Lifestyle and Parenting blog based in Surrey.

Saturday 17 February 2018

Our family ski holiday to Serre Chevalier


Time flies. Not that I really mind at the beginning of the year as I am no fan of January, or early Feb for that matter, but I’ve been meaning to sit down and write about our gorgeous family ski holiday that we went on BEFORE Christmas, but in the days, weeks and even months have slipped away. But we had SUCH an amazing time, that I knew that I must share our fabulous week away with you all before its all about looking forward to summer holidays.

This is the third ski holiday we’ve taken Sophie on, we’ve been lucky to go away every year since she arrived. The first year we went to a chalet in Val Thorens and last year to a Mark Warner chalet hotel in Tignes - I've written about both, so have a look at the links if your interested!
We tend to go on Ski holidays with my husbands side of the family and then in the summer go away with mine as my parents don’t ski. I love holidaying as a big group, skiing is the perfect holiday to go on with friends and family as then there is always a range of abilities and someone who wants to miss out the black run and stop for a Cafe au lait!


This year one of my lovely brother-in-laws booked our trip to the slopes for us to stay at Chez Bear in Serre Chevalier. We’ve generally always visited the Three Valleys ski resorts and was a little apprehensive that the skiing wouldn’t be as good or varied. However, we were in for a real treat! Not only were the conditions perfect, there were beautiful tree runs and we pretty much had them all to our selves. 
I feel like I am spilling a big french secret here - no long queues for ski lifts and if you had to share a slope with anyone other than your party, it was unusual. Mind blown. That said, the apres isn’t that of Val Thorens with quiet piste side cafes and restaurants with french-only-speaking staff rather than champagne being sprayed and dancing on tables found at La Folie Douche. Serre Chavalier might have been a bit 'quiet' for us when we were in our twenties... but it was the perfect resort for us, and as a family group of eight, we provided our own entertainment.


The weather was pretty chilly when we were in Serre Chevalier, so we were so grateful to the lovely team at Helly Hansen for kitting us out to keep us super snug and stylish on the slopes! I've linked all our ski wear at the bottom of this post if you are on the hunt for some new ski-wear! This year we also upgraded our goggles to SunGod - which as well as looking great have really easy interchangeable lenses for different light conditions.


After we had our fill of the slopes (normally we are 1st to last lift people - but with no queuing and a few injuries and illness in our arty, we tended to retire around 3pm!) we headed home to our luxury chalet, Chez Bear.


This independent Chalet was the dream. The hosts were so thoughtful, nothing was too much effort and the food was to die for! Chef Josie even made little Sophie a pie with an S on the top for her and every evening asked what she could make for her, as well as being in contact in advance of our stay to prepare for our fussy eater!

We chilled out and played with Sophie in the chalet’s garden, hot tub, games room and gorgeous lounge with an open fire for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening before we put Sophie to bed and then enjoyed the evening five course hospitality. Although I don’ think I ever had room to enjoy the cheese course... maybe this was due to eating too much afternoon tea when we returned to the chalet…!


As Sophie is still too little to ski, she stayed with the Chalet’s Nanny who I had also been in contact with before our stay and she organised loads of fun activities to keep Sophie happily occupied whilst we hit the white stuff.

Mine and Sophie's Girl Gang Jumpers are from Bows and Bowties

Last year I did say I’d rather not go away the week before Christmas, as it does add to the pre-christmas stress having to make sure venting was ready before we went away and I did miss the ‘Christmas Build up’ so NEXT year I really am going to not go that week... but I could totally be tempted with a little trip back to Chez Bear...


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