ticket to go to Limoges and within 10 minutes had a ticket for the next morning all the way through to London. It wasn’t cheap and it was genuinely the last Eurostar ticket available that day but I was going home.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Ski in / ski out Michelin star

2010-04-08T10:31:00.007+01:00

Mountain restaurants in France are no longer a mix of self service cafes offering spag bol, sandwiches and chips and traditional mountain restaurants serving tartiflette plus half a dozen other sizzling variations on the spud, cheese, pig theme. You can now enjoy fresh and surprising world class cooking.

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of being invited to a meal at Le Farçon in La Tania courtesy of the 3 Valleys Association. La Tania is not the obvious location for a restaurant of this quality; it’s a budget base for the 3 Valleys tucked away in a valley a short distance from its better known and rowdier neighbours, Meribel and Courchevel. Despite being a purpose built resort there is a charm to La Tania and I can see that it would be a good base for exploring this vast ski area.

Le Farçon is housed in an unassuming modern building (the only kind they have in La Tania!), but when you step through the door you know you are somewhere a little special. The decor is a mix of traditional Savoie design and modern touches. Overall the feeling is relaxed and welcoming rather than the formality one might expect in a Michelin starred establishment.

A set menu had been put together specifically for our meal and we were all more than ready to tuck in after a hard (ish) day on the slopes – although I should flag up that we had enjoyed a 2 ½ hour lunch at the excellent Ferme de Reberty earlier in the day so weren’t exactly starving! After a short introduction by our host Vincent Lalanne a large glass of a very excellent white Crozes-Hermitage (a red from the same producer would follow later) was poured and we awaited the arrival of the first of six courses.

The meal started with an “amuse bouche” consisting of squash soup topped with a citrus foam ... served in an egg. This was absolutely delicious but started us wondering whether we were in for such refined and dainty food that we would leave starving. We need not have worried as we all rolled out of the restaurant pleasantly stuffed at the end of the evening.

The courses that followed (see the menu image to the left) were all superbly presented and the combinations of textures and flavours were an absolute joy. When you watch a programme like the recently screened Master Chef, particularly those scenes filmed in high quality restaurants, you realise how many man hours go into a meal like this and it was astonishing to discover at the end of the evening that the kitchen is manned by just two people, chef Julien Machet and his trusted assistant.

One of the key focuses of our trip to the 3 Valleys was how to promote the area as a value destination and it may seem a contradiction to have filled our boots at someone else’s expense in a restaurant like Le Farçon. I don’t believe it was though, value is not about seeking out the cheapest options. Holidays are all about experiences and “investing” in a meal at a restaurant like this can represent excellent value. This is hugely enhanced by a new €25 lunch menu for skiers that guarantees you will be served within 25 minutes; a superb way to sample this great chef’s food in the middle of a tour of the stunning slopes on offer in the 3 Valleys.

Links
3 Valleys
La Tania
Le Farçon
ABTOF

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

What I did on my holidays

2010-03-31T17:28:00.007+01:00

As many blog regulars will know I recently went on my first ever proper family skiing holiday. Our group was made up of three families and between us we have five children ... all of whom are under 3. We also threw in a grandparent for good measure.

Holiday preparations were somewhat thrown by BA staff announcing strike dates to coincide with our return flights but we decided to ignore that and get on with the serious business of enjoying our holiday. Once I had given Sheila in the office a nudge to send out information packs (she foolishly assumed that I would know what was going on without them...) we had everything we needed.

Our journey to the airport was the starting point and everything ran seamlessly. We made use of Meteor Meet and Greet’s excellent airport parking service and within a couple of minutes of driving into the terminal car park had bags on a trolley and handed the car keys to their uniformed driver. Hurdle one out the way.

Despite having children between the age of 4 months and 2 years 9 months in tow the journey was decidedly uneventful. They were all very well behaved and managed to amuse themselves the vast majority of the time. The only real disappointment was BA choosing to serve the world’s blandest muffin; not exactly a crisis. Everyone was a little restless by the time we pulled up outside Chalet Grand Mouflon that afternoon, but the journey wasn’t anywhere near as taxing as I had worried it could be with small sprogs in tow.

Grand Mouflon had always been my first choice for our group, partly because checking out a new chalet first hand is important, but also because I love the La Turche area of Les Gets as a base (I lived in that area of the resort for two winters in the early ‘90s). The village is easily accessible from the chalet but you also have plenty of peace and quiet and the blue run that leads to within a few metres of the front door remains one of my favourite quick cruises.

The chalet didn’t disappoint. It’s very comfortable (one of the few French properties with proper King sized double beds – important when you are 6’ 4”) and the decor is a nice blend of modern and traditional. There are a few tweaks to be made prior to next winter to make it a little more homely, but it worked really well for our group. The restorative powers of the roof top hot-tub were also very welcome after a hard(ish) day on the slopes.

Chalet hosts have a tough gig when the boss comes to stay but Rob and Lauren rose to the challenge and looked after us superbly throughout the week. Lauren was not just chalet host extraordinaire but also a great source of entertainment for the children and a genuine pleasure to be around. Rob’s cooking was spot on, just the right mix of hearty and presentational finesse and he accommodated the two veggies in our party with ease.

It goes without saying that childcare was a central element of our holiday and we all felt instantly at ease leaving the girls with nannies Amy and Lauren. I must admit to having been an awkward guest and specifically requesting Amy; this is her third winter working for us and her enthusiasm for the job impressed from day one. I remember her stopping a training session prior to her first season with something along the lines of “Can I just say something, isn’t this brilliant. We’re working up a mountain with kids in the snow. That’s amazing, isn’t it brilliant...”. That joy seems to have stayed with her, brilliant!

None of the children were old enough for ski school (I don’t intend to hand Eva over to a gruff Frenchman until she’s at least 4...) but all enjoyed playing in the snow and we had plenty of fun on sledges and bum boards. A hilarious 20 minute session on slip on skis sowed the seed for what I hope will be a solid addiction to the mountains in winter. Toddler tantrums were rare and children were suitably knackered out at the end of the day, leaving us free to enjoy a drink or three by the fire.

The adults didn’t fare too badly on the white stuff either. Almost all of us had a session with Tim Scott of Les Gets Snowsports and he got us old school skiers carving with finesse. Despite having a very broad mix of abilities we spent a reasonable amount of time skiing together and the group’s beginner was handling the steep red of Chamossiere with aplomb by day 5 – although he did have the benefit of a level of fitness that put the rest of us to shame and a fearless competiveness born out of a career in the military.

The weather was stunning throughout the week. Snow cover was great and slushiness in the afternoon gave us a great excuse to stretch out lunches and then head back to the chalet to play with the children. My top two lunches of the week were the Vaffieu on the Pleney ridge and the Croix Blanche at Chavannes. Rossetaz up at the top of the Rosta chairlift was also good but did seem on the expensive side (to be fair nothing felt cheap – we blocked out thoughts of dismal exchange rates and focussed instead on the joys of tasty food, a glass of Gamay and good company in the sunshine).

The first Thompson family ski trip was a resounding success (BA even got us home at the end of it) and I look forward to more of the same over the years. Next time round Reberty calls, having sampled the 3 Valleys briefly last week on a press trip (blog post to follow) I am hungry to properly explore our new ski area. Better start saving now for those 3 Valleys lunches ....

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Snow update

2010-03-11T11:53:00.003Z

This will be my last update for a while as I am hitting the Alps myself on Saturday. This will be my first ever proper Ski Famille holiday (i.e. wife and child + friends with ankle biters and a full week in one of our chalets). If you want to read about the preparations click here for my blog report >>

Come Sunday morning I'll be hitting the slopes of Les Gets for a refresher lesson with the very profesional and patient Tim Scott of Les Gets Snowsports. I firmly believe that, even if you have been skiing for years, a couple of hours of tuition is always a great investment in your holiday enjoyment.

So, what are conditions like at the moment? Ski Famille founder Steve Sharp is currently in Les Gets on holiday and has e-mailed me his report this morning, "... you can be very upbeat about the snow. It’s been like January here – even on sunny days it’s stayed very cold. Mont Chery for instance had sun and perfect snow all day – not a hint of slush. I can’t see it disappearing very quickly even if the weather gets more spring like. The usual suspects like Nyon/Pleney links are white and firm – not a brown patch to be seen.". Sounds good to me!

Reberty conditions are similarly excellent - which is handy as I'll be in the 3 Valleys "working" the week after my family holiday. Resort Manager Kirsty's only complaint is that it's a bit too cold for March. However, looking at the forecast it should be warming up a bit - not enough to do any real damage to the snow though.

Preparing for a family ski holiday ....

2010-02-23T12:25:00.006Z

.... it's not as easy as it sounds!

Despite having run Ski Famille for seven years I have not yet been on a proper Ski Famille holiday. Generally speaking things are too busy over the winter months for me to free up a whole week (yes, I am a control freak...) and until two years ago I didn't qualify, due to lack of children.

This year I have a two and a half year old in tow and she has kindly invited two friends who, just to add to the full on Ski Famille experience, each have a sibling under one. I have waved good bye to the sneaky boy's trip and said hello to the family holiday.

Having arranged holidays for thousands of families over the years I thought it must be a pretty straightforward exercise. I was wrong. There have already been many unexpected obstacles:

Daughter freaking out when away from home - This is a tricky one. Eva has decided that she doesn't like staying away from home. In the last few months we have had more than one unplanned late night return home with a screaming child along with a clutch of disturbed dinner parties as howls of "I WANT TO GO HOME NOW" echo down the stairs. To be fair she does usually say "PLEASE" at the end, which I think is rather impressive. Not too reassuring for a week away though ...

You have to start form scratch with ski kit and it'll get used once - As an adult I have collected my scruffy selection of ski kit over many years. None of it is very flash, I can't remember what any of it cost and I know it'll last a good few years yet. I now have a small travelling companion who needs kitting out top to toe, and will need kitting out top to toe every year until she stops being small. Cost is one thing but then you have to find all the stuff. I inevitably left things late and then discovered that many ski wear suppliers had sold most of their stock when we had the cold snap in the UK. Fortunately friends of Ski Famille born2becool.com came to the rescue with all the bits we needed and a handy discount (available to all of our guests).

Cot vs Bed - The is a bridge that has now been crossed but an impending holiday was a consideration throughout the process. We now have Eva happily sleeping in a bed (albeit one that is very close to the ground) and fingers crossed we won't have too many things that go bump in the night. Thank you to Caroline at purple daisies for supplying a nice comfy bed guard to help the process. These foam guards are now in our Les Gets chalets so that bit of familiarity may even reduce the freak out factor ... maybe.

Flights booked with BA .... ooops - This is an issue in embryo at the moment. However, a strike looks likely in March, alternative easyJet flights get more expensive every day and the prospect of driving to the Alps with a toddler who struggles to keep her cool on the two hour drive to see Grandma is not appealing. Updates to follow!

OK, maybe it's a bit cold and a bit dangerous, but ... : Eva is not the problem here.... . Few couples have an equal love of the mountains and we are no exception. Persuading Mrs T that a good holiday involves cold weather and sliding around with planks strapped to one's feet has always been a challenge (my argument is not helped by managing to crack ribs and break my hip last winter). For the moment the promise of no cooking or domestic chores, plenty of mulled wine and a hot-tub is keeping things on track.

Sheila knows best - If you are a Ski Famille guest you will have had plenty of contact with Sheila, the one person that actually knows what is going on. However, my friends have the impression that as I run the company I'll know how everything works and what to do about ski hire, lift passes, lessons etc etc etc. I have consequently given them all kinds of conflicting info and now need Sheila to pick up the pieces. I really shouldn't have got involved in the first place....

I am really looking forward to my holiday, but it has already thrown up a lot of issues. I am sure these will in turn give rise to additional web pages and brochure copy to help other families planning a ski trip for the first time!

Wish me luck.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

The snow news is good news

2010-02-11T11:08:00.003Z

Both Reberty Village and Les Gets are enjoying fresh snow and superb conditions on and off piste. Both resorts are set to have further flurries of snow today (although the sun is starting to come through in Les Gets) and it should then be getting a bit brighter as we go into the weekend.

It is very cold across the French Alps at the moment, which means snow is staying fresh, but it's definitely advisable to wrap up warm. If you are heading out for 1/2 term week think layers, lot of them!

Read more on the snow conditions page of our website >>

The walk of shame

2010-01-25T11:32:00.002Z

I spent all of last week in France visiting Le Grand Ski (a ski industry conference / contractors fair) as well as our chalets in both Les Gets and Reberty Village.

Initially I had been booked to fly home late on Saturday night, the plan had been to get some skiing in, but I decided to go for an earlier flight to get home to the family – I’ve been away a bit too much recently.

I had a very smooth and swift transfer down the mountain, courtesy of Ski Famille Resort Asssistant Rob, and arrived at Geneva around 10.10. My flight wasn’t until 13.10 and I spotted that there was another Gatwick flight leaving at 11.05.

On a trip a few weeks ago I discovered that easyJet will happily switch you to an earlier return flight without charge if they have space. I thought it was worth trying again. The helpful lady at the sales desk moved me to the 11.05 flight in seconds ... she shouldn’t have.

As soon as I got upstairs to departures I saw the mother of all customs queues. I generally travel through Geneva on weekdays and had forgotten just how grim it can be on a busy Saturday. At 10.35 I flagged up to a security bod that my flight was setting off in 30 minutes, but he assured me I would be fine and wouldn’t allow a bit of queue hopping ... he should have.

At 10.59 I hobbled to gate C56 to find a largely empty space and one grumpy looking woman shaking her head at me. I had missed the plane and the baggage handlers were in the process of trying to find my bag to pull it off the flight.

To be fair to grumpy lady she did seem to be on my side and radioded to the plane to let them know I was at the gate. The pilot must have decided that on balance it would be quicker to get me on the plane than my bag off it. Within a few minutes a minibus arrived to whizz me across the tarmac to the waiting Airbus.

As I walked up the steps I could feel the contempt of 150 people radiating out of the door. I hit the top step and spotted that a front row seat was still free. I managed to get my bag in an overhead locker and my butt in the seat without having eye contact with a single person behind me ... but I knew they weren’t smiling. I was going to get home an hour and a half earlier than planned but they were all going to be half an hour late, and it was all my fault.

So ... do make use of the easyJet facility to switch to an earlier flight ... but make sure you're not cutting in too fine!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Girls on Tour

2010-01-25T09:37:00.004Z

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

2010-01-14T09:31:00.002Z

Snow, begiining to get bored of hearing about it yet? Last week we had a Ski Famille Director (me) stuck in France because of the UK snow and today we have another of the Directors stuck in the UK because of snow in both France and the UK. There is no shortage of snow anywhere ...

Click on the image to see the up to date picture in Les Gets and Reberty.

Stranded in the Alps due to UK snow...

2010-01-07T18:47:00.005Z

This blog post is coming to you from a very pretty and snowy Les Gets, but it shouldn't be! I had been due to fly back into Gatwick this evening but it was not to be. The only real frustration is that I had made it to Geneva Airport before discovering that my flight was cancelled. Grrrr...

Things in the UK are clearly both snowy and chaotic but what's the story in the mountains

Les Gets conditions are very good at the moment, although conditions are "firm" on the lower slopes. This should be tackled by snowfalls due in tonight that'll top levels up by anywhere between 8 and 15 centimetres. Looking ahead to the weekend we could have that perfect combo of sunny days and snowy nights - splendid!

Over in the 3 Valleys there should be what we call in the trade "a serious dump" tonight. There ought to be around 20 to 30 centimetres of snow sitting on the ground by midday tomorrow and sunshine looks set to follow - although it will remain very cold.

Conditions for guests in both of our resorts look exceptional from this weekend onwards - at a time when the crowds have headed home. Just a shame I've managed to get a flight booked for Saturday morning really.

Chris

http://www.skifamille.co.uk/

Snow news like good news.....

2010-01-04T18:03:00.002Z

Snow updates
The last few days of December were a little too warm for our liking but New Year's Eve bought a change in the weather and the snow began to fall thick and fast. Conditions look set to get better still.

Three Valleys
There is around 80cm snow at the level of our Reberty Village chalets (2000m) and the highest slopes in the Three Valleys have over 150cm of snow. There is 5-10cms of fresh snow on all pistes and 95% of all pistes are open.

Looking ahead around 2cm of snow is expected in the next 48 hours with a further 12-15cms in the days that follow. Temperatures are set to stay low and it could get as cold as -18 at night - time to light the fire and grab a glass of red!

Our resort team report excellent on piste conditions and minimal lift queues now that the New Year crowds have headed home.

Les Gets - Portes du Soleil
Les Gets only has around 40cm on snow on the lowest slopes, but needs far less cover on it's grass based slopes to enable good ski conditions. The upper slopes have 115cm on snow and approximately 85% of runs are open. Surface conditions are described as powdery - nice!

The resort can only expect a dusting of snow over the next 48 hours but, like Reberty, can look forward to 12-15cms later in the week. Though not as cold as Reberty temperatures will not get above freezing this week and could dip as low as -10.

Realistically Les Gets got off to a pretty shaky start to the season but conditions are now spot on for the time of year and the outlook is good.

Snow conditions update

2009-12-22T10:01:00.004Z

With snow very much in the news at home (2 hours 20 mins to drive the 4 miles home last night ...) it's nice to be able to report great snow where it ought to be - up in the mountains!

Les Gets saw some decent snowfalls in the nick of time 48hrs before Christmas guests arrived. Whilst it is not fully open, over half of the lifts are operating and snow depths are fine for the grass based pistes (35cm lower & 80cm upper). Mont Chery (our favourite bit of the ski area) is not yet open but further snowfalls before New Year week hits should have it up to speed.

Reberty Village (Les Menuires) has seen some pretty grim weather this week - in a good way. Temperatures dropped back to nearly -20 and we saw the diesel in vehicles starting to freeze - all a bit extreme. The cold snap bought snow though. Snow depths are around the same as those seen in Les Gets but a greater proportion of slopes are open (just over 80%). More snow is on the way to help top up and freshen up conditions on the piste.

The sites below are also good places to look for up to date snow info:
Snow-Forecast.com
Meteo France
Les Gets webcams on Snoweye
Les Menuires webcams on Snoweye
Les Gets thread on snowheads.com
Three Valleys thread on Snowheads.com

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

The "snow off" results are in!

2009-12-18T09:42:00.007Z

I think we can safely say that Les Gets fared better than Farnborough in the snow stakes - which is exactly as it should be!

Whilst we have seen significant snowfalls in parts of the UK overnight the Alps have seen a welcome top up in the majority of resorts with the snowline sitting at around 200m.

Our two resorts both have more snow on the way. Les Gets should see around 20cm over the next few days and Reberty will have a little more.

Detailed Les Gets forecast
Detailed Les Menuires forecast

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Where will the most snow fall?

2009-12-17T17:51:00.002Z

Its a snow off!!!

Which will have more snow, the Mont Blanc area http://bit.ly/7pjSRI or the Surrey/Hampshire borders http://bit.ly/86errO?

Updates tomorrow morning ... if I manage to get into the office!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Back in the 3 Valleys

2009-12-13T12:17:00.005Z

This blog comes direct from the dinning room of Chalet Eva in Reberty Village (the picture was taken this morning at breakfast as the sun started to hit the slopes of La Masse).

Our first families arrive in around an hour and the chalet hosts are all ready and waiting. Our first two guests actually arrived last night as we have been joined by some of the Ski Concierge team who are doing a Twitter fueled trip around the 3 Valleys.

Our biggest revalation today has been just how stress free a change over day can be in a resort where you have three chalets within ten meteres of each other around twenty metres from the piste. None of the usual charging around we are used to when trying to get our eight Les Gets chalets set up - Resort Manager Kirsty and I even had time for a coffee in the sun; unheard of!

I'm looking forward to having a glass of bubbly a little later to mark the official opening of our 3 Valleys programme. It took us 18 years to break out of Les Gets but we've done it in the right place at the right time with a fantastic group of people.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Ski Famille hits the 3 Valleys

2009-12-07T08:09:00.008Z

I've just spent 24 hours tying up some pre-season loose ends at our new chalets in the 3 Valleys and have come away very impressed and keen to return - which is handy as I am back there on Friday.

Our newly refurbished chalets are looking great and fresh snow coupled with bright sunshine (this picture was taken on my visit) made me remember just how stunning the location is. There can't be many more convenient bases for a skiing family.

Our Reberty team are currently taking part in our training course in Les Gets but head south tomorrow and will be up and running in time for their first arrivals on Sunday.

Chris

http://www.skifamille.co.uk/

Thinking about my next holiday ... whilst on holiday

2009-11-26T09:34:00.002Z

I am currently on holiday at Center Parcs in Suffolk (oh the glamour!) and yes, I am that sad Dad who has abandoned his family and is hammering away at his laptop in the corner of Starbucks. Pool in 20 mins though.

Yesterday afternoon I hit the spa, which I enjoyed immensely despite the fact that Mrs T and I dived out a bit early to play pool with a pint; now that's quality leisure time. Whilst at the spa I spotted a guy on a lounger avidly reading what was clearly a summer holiday brochure. At the time I thought to myself that it was an odd kind of person who dreamed about their next holiday whilst on one.

However, I am ready to eat my words. One of the first e-mails in my inbox this morning was from the owner of our new Mouflon chalets in Les Gets with a picture of the more or less finished article. This is the location of my next holiday and I am very excited indeed! Bring on the bubbly in the roof top hot-tub, skiing to the door, children's entertainment on tap...

I'll be out in Les Gets next week, and in the Three Valleys the following week, and hope to return with lots of pics of our splendid new chalets.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

How can you tell it's winter?

2009-11-10T09:05:00.005Z

The webcam on my previous blog post is one sure sign that winter is here (as was my grim drive to work this morning...). I have two other key events in mind though.

Over the last few days I have had my first glass of mulled wine this year and last night I made roast potatoes for the first time since last winter. Put together these two events are are sure sign that we have passed from autumn into winter!

My perfect mulled wine (courtesy of Delia online):

2 x 75 cl bottles medium to full-bodied red wine
1.5 litres of water
1 orange stuck with cloves
2 oranges, sliced
2 lemons, sliced
6 level tablespoons granulated sugar or honey
2 inch (5 cm) piece cinnamon stick
2 level teaspoons finely grated fresh root ginger or ground ginger
2 tablespoons fruit liqueur such as Cointreau, Grand Marnier or cherry brandy (optional)

Put everything in a pan and simmer for around 20 minutes.

My perfect roasties (courtesy of experience!)

1 kg of good quality fluffy spuds (I tried Red Rooster yesterday and they were spot on - Desiree work well too)
Vegetable oil

Pre-heat your oven to 220 c. Meanwhile cut your peeled spuds into good sized chunks and boil in salted water for around 5 minutes.
Place a baking tray with a good splosh of oil in it into the oven to heat up.
After five minutes drain the spuds and give them a vigorous shake for a minute in a colander. This will fluff up the outer edges and help them go crisp.
Pop your (very hot) baking tray onto the hot hob you have been using for the spuds and carefully spoon the spuds into the oil - then tip the tray up and baste all spuds evenly with the hot fat.
Pop in the hot oven for around 40 minutes until they are golden brown.

Do you think it would be acceptable to have a night in front of the fire with a mug of mulled wine, a bowl of roasties and simply revel in the arrival of winter...?

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

The snow is here!

2009-11-02T16:31:00.004Z

The first serious snowfall of the winter is now hitting the French Alps. I was speaking to Fiona in our Les Gets office earlier and she reports truly grim weather, in a good way!

Looking at the various forecasting websites high winds and precipitation looks pretty set in and the snowline will be going as low as 1000m, very good when we have only just nudged into November.

The list below is the websites we tend to keep an eye on as winter approaches:

Snow-Forecast.com
Meteo France
Chamonix / Mont-Blanc weather
Les Gets webcams on Snoweye

Les Menuires webcams on Snoweye

Les Gets thread on snowheads.com
Three Valleys thread on Snowheads.com

If you have any others you think we ough to know about do shout.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Chalets Mouflon - nearly there!

2009-10-28T10:01:00.003Z

This picture is more than 10 days old now (we are still catching up after the ski show...) but shows that the windows are in at our new Mouflon Chalets in Les Gets.

We really are down to the finishing touches and are looking forward to welcoming the first guests just before Christmas ... Not quite as much as I'm looking forward to staying in Grand Mouflon myself in March, but almost!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

We survived the ski show!

2009-10-26T13:11:00.004Z

The Metro Ski and Snowboard show is now behind us and we can try and have a week of catching up (thank heavens we decided against doing it all over again by hitting Birmingham this weekend).

Our sack of competition entries is bulging and we'll dive in and pick a winner a week today. Someone is going to be very happy when they get an e-mail confirming they have won a family holiday in the 3 Valleys for this winter. We're biased but we think it's one hell of a prize.

With cold weather across the mountains everyone is firmly in winter mode and we're looking forward to the first of our resort team starting work next week (Ops Manager Lindsay will be in the UK office helping sort out all the little bits and pieces that make the season run smoothly; like new i-pod docks for all chalets and ensuring we have enough Christmas puddings!).

We've enjoyed some great press coverage over the last few weeks but it was fantastic to see a piece at the weekend giving some background on how well Les Gets is doing to make itself a more "green" destination. Read the Independent article now.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

There's a chill in the air ...

2009-10-13T09:10:00.003+01:00

I misjudged the temperature for my bike ride to work this morning by about five degrees and had to peddle mighty fast to try and build up a bit of body heat! It was a stunning autumnal ride though, as the picture shows.

As soon as I got to my desk I started to investigate what the weather is up to in the Alps. It seems a bit early in the year to start watching out for snow but it's nice to have a hobby!

The news is good. Nighttime temperatures in both of our resorts are consistently dropping below zero this week and there has been some snow above around 1900m. By the weekend there may even be a bit of snow falling at village level in Les Gets (don't expect it to hang around this early in the year though!). Reberty is looking properly cold, so Fiona better wrap up warm when she goes across to check on the refurb work on Thursday.

I'll keep you up to date with snow news more regulalrly as the season approaches - and let's keep everything crossed for a winter as good as last year.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Costa del … Sussex

2009-10-07T10:51:00.004+01:00

The winter is a busy time for us ski industry folk, unsurprisingly, so we always try to get away in the last weekend of September before all hell breaks loose.

For the last few years we have headed off to Palma, Mallorca. It’s a great city with plenty to see and do, plus we lived there for a while before getting married. This means we can skip the usual quandaries of where to eat/drink and what to do. Very relaxing indeed.

As usual we were looking forward to a bit of sunshine, a few long drinks whilst people watching and a bit of general lazing about without a hyper active toddler in the mix. We then made a mistake … we looked at the weather forecast (with a view to gloating to colleagues and friends of course) and it was a shocker. Thunderstorms on the cards throughout the weekend.

48 hours before departure the forecast was looking worse rather than better so, having got my head around the concept of a sunk cost fallacy, we cancelled the hotel and airport parking and resigned ourselves to losing the flights. What we weren’t going to lose out on was dropping off darling daughter with Granny for two days though!

Fortunately the weather forecast for the south coast of England was fabulous.First thought was Brighton … until we realized we would be vying for hotel, restaurant and beach space with the Labour Party Conference. No, no, no.

I then looked a bit closer to home (or more accurately Granny’s home). Having reminded myself what was on offer in Rye we decided to book a couple of nights in a guest house in the centre and enjoy cobbled streets, the slightly bohemian atmosphere (lots of artists are still resident in the town alongside more up to the moment celebs such as Tom Chaplin from Keane – who coincidentally I went to school with, although yes I am quite a bit older ...) and hopefully some sunshine. It was a fantastic plan.

Highlights included

Slightly over the top (in a charming way) décor and service at the Jeakes House Hotel
Two lunches in the sun at the Ypres Castle Inn – a truly great pub
A lovely fishy dinner at the Fish Cafe with some surprisingly good local wine
Lazing in blazing sunshine on Camber Sands
Listening to The Mercurials in the courtyard of the lovely George Hotel

So, if you are planning a child free weekend and can’t be bothered with getting on a plane to be confronted with weather than may be worse than you would have enjoyed at home, I can heartily recommend a weekend in Rye!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Another Mouflons update

2009-09-29T11:01:00.005+01:00

Our latest pic from the Mouflon chalets shows just what an impressive development it is ... and how accurate the artisits impression was!

And no, the Porsche in the foreground isn't mine.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Holiday vs. skiing

2009-09-24T10:56:00.003+01:00

When talking to non skiers or skiing adults who have yet to attempt skiing with their kids I often come across the view that a family skiing holiday can't be a relaxing holiday. This is, plainly and simply, wrong!

Approach a family skiing trip in a haphazrad way and you may be inviting stress, but if you stick to some basic rules it should be great fiun for children and parents alike. We have come up with 5 tips.

1. The starting point is to pick a family friendly resort that doesn’t involve too long an airport transfer.

2. If children are too young to ski with you seriously consider some kind of childcare. This may mean taking granny, it may mean travelling with a family specialist (ahem...) or it may mean booking a local crèche.

3. Pick ski tuition carefully. You want small groups and instructors that can empathise with the needs of both you and your children.

4. Take proper clothing. Waterproof gloves, toasty socks and decent goggles make a big difference. Borrow from friends if possible.

5. Relax and enjoy yourselves. It’s a family holiday in a beautiful environment not a test of endurance!

I can't over emphasis the importance of the last one. Think holiday first and skiing (or boarding) second and you'll get more out of both.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Chalets Mouflon update

2009-09-17T11:15:00.004+01:00

I haven't been out to Les Gets or Reberty for a while and am itching to see progress on the chalets being built or refurbished in preparation for this winter.

I'd usually get on the spot updates from fellow Ski Famille Director Fiona, who lives in Les Gets, but she has decided that September would be better spent walking around the Cornish coast (updates suggest this is just a very elaborate excuse for an extended pub crawl!).

Fortunately the owner of our new Les Gets properties (Grand Mouflon and Petit Mouflon) is an avid Ski Famille blog watcher and is keeping me up to date with pictures and detailed news on progress.

He reports that the roof is nearly done and contractors have been working inside for 3 weeks. Plumbing is just about there and the vast heaps of electrical spaghetti are, in theory at least, connected to something. Windows arrive next week and external walls are progressing well. It won't be long before the exciting business of kitting out the interiors begins.

Peak dates are already pretty much full in these new chalets (although Petit Mouflon is still available for New Year week) so if you 'd like to experience a shiny new ski in / ski out chalet give us a ring sooner rather than later.

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

Where to Ski and Snowboard 2010 quotes

2009-09-14T11:31:00.003+01:00

Family ski section

“Plugging in to tour operator childcare has many advantages. It isn’t only that you can be confident that your kids will be in the care of trained English speaking nannies. It’s also that these operators will usually relieve you of all kinds of burdens – getting kids of skiing age to and from ski school, for example.”

Les Gets

“Traditional-style village with a very French feel, providing serious competition for it’s more established linked neighbor, Morzine.”

“Les Gets is an attractive, small, family-friendly resort with a very French feel to it, partly because of the appetizing food and wine shops lining the main street. The are of slopes that it shares with Morzine offer the most extensive local network in the Portes du Soleil, and in some respects Les Gets is the better base for the area.”

“[Mont Chery] slopes include some of the most challenging in the area and are usually very quiet.”

“… grassy slopes don’t need much snow cover and in a sparse snow year you may do better here than in higher rockier resorts such as Avoriaz.”

“There is a good selection of chalets and mid-range hotels. A 2009 reporter had a “jolly nice” stay at Ski Famille’s Le Marjorie chalet.”

“Off the slopes: There’s a well equipped fitness centre with a pool, an outdoor ice rink and bowling. There are good shops, a cinema and an intriguing Mechanical Music Museum; husky sleigh rides, snowshoeing and parapenting are possible.”

Les Menuires

“The bargain base for the Three Valleys – with increasing amounts of stylish accommodation.”

“Les Menuires has always had a great position in the Three Valleys, and … it is the most affordable major resort in the area.”

“The resort is one of the most convenient you’ll find anywhere, with lifts, pistes and lodgings all thoroughly integrated.”

“Off the slopes: The resort does make an effort on this front. There is a big impressive sports/spa/fitness centre.”

“Reberty 2000 [the location of our Reberty Village chalets], in a convenient ski-in/ski-out location … has it all.”

My one speech of the year!

2009-09-09T17:50:00.002+01:00

Once a year I stand up in front of a room full of other ski operators and an array of ski writers in my capacity as Ski Rep on the ABTOF committee. Give or take a word this was yesterday's speech:

"Last year when I stood here in front of pretty much the same people my opening comment was that 2007-08 was unquestionably a comeback season for French skiing. Most ABTOF members were reporting strong early sales for 2008/09 and there was a genuine feeling of positivity.

BUT – that was 9th September. A week later Lehman brothers had filed for bankruptcy protection and a month after that billions had been pumped into major UK banks to effectively nationalise them.

I suspect that many people here saw an October sales pattern that wasn’t quite what we they anticipated! I know I did.

So what’s the view 12 months on?

Industry reports suggest the market fell by around 13% last season and France, whilst still the single largest destination for Brit skiers, lost a small amount of market share. However, as highlighted by Crystal in their annual ski report, specialists do appear to have outperformed the market ... and ABTOF members are specialists.

Feedback I have received from our members over the past few weeks backs up this view. Whilst selling prices came under pressure and costs that had not been hedged were at the mercy of the exchange rate, most people ended up with good occupancy rates and revenue equal to or better than anticipated . Great snow across France throughout the season unquestionably helped sales and the overall picture is a positive one.

However, we have to acknowledge that most forecasts for winter 2009/10 are not great. Overall, demand looks likely to drop further and many skiers may choose to downgrade their resort and accommodation choices. The exchange rate also continues to have a significant impact, although the balance may nudge back towards sterling a little more as we go into the winter.

There are many positives though. Operators of all sizes have looked hard at the products they sell to ensure that they are offering value, clear benefits and high quality. Some have renegotiated contracts with suppliers, many have cut capacity and there have been price increases. Importantly there are also firms taking advantage of the opportunities presented by other operators’ capacity cuts along with shifts in demand to launch new French products or destinations.

I would concede that for some changes have been under pressure and are not ones we might ordinarily have chosen to make, but I believe the end result is a mix of appealing products offered by streamlined and efficient companies committed to operating in a sustainable way. We have all worked hard to ensure that skiers and boarders of all budgets can find a holiday that works for them in France.

Initiatives from within France, such as the recent VAT cut, aid our efforts and we hope to see individual resorts taking a proactive approach to retaining and growing their UK customer base. Some resorts remain rooted in their “Take it or leave it” approach but equally some have shifted dramatically towards, in the words of one of my chalet owners, “Together we can beat Le Crunch”.

A number of operators in this room are reporting increasing demand for less well known resorts that offer good quality accommodation, cheaper resort prices and lower lift pass prices. France has many such resorts and we need to promote this diversity, as well as supporting any initiatives rolled out by the more well known ski areas.

The diversity in France is what allows it to continue to dominate the UK ski market. The sheer variety of resorts, accommodation choices and transport options the destination huge advantages over the competition.

On the topic of transport, I anticipate more and more budget conscious skiers getting back in their cars to travel to the Alps as low cost flights become increasingly high cost. In addition self-catering holiday makers may seek the flexibility and cost savings allowed by stocking up at the bottom of the mountain. The roads to the French Alps are a well trodden path for UK skiers and consequently France is well poised to take full advantage if this trend does emerge.

A key element of the Tour Operator offering that is bound to appeal in uncertain times is that of financial security. This is something that many travel writers have picked up on and promoted in recent pieces. Three years ago I could count on one hand the number of Ski Famille clients asking about financial protection each season - it's now a regular query and rightly so. Packages look set to offer consumers good value this winter and where a package is being offered financial protection should be in place. It is a win win for skiers.

Talking to other ski operators over the last couple of days we have also discussed one key issue that often gets overlooked. People like having something to look forward to. This is particularly true in tighter times. There are still plenty of skiers who want to book well ahead, know where they are staying and get excited about it. They want to show their friends pictures of the chalet they will be staying in and talk about which runs they hope to tackle. Holidays are not, thankfully, a dull rational consumer purchase and this is something we should all embrace, whether ski writers or travel organisers.

In summary we have a challenging time ahead of us but the companies in this room are well poised to take full advantage of the strong demand that remains for winter sports holidays in general and France as a destination.

Enjoy your lunch"

... and enjoy their lunch they did!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

There's no gold in them there hills.....

2009-08-28T14:59:00.009+01:00

The ski press (or what little of it there is at this time of year) has been full of rather depressing tales and predictions following the demise of uber-luxury chalet operator Descent. It's sad to see any firm in your industry fail, but I do feel a little too much is being made of it. The firm was very much a niche within a niche and can't be used as a barometer for the ski market as a whole.

Yes there will be other ski companies out there struggling, but there are also plenty who have the right product in the right place at the right price and are reporting sales on a par with this time last year (I am sceptical of any reporting wild increases!). Almost two years on from the start of the slide of Sterling even the smallest firms have a robust currency strategy and have negotiated hard with suppliers in order to offer value to guests. I know that we have been able to secure terms on new chalets that would have been unimaginable three years ago.

Even the most hard nosed suppliers in France have transformed their approach from maximising short term returns to investing in products and relationships that give then a realistic and sustainable income. We have moved on from "Take it or leave it" to "Together we can beat Le Crunch". TVA changes will also have an impact, as will the capacity reductions made by some of the biggest ski operators.

So how should the potential booker react? My answer would be to work out your budget, have a good look around at what's on offer and book early. Capacity is down and, whilst there will inevitably be some last minute deals, you may find that if you hang on you'll end up missing out on your preferred resort, accommodation and level of service.

This won't be a popular paragraph for anyone within the trade, but if you have a big group and are looking at a quiet date don't be afraid to ask for a bit of a deal - all travel firms know what a booking is worth to them and your preferred holiday may be in a property or on a date where they are more than happy to be a bit flexible.

Most importantly of all book with a firm that is bonded or operating a Trust Account (if the later is the case you may want to ask to see the Deed of Trust to be sure your money is safe). Any firm offering a package (as opposed to accommodation only) should be protecting your money. Contrary to popular belief a package doesn't need to include a flight to warrant being protected.

Now the summer holidays are more or less behind us lets start getting excited about the winter. It's not all doom and gloom!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk
twitter.com/CTskifam

Chalets Mouflon update

2009-08-21T16:16:00.001+01:00

The building will be watertight tonight! Fantastic progress on a project that gets more and more exciting as it progresses.

More updates soon.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Skiing on a summers day

2009-08-20T09:38:00.005+01:00

Yesterday was a scorcher! (Apologies if you live in Scotland where I know it was on the decidedly soggy side…). With the sun out talk leads to ways to cool down and usually one has to make do with a chilled drink or, if you’re very lucky, an ice cream. Team Ski Famille went for a more extreme approach and visited a massive fridge for the day.

The Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre opened earlier in the summer and is a fantastic “real snow” slope giving visitors the chance to get in some decent turns on the fluffy stuff with access to quality kit and expert tuition. With the temperature a steady -5 it was most bizarre seeing everyone thoroughly togged up as the sun beat down relentlessly outside.

We were joined by a healthy handful of Ski Famille guests past present and future, as well as a smattering of family and friends. I was the only one who didn’t hit the slopes (I was manning our little stand and am still recovering from my Feb leg break) and all reported great snow, with most taking advantage of the instructors made available to us by the Snow Centre.

The skis leant to us by Salomon saw good use and I suspect that a few people may be choosing to upgrade their kit prior to the winter. The new designs certainly looked impressive, although I must admit to being pretty ignorant when it comes to contemporary ski design; I am definitely the type of skier more likely to say “I like the black ones” than “I like the carbon composite ones with the elasto-flex zone in the inner core...”.

Having given summer skiing a try we hope to make this an annual event. Next time around a slightly less stunning day may mean a few more people up for hanging out on the slopes.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Hello campers!

2009-08-19T17:42:00.004+01:00

Camping in the UK is (if we read the travel press and believe the stats pumped out by Milletts et al) all the rage this summer. I decided that we needed to give this type of low key back to basics family trip a whirl.

The perfect opportunity presented itself when one of our NCT group suggested a weekend in the New Forest to celebrate our spogs' impending second birthdays. Seemed like a great idea! Fortunately we all get on and, in contrast to the experiences of most friends, there is not an "odd" family within our group (although I am aware of the saying that if you don't know who the odd one is in a group it's probably you!).

We arrived down at the site on the Friday afternoon and got stuck into erecting tents and generally protecting our turf from encroachment by other campers. All tents were pitched without a problem (some of us even ended up helping neighbouring groups who were struggling to make anything vaguely habitable out of their collection of canvas and poles) and the kids were enjoying themselves playing in and around the tents, or simply watching Dads at work (pictured).

For the first few hours all went swimmingly - then we tried to tackle the thorny issue of bedtime. Always tricky, but add in the fact that it was still light outside and lots of people were pottering, chatting, cycling, drinking, cooking & eating a few metres from the kids and it's not surprising that our daughter, Eva, decided to resist nodding off.

The other children struggled to settle at first too. However, Eva was the only one continuing to resist and screaming her head off (on a now otherwise wonderfully peaceful campsite) at one o'clock in the morning. Come 1.30 am we made the call; "Hello, is that the Campsite Manager ... sorry to disturb you so late but would you mind opening the gate in a few minutes; we're going home..."

By 3 am we were back home (Eva had, of course, nodded off in the back of the car within three minutes) and in our own beds. Not quite the night envisaged when we signed up for the weekend. Eva, inevitably, was up at 6.30 later that morning demonstrating her usual phenomenal energy levels.

Having fortified myself with a couple of strong coffees I wearily headed back to the New Forest. When we left the campsite we took one grizzly child, her "Taggy", the house keys and nothing else; we needed to get out to there and fast. Our tent, clothes, BBQ etc etc continued the camping experience without us. By the time I got back down I was pretty knackered and, as the man with the BBQ required for Saturday night's meal, I stayed the night sans famille. I had a lovely time!

I will camp again (in fact I have a chaps trip planned for next month) but I suspect it may be some time before wife and child join in.

Another family holiday experience ticked off the list in the name of research.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

P.S. Many thanks to the friends we travelled with for taking our late night shenanigans in such good humour - I promise it won't end like this when we ski together in March!

Skiing at Christmas

2009-08-12T11:56:00.003+01:00

It'll be no surprise to read that school holidays are generally the first dates to fill when we put a new season on sale. There is an exception though, Christmas.

"Normal" ski companies generally fill Christmas pretty quickly but skiing at Christmas can be a bit of an unknown for families and often prompts lots of questions.

We think that Christmas is a great time to hit the mountains with young children though. The resorts put on a huge effort, you are guaranteed a white Christmas and nobody has to stuff the turkey or do the washing up!

The Ski Famille set up is very traditional. All chalets are decorated and have a tree, Father Christmas visits with presents and there is turkey, Christmas pud and all the trimmings. Very much a cosy family affair.

Both of our resorts have Christmas processions and in Les Gets children can visit “Papa Noel” in his log cabin in the woods, all a little more glamorous and involving that the "grotto" at your local department store.

We go to great lengths to ensure that our guests don't feel they are missing out by being away at Christmas; in fact we think we can provide you with one of the most relaxing and enjoyable Christmases you'll ever have.

There is one problem that is common to many families wanting to hit the slopes at Christmas; how do you break the news to Granny? For the past few seasons we have run our "Granny Goes Too" offer with free Grandparent places so you can avoid this sticky issue altogether. However, we do appreciate you may have very good reasons for wanting to "escape" at Christmas so we'll leave it you you to decide whether to tell Granny or not!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Chalet build / refurb update

2009-08-06T16:50:00.003+01:00

Last week I hit the (gloriously sunny) Alps for a quick look around the five new chalets we have taken on for next winter.

In Les Gets the Mouflon chalets (pictured) are looking fantastic. All of the main structure is in place and the carpenters are now on site working on the roof and all timber elements of the property.

Walking around the interior I quickly got a feel for just how much natural light there will be in all of the rooms. Huge windows on both sides of the building give a feeling of space that I've rarely seen in Alpine chalets. The views will be impressive too; Mont Chery on one side and the slopes of La Turche on the other.

On the strength of my visit to the Mouflon site I've booked my winter holiday. So apologies if you were thinking of Grand Mouflon on 13th March, I've beaten you to it!

Following our morning site inspection in Les Gets we jumped in the car to head down to Reberty Villages. On arrival our three chalets were all bustling with activity as tradesmen worked on the refurbishment work. A number of rooms are now pretty much complete, bar lighting and furniture, and all are looking good. The spa rooms in the properties have been transformed with new timber walls and better lighting; a real haven for apres ski relaxation.

I can genuinely say that I have never been so excited about the arrival of a new winter season. These projects are a fantastic development for Ski Famille and I'm really looking forward to visiting both resorts this winter and seeing families enjoying the great new accommodation we're working hard to perfect over the summer months.

Chris

A family holiday

2009-07-20T13:53:00.004+01:00

I’ve just returned from a week in Cornwall. This was our first proper “family holiday” since the arrival of daughter Eva (now 23 months old and pictured with "Granna" on the beach at Cawsand). Last year we did a couple of short breaks but avoided committing to a full week.

We had a great time (despite fairly grim weather) and thoroughly enjoyed our friends’ wedding at Polhawn Fort, the main motivation for the trip. The lodge we stayed in far exceeded expectations and the Rame peninsular was a lovely base. We did, however, return home with a wish list for the ideal holiday:

1. No supermarket trips
2. No cooking
3. Minimal cleaning up
4. Good quality childcare available
5. No need to get in a car to go anywhere

There was an additional point which was “No amateurish tourist facilities run by clueless Brits.” but that would have robbed the holiday of some of its best comedy moments (when a dead chicken was pointed out behind a bin on a visit to an animal attraction the Manager’s response was not a polite “Gosh, thank you for letting me know. Sorry about that, I’ll ask someone to move it right away” but an aggressive “I’m not psychic you know!”).

It was only today, when reflecting on this wish list, that I cottoned on to the fact that this is exactly what a Ski Famille holiday provides; a break from everyday chores allowing complete relaxation and quality family time. In truth I’ve only fully realised the value of this proposition since becoming a parent myself. The list may, in isolation, look selfish and lazy but it isn’t; the whole point is to free up time so that everyone in the family can enjoy each other’s company (and themselves).

A UK self-catering holiday can also be a pretty expensive exercise, although admittedly I could have avoided spending £100+ on two day’s worth of food and wine at the nearest Waitrose – it was raining and I wanted to cheer myself up… . Any decent holiday home in a good location at the right time of year is going to cost a reasonable chunk of dosh. And do I really want to pay many hundreds of pounds and then have to remember to pack washing up liquid and a decent corkscrew?

We are all quick to jump on the costs of meals etc in Europe, but I could name half a dozen places in the Alps where you can have a fantastic meal for the price of a rather disappointing lunch at a Little Chef just off the A303. I know it’s not a direct comparison, but when you are operating in your own currency on familiar turf it’s very easy to overlook how quickly the sums add up.

So what’s the conclusion having had a holiday and created the wish list? Probably that everything is a compromise! I would do the same holiday again and heartily recommend Cawsand and Kingsand as places to visit. There is, however, another part of me that is tempted to stay at home and enjoy what’s on the doorstep one year and then go on a cracker of a holiday that fulfills most of the wish list on alternate years. We have just bought a tent though, so who know what the future holds…

Chris

New Les Gets chalets progress report

2009-07-07T10:54:00.003+01:00

Our new chalets in Les Gets (Chalets Mouflon) are really shooting up now that the ground work is finished. It's staggering how quickly the builders are able to progress given good Project Management and favourable weather.

I'm looking forward to having a nose before the end of the month - when I'll also be checking out the refurb work taking place at our Reberty Village chalets.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Ski market 13% down - what did we do right?

2009-07-07T10:24:00.002+01:00

The 2009 Crystal Ski Industry Report was released last week and it was a fairly gloomy affair. It reported that the ski market was down by around 13% last year and painted a picture of a struggling industry with an offering out of step with consumer demand and the economic climate.

TUi - parent to Crystal, Thompson and First Choice ski brands among others - are to slash their catered chalet capacity by 40% for the 2009/10 season on the back of a 20% slump in demand last winter (even with huge discounting) and focus on bed stock that requires a far lower level of up front commitment, i.e. apartments and hotels contracted on an “allocation” or “on request” basis.

Our own experience last winter was very different. We kept our capacity the same as the previous year but saw a 16% increase in guest numbers and a similar increase in revenue. Great snow certainly helped, but I feel there is much more to it than that. If price were everything we would have been empty and the larger operators wouldn’t have seen quite the drop in occupancy they did.

The gulf between our experience (we’re not unique by the way, I know other small chalet firms who also had a good winter) and that of other operators made me start to reflect on what we were doing so differently. Why were we so much more appealing to skiers in a market that was apparently declining fast?

My conclusion is that we are small enough that everyone in the business can focus on the experiences of individuals. By individuals I don’t just mean guests but also, and just as importantly, our employees. In tight times it would be very easy to start cutting our staffing costs; pay less, make do with a few less people, work people harder, source cheaper accommodation and cut benefits.

We made a conscious decision as we went into last season that we would do everything possible to ensure our staff in resort had the best possible experience when working for us. We pay a bit more than most, we give childcare staff two days off not one (the industry norm), we source the best accommodation we can and we include benefits such as ski passes, insurance and ski kit without holding back pay or charging dubious “deposits”. Our belief is that this ensures staff are as chipper and committed in April as they were in December. It also attracts the best people to start off with.

We questioned all of our staff anonymously towards the end of the season and 100% said they would recommend us as an employer to friends. I’m not sure that many firms in the travel industry would be able to count on that kind of feedback. In fact I’m not sure that many would be brave enough to ask the question in the first place!

Happy staff won’t get guests out to resort in the first place though. The happy committed nanny in resort may get you to book again next year but it won’t be what makes you book the first time around. So what generated our increase in bookings? My belief is that because the office team in the UK knew that the resort team was geared up to provide a cracking level of service we could communicate a confidence in our product impossible in the call centres of large firms. We knew that the families we were talking to were going to have a great holiday that would represent good value for money. I think we also managed to get this message across in our brochure and website.

A skiing holiday is rarely a cheap holiday and by keeping quality up we were largely able to avoid the discounting bloodbath taking place in the market. Sure, we did some promotions on the slowest weeks but nothing unusual or desperate. Not having committed flight seats helped (a massive burden for big firms if market conditions are a bit grim) but most importantly we knew the value of our holidays. This meant that we did occasionally have spaces in chalets rather than filling them at a knock down £299, but it sounds like we ended up with far less empty space than most.

With a background of massive cuts in chalet beds by a number of ski companies we have expanded for winter 2009/10 by around 25% and taken on a new resort. At first glance this may seem like madness, but there is sound logic behind the decision. We have been able to secure chalets on terms that would have been impossible just two seasons ago and pick the best available. This means we can, once again, focus on having a high quality offering that provides families with real value.

Knowing that we are able to provide holidays of genuine value to skiing families means we don’t have to spend all of our energies on scrabbling around trying to drum up trade at any price. Instead we keep can spend time (and money) on getting the best teams possible in place in our resorts and giving them all of the support and resources they need to do a great job. I’m already looking forward to my Ski Famille holiday!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

The new Ski Famille website goes live

2009-06-29T10:45:00.002+01:00

Our new website is now up and running. Without wishing to embarrass our hard working developer with details it's a little later than planned, but we're very happy with the end result.

On-line booking and features such as forums for our guests will be rolled out of the coming weeks and months and we're looking forward to discovering what site users like and, just as importantly, what they don't.

Like any good site it will evolve and we welcome comments from Ski Famille regulars as well as people who have stumbled across us for the first time.

Have a rummage through the pages that are live at the moment and let us know what you think.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

The Ski Famille annual office bike ride

2009-06-24T10:14:00.003+01:00

Last Thursday saw the second annual Ski Famille office bike ride - an opportunity for all three of us (Mel who works from home in Suffolk declined the invite) to potter in the Hampshire countryside and enjoy a pub lunch.

As I am still a little weak and feeble following my leg break in February we opted for a leisurely ride along the Basingstoke canal. We started the day with coffee and flapjack in my garden before setting off for the canal tow-path ... at the bottom of my garden!

We decided to head in the direction of Greywell where the navigation ends (the Greywell tunnel collapsed in the 1950's prior to the restoration of the canal and is now home to protected bats so that's the end of the line forevermore). Although I live on the canal I hadn't explored quite that far on a bike before and thoroughly enjoyed the peace and views - only interrupted by a rather pungent snoring angler lying at the edge of the path surrounded by empty Stella bottles near Dogmersfield!

Very close to the end of the navigable section of the canal we stopped at Odiham Castle (or King John's Castle as it is locally known). The site was chosen by King John as it lay halfway between Windsor and Winchester. Construction began in 1207 and continued until 1214. He already had 90 castles at his disposal when it was built, rather putting to shame the current second home issues dogging our present day leaders.

On leaving the castle we gave a cheery wave to the "John Pinkerton" narrow boat as it passed. This is a boat run by the canal society for day trippers and private charters to raise money for the upkeep of the canal. I have the pleasure of being voluntary crew on the boat occasionally and can't recommend it highly enough - if only so you have the amusement of seeing a 6'5" me helping out in a vessel with just 6' of headroom.

A little further on we hit the end of the tow-path and headed into the centre of Greywell and quickly found the Fox and Goose; our chosen lunch time stop. It's a traditional village pub in a beamy slightly dingy kind of way and served up spot on grub. We felt a little greedy tucking into hearty nosh after such a leisurely bike ride - until we noticed that the rather "robust" guy at the next table had had a jumbo cod and chips starter followed by a pork chop and chips main course; we didn't hang around to see what he had for pud, there may well have been a Mr Creosote moment.

The return leg of the journey followed pretty much the same route (although we did cut off one rather large corner by heading to the lanes for ten minutes) with a brief stop in the sun at the Fox and Hounds on the outskirts of Fleet for a restorative shandy.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable day out. Next year we may have the strength to add in a hill or two.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

5 Top Tips for ski season job applicants

2009-06-16T09:57:00.002+01:00

The information below is taken from a short article I wrote for seasonworkers.com last year - prompted by some pretty dismal applications. They are rolling in again and are as bad as ever. Think! You are e-mailing a prospective employer not your Facebook mates - LOL :-)

Tailor your CV and send a covering note
Take a few minutes to tailor your CV to the ski resort job you are applying for. If you are looking for seasonal work in a ski resort but are an engineer by trade then your student work experience behind the bar at Pontins may actually be more relevant than your most recent suspension bridge project.

In addition always send a covering note with your CV, even if it’s brief. A CV alone doesn’t say why you want the job and why you think you’d be good at it. You don’t need to write pages – just enough to spark a bit of interest in the employer and get an interview.

Check your punctuation and spelling
Double check your CV and any covering letter or e-mail. If you’re not that confident about the quality of spelling or punctuation make sure you use a word processor spell check and ask a friend or relative to give it a once over. An employer in the seasonal sector is probably not too bothered about your day to day spelling ability, but they do want to see the application is important enough to you that you have taken time over it before clicking send or popping it in an envelope.

What does your e-mail address tell an Employer?
You probably picked your e-mail address a few years ago and mostly use your account to e-mail close mates. However, it is the first thing a potential employer is going to read. Opening a new e-mail account for job applications will take seconds and an e-mail from Joanne_Taylor@hotmail.com is going to look a lot better than one from dirtygirl69@hotmail.com. Trust me, it does make a difference.

Keep your Bebo/Facebook profile safe.
This is an issue that has had a reasonable amount of coverage in the press recently and it’s not just media hype. A potential employer may well Google you (even for a seasonal job). If you have things you’d rather were private on your Bebo or Facebook pages then make sure your privacy settings keep them safe. The messages you exchange with mates (or some of your pictures) may not put you in the most favourable light. If your name is “John Smith” you’re probably OK as Google will turn up so many results you’ll almost certainly remain anonymous. If you’re a “Yasmin Oliphant-Caruthers” log on now...

Beware the smiley
We all want to hire friendly people but a job application is probably not the place for an e-mail starting “Hiya” and signed off with a grinning smiley and a few kisses. You can put across that you are a sociable person without letting the professionalism slip.

Remember that your application has one aim – to get you through the employer’s door for an interview. Keep it relevant, concise and professional. There’s a lot of competition for seasonal roles this year and a few simple measures can increase your chances of success massively.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Chalets Mouflon - the whole in ground is just about full.

2009-06-15T11:17:00.003+01:00

Our two new chalets in Les Gets are really starting to take shape now. It's stunning how much can be achieved in a month if the weather holds out.

The basement is just about done and dusted and the upper floors will follow shortly - once remaining services have gone in.

It won't be too long before it starts to look wooden and pretty rather than having the appearance of an Eastern Block concrete box.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Ski Famille - The Movie!

2009-06-12T13:46:00.007+01:00

A short film shot in Les Gets last March. Many thanks to all of the guests and staff who took part.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Ski for free ... all winter!

2009-06-03T15:23:00.003+01:00

My mother always told me that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is, but when you spot an offer of a free chalet for the winter you have to mull it over! Read the full story on snowheads.com. Do let us know if you land the gig!

Alternatively you can always get a job with Ski Famille and be paid for the pleasure. See a full listing of our current ski resort jobs on jobswithoutdesks.com.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

FIS launches SnowKidz initiative

2009-05-26T11:50:00.002+01:00

To quote from the FIS' own website" In November 2008, the FIS Council decided to initiate a campaign to 'Bring Children to the Snow'. The initial concept was presented to the FIS Congress 2008 in Cape Town (RSA) in May 2008.

Following approval by the FIS Council in November 2009, the campaign has been divided into two dimensions: an International Communication Campaign and a National Activity Campaign with different projects and programs depending on the country. Externally the campaign activities will be known through the 'FIS SnowKidz' brand."

We think this is a great initiative and the hope is that resorts will get behind it and try and find a way of reducing the cost of taking children skiing. Proposals include free lift passes for chiuldren under 9 in partner resorts.

Ski Famille has requested more details about becomming a partner operator and we'll update the blog as plans progress.

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

A chalet takes shape

2009-05-22T09:05:00.003+01:00

Blog readers that receive the Ski Famille newsletter will know that we have two new Les Gets chalets being built for next winter. New builds and complete refurbs are always pretty nerve wracking - the big question is always the same; "Will it be ready for Christmas?".

The answer, to date at least, has always been a resounding "Yes". Doesn't make us any less twitchy over the summer months though... It was great, therefore, to get an e-mail from the developer and owner of the new properties this morning showing a whopping great hole in the ground. May not look like much but it's very exciting for those of us that know what's going to fill the hole.

The photo also shows off the spectacular location of these new properties (as well as stunningly clear Alpine skies). If you look in the top left corner you can see the La Turche drag lift station and the bottom of the piste. It really is going to be a cracking place to stay - and that's before you factor in the roof-top hot-tub.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

School's out ... or not

2009-05-13T10:37:00.002+01:00

As reported in today's Travel Daily

"BRITISH parents are ignoring the threat of fines and taking their children out of school to enjoy the price benefits of off peak holidays, according to a recent survey conducted by travelsupermarket.com.

The results also showed 49% of parents have taken their families on off-peak jaunts in the past.
Parents in the North-East were found to be the most likely to take their child out of school, with a huge 60% claiming they had done so in the past and 49% saying the would do so in the
future to save money."

We're certainly seeing half term spaces for next winter freeing up as families move to January or March dates and take children out of school. It's a controversial issue but we'd argue that there is an educational value to an action packed trip to the mountains!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Rain in Reims

2009-04-26T15:56:00.002+01:00

Today’s blog comes from a rather wet and grey Reims – on the upside it is the home of Champagne, so there are plentiful bottles of bubbly available to chase the gloom away.

I am here at the ABTOF (Association of British Travel Organisers to France) annual conference. Contrary to popular (i.e. my wife’s) belief this is not just an excuse for a alcohol fuelled jolly with old travel industry compadres – although we have enjoyed a glass or three of the sparkling stuff.

The conference business programme is a great opportunity - particularly for those of us used to working within the bubble that is a small owner managed business - to find out what is going on in the wider world.

Perhaps inevitably the focus has been on making the most of current economic conditions. The approach taken has been a creative and positive one though, with contributions from some great speakers with a clear passion for their subject.

A particular favorite of mine has been Paul McGee, otherwise known as “The Sumo Guy”. I’m not generally a fan of motivational speakers, but his approach is both entertaining and rooted in the real world. To give you a feel for his approach, “Sumo” stands for “Shut Up and Move On”.

Speakers today have focused on Technology and Social Media. This is an area where I like to feel am relatively on the ball (I write a blog and sort of know what Twitter is!). However, when you hear the take of experts working on the cutting edge of new developments you realize just how quickly you – and your business – could slip back into the dark ages without even noticing.

Having been given a brief insight into the rather daunting world of online social networks, I’m rather pleased that I can enjoy an evening of old school face to face networking this evening. The venue is the Champagne Mumm cellars … I can feel a bit of a thirst coming on.

Chris

www.skifamille.co.uk

Easter snow conditions

2009-04-09T10:36:00.004+01:00

We are now in the midst of the Easter holidays and the snow is holding out remarkably well. There is still around 65cms of snow on the runs into the village and 135cms on higher slopes. The picture on the left is from one of the Chavannes webcams this morning - looks nice doesn't it!

As one would expect going into April there are a few brown patches appearing on the lowest runs but nothing of significance. In the word of our resort based Operations Manager "There is still more snow than I have ever seen at this time of year".

You can expect soft conditions in the afternoon but if you can kick back on a sun terrace and enjoy the view is that really an issue? Late season skiing is about adopting a relaxed pace rather than covering as many miles as possible as quickly as possible. With the sun out you can have a competition with the rest of your party to see who can get the most impressive "panda eyes" by the end of the week.

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

A touch of class in Farnborough

2009-04-02T12:21:00.002+01:00

Those familiar with our corner of Hampshire may be double checking the headline of this post but its 100% correct, the Ski Famille team have found a classy venue in Farnborough.

Despite global doom and gloom we’ve had a great season with record numbers of clients. As the end of the winter is almost upon us, the UK office crew decided on a meal out to toast the loyalty of our guests and our good fortune at the hands of the snow gods.

Choosing where to go in this neck of the woods is not that easy. Fleet and Farnborough are dominated by Indian and Chinese restaurants with a smattering of Pizza joints. There are some great country pubs in the surrounding villages, but they can be a bit of hassle to get to. We were after a venue where we could feel a little indulged and where we hadn’t all spent fraught weekend lunchtimes trying to stop our kids flinging half chewed food under the feet of passing waitresses.

We received a tip off from a friend that the Brasserie at the Aviator hotel was worth a try. We looked at the website and it appeared ultra modern and a bit trendy, but we didn’t let that put us off. We decided that if there were eight of us (spouses were invited to boost our meager numbers and try and stop us talking shop) they’d be unlikely to kick us out for any fashion misdemeanors.

The Aviator is located beside of the runway at Farnborough Airport and is visually very impressive. It has the appearance of a vast propeller when viewed from the air and the aviation theme continued, subtly, throughout the interior. It’s a little bit boutique hotel, a little bit art deco and feels very luxurious – particularly when you remember you are in Farnborough!

Following cocktails in the Sky Bar we headed for the restaurant eager to look at the grub on offer. The menu did not disappoint, it was short and simple but with sufficient choice for all tastes. Similarly the wine list had good quality sensibly priced options as well as some more exotic possibilities – including a rather pricey Chinese red, probably reflecting Farnborough’s status as one of the UK’s main airports from private jets.

The food was good, but the service did let it down a little. Nothing terrible, just a bit slow and not quite up to the level of the venue or standard of cooking. We had a range of choices between us and all were well cooked and presented. Gressingham duck, Cornish cod with chorizo and bean stew, sea bass with crushed potatoes and a great looking fillet steak all impressed. Puds including an apple crème brulée and fresh mini donuts with crème anglais and raspberry coulis also brought appreciative noises.

In short, if you’re in the area and looking for something more than Farnborough’s usual fare (cafés with spectacular all day breakfasts are a popular choice on the high street) the Aviator is a great choice. All of us would happily go back and are holding out for another fantastic winter next year to give us the necessary excuse!

For another review of the Aviator read what The Times had to say.

Britain's Sexiest Airport Hotel ..... in Farnborough!?!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

A corking season continues

2009-04-02T11:32:00.003+01:00

Time for a long overdue update on resort conditions!

Apologies to those that keep an eye on the blog; it has not been updated for over two weeks – very slack of me, particularly given that the season is still up and running and we continue to enjoy great conditions.

With warmer weather having rolled in the depth of snow in the village has reduced, but only to 90cm. This is still pretty incredible for the first week of April. On higher slopes we are looking at more like 160cm. If you get up into Avoriaz it’s deeper still.

All runs are open (with the exception of one unpleasant black which will not be missed from anyone’s itinerary!) and the slopes leading into the village are in great condition. As one would expect in April afternoons are tending to get slushy, particularly on south facing slopes, but there is cracking spring skiing to be had for most of the day.

Last week we entertained a large party of the UK’s top ski journalists in Les Gets and they were mightily impressed by conditions. The Tuesday afternoon was spent playing in fresh powder on the slopes of Mont Chery – not something you’d count on in late March. We hope suitably enthusiastic features start to appear in the press over the coming months!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

P.S. Thank you to everyone who has asked how my broken leg is recovering - progress is slow but I hope to cast aside my crutches by the end of April.

The snow has stopped and the sun is shining

2009-03-13T10:08:00.002Z

We shouldn't complain about snow but the last two weeks have been pretty hard work. Visibility has often been limited once you get above the treeline, it's been cold and the snow has just kept on falling.

These are great conditions for hardcore skiers and boarders, but when you holiday in March you often have an image of sunning yourself on a terrace with a cold demi rather then being knee deep in powder - at least I do!

The change is here though and the forecast for the next six days is for sunshine and warmer weather. Daytime temperatures will nudge above freezing (don't panic this is normal and there is a lot of snow on the ground) and those long lunches on sun baked terraces should become a reality rather than a dream.

Enjoy!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

20cm of snow tonight

2009-03-10T16:48:00.003Z

It's already chucking it down and around 20cm is forecast to fall at village level overnight. A superb season keeps on getting better (although the tone from our resort office suggests they wouldn't be adverse to there being a touch of spring in the air!).

Conditions on the slopes are simply astounding with beautifully groomed pistes and some cracking off piste opportunities for more adventurous skiers.

As a man who was meant to be out in Les Gets on holiday this week but is limping around the UK office on crutches it's all a bit frustrating....

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Fresh snow forecast for tonight

2009-03-04T18:16:00.002Z

Information from snowforecast.com:

Days 0-3 Les Gets Weather Summary:
A heavy fall of snow, heaviest during Wed night. Temperatures will be below freezing (max 0°C on Wed morning, min -8°C on Thu night). Wind will be generally light.

Days 4-6 Les Gets Weather Summary:
A dusting of new snow. Temperatures will be below freezing (max 0°C on Sun morning, min -15°C on Sat afternoon). Wind will be generally light.

Les Gets snow condition update

2009-02-25T13:33:00.003Z

If you are keeping an eye on the ski press you'll know that this winter is turning out to be a cracker - but what are the conditions really like and what's the forecast for the week ahead?

In Les Gets we currently have 130cm of snow at resort level and around 215cm at 2000m. All 66 local runs are open and, having had snow at the weekend, conditions remain "fresh". The sun is out but the temperature is low; the forecast for tomorrow is -8c at village level. This is sure to keep the snow nice and crisp.

Snow isn't forecast until after the weekend (at it may just be a dusting) but the low temperatures look set to stay, preserving the snow depths and quality. It's still looking might fine out there!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Alternative route home...

2009-02-22T09:30:00.011Z

My aim has always been to experience firsthand any elements of a trip to the Alps that Ski Famille guests could conceivably have to tackle. I’ve eaten in all of our chalets, travelled by plane train and automobile, skied all of the runs, had a swift half in most of the bars, sampled the mountain restaurants and taken lessons with a cross section of instructors.

I thought I’d covered it all but there was one important possibility I had overlooked … repatriation by Air Ambulance!

Obviously you don’t just jump aboard an Air Ambulance for a joy-ride, there is a procedure to follow. The first step is to acquire an injury. As a relatively experienced skier a trip down the “Swiss Wall”, possibly telemarking and leading a child to safety, would be the right way to do it. However, I elected to keep things simple and slipped on black ice while popping to my car for my phone. Timing wasn't great - I did it 10 minutes after arriving in Les Gets for two days of meetings.

The Les Gets Pompiers quickly and efficiently scraped me off the (very cold) road and took me down to the clinic in Cluses. The only slight set back was that, as a taller than average chap, fitting me in the back of the ambulance was a bit of a challenge. They wedged me in eventually.

Within minutes of arrival in Cluses I had been prodded, poked, x-rayed and hooked up to a morphine drip. My femur was swiftly confirmed as being “bien casse” and surgery booked in for the following morning. I was placed in bed feeling very sorry for myself with only my morphine gun for comfort - quite a gadget though!

For fear of upsetting the squeamish I’ll gloss over surgery details. Suffice to say I now have a metal plate in my hip and what looks like a 10 inch zip down my thigh. It appears they must have run out of stitching materials but luckily had a staple gun lying around. The surgeon, who looked uncannily like Christopher Walken, seems to have done a good job.

Of my six days in Cluses there is little to report. I looked out the window a bit, I looked at the wall a bit, I prodded odd looking hospital food every now and then, I started growing a beard (it's still going well and I am delighted to note there is not too much grey in it) and I practiced my Franglais with a string of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and cleaners.

My return to Blighty was eventually confirmed for Wednesday 18th February and I started to look forward to my return trip. In my mind I was to be driven to Geneva, loaded onto a LearJet (where a sympathetic and attractive nurse would administer pain killers and dab by brow) and then enjoy a swift and smooth flight to Farnborough airport, just a few minutes from my house.

It wasn’t quite like that...

The transfer from Cluses to Geneva was pretty straightforward, apart from the fact that the nurse in the back of the ambulance had a severe squint and it was very hard to tell whether she was looking at me or the driver in the front when she spoke. Nice lady though.

On arrival in Geneva we bypassed the main airport terminal and headed straight for a side gate. Passport formalities were quickly dealt with and we sped off around the runway to the far side of the airport where an aircraft awaited my arrival.

We parked between two planes, one was very much the small sleek jet I had visualized and the other was a cross between a 70s caravan, a Volvo estate and an early Wright brothers sketch. The nurse and driver who had accompanied me from Cluses began to laugh and chat between themselves; lots of “Cette avion … a Angletterre … c’est pas vrai … ha, ha.” Within minutes the two pilots and a cheery Brit nurse arrived to confirm that this was indeed my transport for the home leg. Darn!

After about twenty minutes I was manoeuvred from one stretcher onto another and slotted into the plane. Once inside it seemed even smaller and I began to wonder whether I would have been better off staying in France for another 10 days until I could travel on a commercial flight in a wheelchair. I must, however, say that the two pilots and my nurse (Val) could not have been more friendly, cheerful and welcoming. Before we even took off Val was offering me choice goodies picked up from M&S before the outward journey and we were chatting like old friends.

Taking off from Geneva airport was a somewhat surreal experience. It’s an airport I go through at least a dozen times a year but seeing the runway through big windows on both sides of a plane narrower than my arm span as we accelerated towards take off was a very new perspective. Hurtling down the runway in our little plane surrounded by all of the commercial jets felt a bit being in a bog standard Nissan Micra at the Santa Pod drag strip.

Once we had taken off the views of Mont Blanc and the surrounding mountains was spectacular. With a cruising height of 9,000 feet there was a clear view throughout the journey – once the head end of my stretcher had been propped up on Val’s suitcase!

We didn’t head straight for the UK though – that would have been far too straight forward. First we had to stop off at a tiny airport called “St Gallen” on the edge of Lake Constance in eastern Switzerland to pick up another unfortunate. Passenger two, Jaime, had managed to break both legs (and a couple of ribs) skiing so I felt a bit of a fraud alongside him. He quickly settled in and we took off again for the UK.

The flight back to Oxford airport (the plane’s base and roughly midway between Fleet for me and Leicester for Jaime) was pretty uneventful – but long. In a little twin prop plane a headwind has a big impact and the flight took around 3 ½ hours.

On arrival in Oxford I was transferred to another ambulance – this time crewed by two cheery South African guys; “Aggg brah, you think that’s a leg break right, I seen guys up in Angola with both feet facing back towards their body…” etc etc.

The journey back to my front door ended up being just under 10 hours but boy was a I glad to be home.

Hopefully this completes required first hand experience of situations that our guests could have to encounter – and it’s not one I recommend. The easyJet check in surrounded by screaming kids will seem quite straightforward next time round.

There is a small twisted part of me that’s glad I’ve done it though…

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Can it get any better?

2009-02-11T12:46:00.005Z

I head out to Les Gets this afternoon and am very very upset - my schedule is now booked up (I return on Friday evening) and I will not be getting my skis on.

Normally I would accept that this is the way of the world, we have to earn a living etc etc ... BUT, there is 150cm of snow at village level and 235cm on the higher slopes.

These figures are simply astounding - I can't even get a decent view from my favourite webcam (above) as the snow is creeping up over the lens! To put this in perspective (i.e. brag) there is 122cm at 2700m in Courchevel and just 180cm on the Bellecote glacier - 3000m - in La Plagne!

Snow showers are set to continue for the next few days and it is pretty cold so those lucky folk who are out on their skis can expect near perfect powder conditions. A word of warning if venturing off-piste though - the avalanche risk is rated as high across the Alps.

I will report back on my return but not, unfortunately, with first hand tales of times on the slopes. Probably for the best - I'm still nursing a cracked rib from when I last did get out...

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

P.S. I have had a request for a photo of our Le Marjorie chef Andy on the blog; I quote, "Can we have a picture of Andy the chef from Chalet Marjorie on the blog please? We're missing him already... (and the kids don't like our food any more)." So here he is! I'm sorry Andy....

Snow where it should be

2009-02-05T09:04:00.005Z

Without wishing to be a misery I feel the Alps are a far more appropriate place for snow than the highways and byways of Britain.

Around 30-35 cms of snow is forceast for Les Gets over the next 48 hours, which will top things up nicely (although there is still 100cm at village level and 170cm higher up).

Temperates look set to stay low, so whatever falls should hang around. It's a pretty important time for fresh snow as the French holidays start on 7th and the slopes will inevitably take a bit of a pounding as Parisians in their one piece day-glo ski suits invade the mountains. Some will even be on mono-boards, crazy....

The season really is turning out to be a cracker and I would encourage anyone who is wavering to grab a ski holiday if they can possibly swing it. With the current deep base the odds of good cover through into mid April are very good ... and who knows what state the world will be in next year!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

A foot of powder .... in Farnborough

2009-02-02T12:28:00.002Z

We have battled through the snow to get to the office this morning (I walked, the girls more sensibly jumped in a Land Rover) and have been rewarded with busy phones as families decide that this fluffy stuff looks rather appealing.

While I'm sure there will be a fanatic (nutter?) or two skiing in Richmond Park this afternoon, the infrastructure doesn't quite measure up to the Alps. The snow in Les Gets is not as fresh as in Farnborough today, but there is over a metre at village level, all runs are fully open and top-ups are due over the next few days.

Getting out of a South East airport to hit the slopes may present a challenge today but all should be back to normal within 48 hours. We've been looking at easyJet flights this morning for a number of clients and Saturday to Saturday returns from this weekend are as cheap as £45 return. If a whole week of snow (without battling to work in it) appeals maybe a trip to the mountains is in order....

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

High vs Low

2009-01-26T15:24:00.005Z

Resort Altitude
The debate rolls on... and on...

The week before last I had the pleasure of visiting the Three Valleys on the Wednesday, skiing in Les Gets on the Thursday (pictured with my Dad on the left to prove we both got our skis on!) and hitting the slopes - quite literally at one point...ouch - in the Paradiski area on the Sunday. I write this not to gloat but to flag up my own experience of very different resorts at different altitudes over a short space of time.

I am, of course, hugely biased but would say that Les Gets had the best snow of the three areas - not just in terms of condition but also depth. One of the Les Arcs tourist office Directors I skied with on the Sunday admitted that they had lost over a metre of snow to wind storms! Not a problem we encounter in the sheltered valleys of the Portes du Soleil. I experienced the wind myself later that afternoon and enjoyed full facial dermabrasion all for the price of a one day lift pass.

The above comments are not to dismiss the benefits of the vast (and high) Les Arcs / La Plagne ski area - it's great - but on a cold January day I knew where I would rather ski. This may simply mean I am getting older and less adventurous!

When in the Three Valleys conditions were very different and we were blessed with bright sunshine - which carried through to the following day in Les Gets. Although I didn't get my skis on I did enjoy a very pleasant lunch beside the piste at 2,000m, but can report that there were grassy patches showing through in more than a few spots. The following day I had lunch in Les Gets at a more modest 1,500m and there was not a blade of grass to be seen...

There are definitely times when a high resort will win out but it's not clear cut. Snowfall patterns vary enormously and the Northern Alps (thinking particularly of the Portes du Soleil and Grand Massif area) can often to fare better than other areas that sit at much higher altitudes. It's also easier to avoid the high winds and "white-out" conditions when grim weather rolls in. Throw young children into the mix and the benefits of a low resort become more obvious still.

One day Ski Famille may be tempted to set up camp in a higher resort but the decision won't be a straightforward one....

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Updates direct from the mountains ...

2009-01-20T18:22:00.003Z

... well, very near to them anyway.

The blog comes to you today from Aix les Bains - where it is chucking it down with rain! However, we can look across to the mountains and see that the snowline is hovering not far above us. Piste reports from Les Gets back this up. There is 90cm on the lower slopes and 150cm higher up and conditions are "fresh".

The forecast is for another 25-40 cms over the next 48 hours topping up the slopes nicely as we approach the busier February weeks. Just what was ordered.

Watch this space for an update on Les Gets conditions vs. those in the Three Valleys and Paradiski last week (time permitting). The high resort good, low resort bad debate has plenty of life left in it yet...

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk

Area forecast

2009-01-13T14:17:00.002Z

Weather update for the Mont Blanc area

TODAY - TUESDAY JANUARY 13 2009

Sunny - cold in the morning - mild on sunny slopes in the afternoon

SKY CONDITIONS (cloud - sunshine) : clear - becoming partly cloudy - high cloud coming in from the northwest later in the afternoon - period of sunshine close to 90%.
PRECIPITATIONS : none.
WIND - ground level : variable light.
- mid mountain : S light.
- high mountain : variable -> S light.
TEMPERATURE : min -10°C - maxi +2°C - morning inversion towards 1400 m.
ISOTHERM 0°C : 1900 -> 1700 m.
ISOTHERM -10°C : 3400 m.

OVERNIGHT

High cloud - cold

SKY CONDITIONS (cloud) : partly cloudy - high cloud from the northwest.
PRECIPITATIONS : none.
WIND - aloft : SW light.
TEMPERATURE : -7°C.

TOMORROW - WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14

Cloudy or mainly cloudy - possible snowflurries - getting colder

SKY CONDITIONS (cloud - sunshine) : cloudy in the morning - thickening high cloud - mainly cloudy in the afternoon - period of sunshine close to 20%.
PRECIPITATIONS : possible snowflurries.
WIND - aloft : SW light -> W moderate.
TEMPERATURE : min -7°C - max -3°C.

THURSDAY JANUARY 15

Fairly sunny and cold - N wind

SKY CONDITIONS (cloud - sunshine) : cloudy early in the morning - becoming clear or partly cloudy - period of sunshine close to 80%.
PRECIPITATIONS : none.
WIND - aloft : N moderate -> NNE strong.
TEMPERATURE : dropping lows.

EXTENDED OUTLOOK UNTIL SUNDAY JANUARY 18 2009

Friday : sunny morning - becoming cloudy - slightly milder. Saturday : changeable southwesterly stream - cloudy with sunny spells. Sunday : active westerly disturbance coming in.
Forecast reliability : fairly good until Thursday - poor thereafter.

6th Jan weather update

2009-01-06T16:53:00.003Z

As predicted New Year's Eve saw a decent amount of new snow falling which nicely topped up the slopes in the Portes du Soleil ski area. Not much more is forecast over the next few days - with the exception of a few overnight flurries - but temperatures are staying cold which will preserve the abundant snow we still have until the next dump.

Snow at village level is around 70cm with approximately 135com on higher runs. All slopes back to the resort are open and the piste conditions are described as "velvet" ... nice! Following the departure of the New Year crowds the slopes are now pretty quiet with almost nothing in the way of lift queues, even on the busiest links.

I am belatedly back on my bike for the journey to the office in preparation for my first ski of the season next week - better 10 days ahead than not at all - and look forward to reporting my experiences of the Les Gets conditions first hand. Following a couple of days in Les Gets I will be in La Plagne skiing with various ski industry folk and am less than enthusiastic about the -20 degrees with wind chill they are experiencing at the moment. Proof if ever it were needed that high resorts are not always a good thing!

Chris
www.skifamille.co.uk