Fish & Pips Blog

Alice De Pree worked for us as Chalet Chef in Chalet du Guide.  Having spent 6 seasons in the Alps Alice and her soon to be husband Marky (our F&P driver) were a huge asset to our team bringing such experience as well as a lot of laughter.  We cannot wait for their wedding in September and we wish them all the luck in the world for their future as Mr and Mrs Thompson

We started our season, excited to be with a new company but perhaps a little tired and stale from 6 previous winter seasons.  However from the beginning Fish & Pips were like a breath of fresh air, inspirational from day one.  I really enjoyed our week of training (very rare) and it was great to see everyone cemented into a really strong team.

We enjoyed fantastic dinners with plenty of wine flowing, team games with Matthew, eyebrow raising conversations and we all felt like we were on holiday!  This was a very different experience from any training weeks I’d had in the past and I really felt that is was the best, not just for the plentiful wine but also for the opportunity for the team to bond so early on, a bond that would carry us through to the end of the season.

With such a great start, from the fun week of training to fresh powder and blue skies on our first day on the slopes, things were looking pretty promising!   We were assigned to our chalets and I was given the lovely Chalet du Guide, where I already felt at home, as it was where we’d spent the last week.  Plus, Victoria Spofforth or Spoff as she is more affectionately known, was to be my host, which was great as we had loads in common and already got on really well.

Hard work ensued almost straight away, with our first week entertaining Rupert and friends from the Guardian.  This was followed by Christmas week, where the chalet was filled with noise, laughter and hundreds of people, just the way I like it!  The Breightmeyers are a wonderful family and the owners of Chalet du Guide.  They made us feel welcome and Christmas felt like a great team effort, with gossiping and veg peeling in the kitchen.

Then New Years week rolled around and my season got better.  We had the Donaldson family staying, such a wonderful South African family, who we felt really at home with.  Then onto New Years Eve, where we all went to the Chaudanne to watch an amazing fireworks display exploding to music with fat flakes of snow falling.  As if an evening could not be more perfect, then Marky proposed to me!  What an amazing start to 2009 and what an awesome season so far.  Life was pretty good!

The months rolled on, all flying by, with plenty of wonderful snow falling and great powder days to be had.  All our guys were absolutely dedicated to the skiing/snowboarding.  Kev, who’d never seen snow before, was never far behind us, often panting and red in the face but determined to keep up, and keep up he did until the day he started passing me!!

Cracky was the fastest down the mountain and always knew the quickest route to all the bars, closely followed by her wonderful chef Vinnie who joined the team later, when we sadly lost Jen to a broken ankle.  He slotted into the team so seamlessly you forgot he hadn’t started with rest of us and he soon became a core member of the team.  Fi and Spoff, could be seen carving up the mountain with their new found brilliance and confidence to try anything. 

Nick annoyingly dislocated his other shoulder, while doing a cool trick in the park but he’s not one to stay still for too long and was soon to be seen skiing with one pole and a dislocated shoulder strapped up!  Abi, the legend, won her first competition in the snow park and was rewarded with a very bling pair of new skis, used everyday from then on.  And then there is the old boy Marky, quiet simply the best snowboarder on the slopes, in my opinion!!

I spent many a day skiing with Holly, gazing at her elegance and ease on her skis.  Multiple seasons have proved their worth to Holly and Philippa, who both ski brilliantly.  However if skiing was not to be the flavour of the day, she kindly entertained me in their apartment in Les Allues, where we righted wrongs, drank coffee and gossiped!

The girls have found an amazing balance.  Work hard and play hard, a cliché but true.  I’m so impressed with what these two have built.  To the outside eye a seemingly easy and smooth running machine, but we know how hard the girls work, how well they get on and how they both breath magic into their company.

I feel privileged to have been a part of such an exciting new company.  I’m so sad not to be joining them again, but due to our next adventure to be had in Meribel, it’s time to move on.

September 2009.  Watch this space!  We’re having a huge Fish & Pips reunion, plus around 80 or so family and friends, for the very first Fish & Pips wedding to be held on the lovely terraces of Braye, Aurigny and Corbletts and surrounded by the wonder that is the Meribel Valley.  The perfect end to a perfect season.

Thank you to all of you who made it so special!

Sarah Greenwood worked as Chalet Host in Chalet Braye for the winter 08-09.  Here she tells of her experience as someone who had already spent one season in Meribel, working for a different company.  Sarah is currently enjoying some time off after a busy winter and is off to work at the Winking Prawn in Salcombe, Devon to gain more experience in the hospitality industry, with some fun involved too!

“Where do I start! My expectations of Fish and Pips were extremely high and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. As a host, to be chosen out of many I was very lucky. And to have the expectations met were even better. The team was fantastically diverse and the girls did such a good job of pairing us.

With the early loss of Jenny at Braye I was cautious of who was going to replace her. And rightly so; Vinnie and I didn’t see eye to eye for at least a month. But Holly was a reliable ear to my concerns and it was a matter of hours before Vinnie and I were having the time of our lives! We are now solid friends and I could not have hoped for a better replacement. Vinnie taught me so much about food and how to have fun.

The girls say that we make the holiday what it is, but at Chalet Braye we were lucky enough to have the most fantastic guests. We sang, we danced, we sledged, we drank and enjoyed après ski at the local with as many guests possible! The Greens, The Roussets, The Irish group from Brussels and especially the Balch family, who I was so sad to see leave I actually shed a tear or two! Something I really wasn’t expecting.

My season was made incredible by the other staff around me, the amazing atmosphere and community of Meribel Village and most importantly Holly and Philippa’s efforts to create the perfect balance between work and play. Our trip to Chamonix was a pinnacle moment in the season and being there together was something I will never forget. Also having the opportunity to ski together so often meant that we could help each other to improve (something I was grateful to receive!) and the time outside of the chalet meant we could really get to know each other.

The friends I have come away with are now friends for life, something which is completely incomparable to my previous season. I achieved far more in 5 months than I would have at home and the experience is second to none. To anyone thinking about doing a season, I hope you do as Meribel 08/09 has been the best 5 months of my life.”

Holly and I were thrilled when Meribel Alpina emailed us to let us know that the new chairlift had been given the go ahead and this summer they are replacing the old Golf lift with a new lift that will take 6 minutes to get to the Altiport.  Not only will that save 10 minutes and allow our guests to ski to ski school at the Chaudanne, but it will also allow our non-skiing guests with pedestrian passes to go up and down on the lift to the Altiport where there are some great walking paths, lovely hot chocolate stops and tempting deckchairs for some afternoon sun!

As we left Meribel at the end of last month the lift was slowly being dismantled, watch this space for the new one going up!

It is always hard at the end of the season, post FishStock to think of a bigger and better plan to celebrate Holly’s birthday which falls on the 22nd April at the end of the party season.  But this year it has to go down as the best way possible, in fact both Fish and Pips are in agreement that it was one of the best days ever on the mountain - in all 28 years!

We set off early to Motteret where we met up with Will, Badger, James, Jane and Emily to kit ourselves out in full avalanche kit and harnesses.  We were off to the Gebrollaz Glacier.

We skied over to Val Thoren, and a few chairlifts up - we took off our coats, hats and goggles - put on sunglasses and skins on our skis and started the hour climb up to the top of the glacier.  On reaching the top, Will and Badger had gone on ahead (perhaps a little fitter than the rest of us?!) and put in a rope to help us up the last very steep wall.  Skis on to backs, and up we climbed!  From the top you could see for miles, and as we guzzled some chocolate to replenish the energy sources we took in what has to be one of the spectacular views in the 3 Valleys.

The ski down was varied, amazing powder, horrible crust, fantastic spring snow and thick heavy porridge like snow at the bottom.  We saw chamois and marmottes galore as we traversed, walked and slid our way down the valley to the refuge for lunch.  Refuge de la Peche served us delicious cholesterol riddled Savoie food with red wine to wash it all down.  We cracked open the first of many bottles of Champagne to celebrate Holly’s birthday in a truely special style.

After 11 hours on our skis we somehow managed to muster energy for some birthday drinks in the Tsaretta with Holly swinging from the rafters in her harness!  When we all finally collapsed at 2am - to say we slept well would have been an understatement!

As usual, we ended this season with our annual BBQ - now known as Fishstock.  Despite the greyish weather, our greatest friends, colleagues and suppliers all gathered on the terraces of Braye, Aurigny and Corblettes and enjoyed a fantastic BBQ cooked by the Fish and Pips chefs (self nominated - there was no way any one else is going near our barbie according to our Aussies - Nick and Kev!) and music from Bring Your Sisters, and Stevo and Fi - plus anyone else who fancied taking the microphone!  The night ended with lighting some amazing Chinese Lanterns - sending them off over the mountains.

Yesterday goes down as one of the best days skiing for a long time.  Setting out from Meribel, we headed to Val Thorens where the snow was just beginning to soften in this amazingly warm spring weather.  From there, we traversed along then side stepped up to the top of the 4th Valley - Orelle.  Many people had the same idea, but that did nothing to stop the smiles on our faces as we skied through the soft spring snow all the way down the big open valley.

The views from the top are just spectacular, with the snow capped mountains stretching for miles.  April skiing really is fantastic!

New Year was a very exciting time for Fish and Pips, when Alice and Marky - 2 of the team got engaged.  Wedding plans are in full swing for September - in Meribel on the terraces of the Fish and Pips chalets!  Of course, we couldn’t let the winter end and the snow melt without a mountain style hen / stag - also known as HAG do!

Boys dressed in… well the pictures tell the story, had breakfast and beer at 8am and headed out straight away on snowblades, an 80s snowboard and a monoboard!  Girls were a little more civilised with a champagne breakfast, animal costumes and rules to stick to for the day.  Points were awarded for pinching ski instructors bottoms, asking to sit next to someone on the chairlift and kissing a stranger!

The photos tell the stories, but when we reconviened at the Rond Point at 4pm (after our egg and spoon race!), i was very relieved to be a girl!