Ferme des Lanches 5

The Right One

Imagine your nine-year-old self bubbling over with excitement at the prospect of the family ski holiday. Or, if it was part of your childhood (lucky you!), cast your mind back, remember that feeling.

After a long journey when you watched Pierce Brosnan’s heli exit onto a glacier (best Bond ski sequence ever, although Dad has never come up with an adequate explanation about the helmets, lack of) on repeat, you arrive at the Chalet that is to be your home for the week. As Mum and Dad and the other Mum and Dad pounce on the bottle of champagne they found in the welcome package, pose for selfies on the massive wooden balcony and chatter on about the view (ok it is mountains and forest and snow but come on!) you and the other kids (perhaps your cousins) hurtle through the apartment. And there it is! They said that all the ‘younger generation’ would have a week-long sleepover. And it has bunk beds. Yahoo!

The rest of the week is the absolute Best Time. You love dangling your legs on the high stools by the breakfast bar and are allowed three whole Weetabix as skiing uses so much energy. It’s not far to walk to the ski lifts. The whole family piles into the télécabine and you are on top of the mountain. Literally! That’s where ski school meets and ski school is fab, you’ve got the best instructor. The grown-ups look quite cool as they disappear doing those swishy turns, showing off probably. But it’s actually really fun to meet them later and do a bit of skiing together and they say how amazing your swishy turns have got. Yay!

You didn’t know that going to a bar with the parents could be fun. But Dad says it’s so close to the Chalet it would be rude not to. And everyone is laughing and stamping ski boots to the music – AMAZING. What’s really cool are all these tiny streets with wooden buildings where they used to keep the animals and it’s like you are back in the olden times.

You get back to the Chalet, all the kids pile into their very own shower room, but the grown-ups don’t seem to mind the noise. Actually, Mum and Dad sneaked off down the hall to their room, they like a nap after a long day’s skiing, but your brother says that it’s something to do with the vin chaud they got through in the bar. The taps are running, Mum says what she loves about skiing is a long bath afterwards. Waste of time, as far as you can see, but each to their own.

Later, you help build the fire, stacking logs the right way in the stove – they say a ski chalet isn’t a ski chalet without a proper log fire. You all get together round the great long table. They have these smart leather chairs, and you feel like someone really important all sitting round, telling stories about the day. And there’s this, like, hanging light over the table and it’s made of wine bottles and there’s the same joke every night about if the grown-ups are going to be able to match that number of bottles by the end of the week. They say they’ll give it a try.

It has to be said, Ferme des Lanches works brilliantly for the parents too. Not only is it ultimately practical it is also beautiful. The layout, the well-equipped kitchen, bathrooms, the inviting sofa and of course, the bunkroom for four children. Who would have thought that a family ski holiday with the kids could be so successful. It can, if you choose the right place.