I always knew I wanted to be a chalet girl. I had family who had “seasoned” in the 80’s and even through their censored stories, I knew it would be fun. It was a time to work hard, ski hard, and play even harder. Having been at an all girl’s boarding school for 5 years, partying was most certainly a priority. Keen to improve my skiing and gain some independence, I was hired to work in a large chalet in Val d’Isere, France.The thought of living more or less hedonistically for the next 5 months was beyond liberating. If you haven’t been at an all girls British boarding school, you will just have to imagine what the idea of France, parties, skiing, and the opposite sex, all rolled into one job description would mean.

It didn’t take me long to fall in love,  with the resort that is. Driving up the windy alpine road, I knew I’d be the envy of all my friends. What initially struck me was the sheer beauty of the ski resort – traditional wooden chalets, snow capped mountains, and fairy lights at almost every turns, and to think, this was the place I would get to call home.

The season kicked off with a boot-camp cleaning regime. I was warned this was going to be hard by returnees but you can’t really comprehend the scale of it unless you’ve had your head inside wash buckets all your life. From early in the morning to late at night, we prepared the chalet for the season and acted as menu guinea pigs. We got to know the workings of the chalet and were more than intimate with the dusting, hoovering (that’s vacuuming to you non Brits) and the sparkle of clean taps. In truth, all the staff was really interested in getting intimate with was the snow report, Jagermeister, and each other…