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An ex HMC Chairman reveals the tricks of the trade for the male chalet helper
I approached my first season as a chalet rep with excitement, trepidation and no little wonder. The reps I had come across on chalet holidays with my family were shrouded in mystery and romance. Who were these voluptuous girls who always happened to be there when you needed a meal - and who then disappeared with their friends towards town in a mass of bubbling blonde?
This is now my second season and I have lost my illusions. High living they may be but, disappointingly, the sex-mad culinary goddesses of chalet-girl legend have been demystified.
For a start, they're as likely to be blokes. At the French Alpine resort where I worked last year, nearly half the staff was male, and this ration is not uncommon elsewhere. The faces of the arriving male holidaymakers are often a picture, dismayed to find a couple of lads greeting them. Their wives are often just as surprised - and can't help breaking into smug grins.
For, as ski companies accept that men can make meringue, and that some even know that a Toilet Duck is not what the bullies did to them at school, more men are accepting the terms of the job. The cooking and cleaning, morning and night, six days a week, with the all-important few hours to ski in between, seems an ideal way to fulfil their ski-season ambitions.
As for the second myth, most of the staff seems far too sensible to form relationships with colleagues, at least at the start of the winter. Or to indulge in potentially
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