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 My
first skiing trip, at the age of eight, ended when my father broke
both his legs on the first day.
I remember the bloodwagon heading down the
Austrian mountain with my father in it.
He insisted on walking to the doctor's surgery
from the bottom of the slope and I had to help him prise his ski
boots off his grotesquely swollen ankles.
I can still smell the fear and I had nightmares
for years afterwards. Now I can just about manage skiing as long
as the rest of the holiday is a continuous, seamless experience
of comfort and pampering.
I adore the sun, mountain scenery and gentle slopes and, most essential
of all, a place to return to at the end of the day that glows with
the warmth of open fires and hot chocolate.
My real regret has always been that I've never been skiing with
my three children. I've never trusted myself to be in control of
a ski holiday when I feel so out of control myself.
 Would
there be a disaster on a chairlift (yes), would we all become stranded
and lost on a mountaintop in a blizzard (yes again), would my stress
freak out my children?
The hassle of a ski holiday - passes, equipment
hire, maps, mountains of kit - plus a four-year-old and fearless
11- and 13-year-olds made the Isle of Wight infinitely preferable.
February half-term was to change all that.
Friends have a chalet in Les Gets in the Portes
du Soleil, France, and found the
Ferme de Montagne up the road for us.
One chat with the Australian owner, Suzanne Dixon-Hudson, about
some of the features of this new chalet hotel was enough - a personal
ski guide and the organisation of everything including ski classes,
passes and kit, a steaming hot tub on the balcony and the resident
chef hot from Jamie Oliver's Monte's in London.
 Les
Gets is a proper French village in the Savoie, not a concrete ski
construct-like Avoriaz or an easyjetsetter destination such as Verbier
or Courchevel.
There is one nightclub, L'Igloo, which opened
in 1932, a bowling alley with two lanes and the Boomerang bar, run
by a French-Australian.
Otherwise there are numerous hotels (nothing
above three-star), bars and restaurants run by Les Gets-born locals.
And there are 400 miles of pistes within easy reach.
The four sections in Les Gets - Le Mont Chery, Les Chavannes, Nyon
and Le Pleney - comprise 65 groomed runs, and from the Chavannes
side you can link directly with the largest international ski area
in the Alps, the Portes
du Soleil.
One of the pistes finishes conveniently across the road from the
Ferme de Montagne, a restored farmhouse originally built more than
200 years ago.
 It
has become a seven-bedroom chalet that provides first class hotel
service.
The old farmhouse is in evidence, but the
light wood walls and ceiling, the creamy stone floors and big windows
make a bright yet cosy home.
The masterstroke of the Ferme de Montagne
has been to gather a crack team from around the world to work in
a seven-bedroom chalet.
It's the Ocean's Eleven
of the hotel world.
Skiing has a good enough routine to it, but here the routine was
spectacularly pleasant.
The day began with fresh coffee in our room. A short stagger through
the bedroom door there were hot apples pureed with cinnamon and
honey, yoghurt from the local dairy, followed by eggs and bacon
and at least three types of fruit juice.
Then it was a stroll across the road to the draglift. David Mansfield,
one of the resident ski guides, was with us at all times. So far
so good.
 Very
good, in fact, since David is about 6ft 4in, a wonderfully laid-back
Australian, and the dream of every Pop Idol producer and female.
Always happy to amuse the older boys by
skiing at high speed off-piste into deep powder and flying headlong
out of his bindings, he also patiently helped with little Sam, who
had never seen snow before, let alone skis.
At lunchtimes on the slopes we would feed
up David on tartiflette - a local cheese-and-onion savoury - on
the slopes, at night he served us dinner.
This flexibility was a touching trait of all the staff. Cross-jobbing
involved Sarah the masseuse babysitting Sam and helping with breakfast,
Monique the manager giving Josh a haircut in between serving up
sea bass and panne cotta, and Jeff the chef teaching Josh how to
make pasta.
But, boy, we needed David. On day one, Josh fell off the draglift
twice. David swooped back down the mountain and scooped up stray
bodies and equipment while I only had to watch fondly from the top.
 Already
the holiday was worth every penny.
On day two, Thomas went one step further.
He somehow managed to slip off the chairlift seat and was left dangling
precariously from my wrist.
The lift was stopped and skiers watched
in horror as Thomas swayed in the air from my arm.
Slowly, painfully (for
both of us) he kicked off his skis and climbed up my arm and then
on to the foot rest.
People cheered, tears were shed, someone broke into The Hills Are
Alive. David rescued the skis and poles from halfway down the mountain
and we all reached the top elated.
From here on the holiday spun into orbit. I discovered, all too
briefly, another previously unknown pleasure - being better at skiing
than someone else.
For a day and a half I was a better skier than my boys, caringly
following them down the slopes, tutting tenderly at their mistakes,
until our positions were inevitably reversed.
By day three they were airily discussing tactical approaches to
the Yeti Black Run.
One of the best kept secrets of Les Gets
is its snow cover, which was superb when other areas seemed to be
struggling with green hills.
We had more than a foot of snow each night
we were there, setting up the resort for the season.
We left reluctantly,
having had one of the best holidays ever. Children are allowed at
the Ferme de Montagne for only five weeks a year, so it might be
that I have to return without them one day.
Which would mean that I get David all to myself.
The boys would never speak to me again.
A week at the Ferme de Montagne http://www.fermedemontagne.com
tel: 00 33 450 753679) costs from £900 per adult with reductions
for children.
British Airways (0845 773 3377) offers return flights to Geneva
from London and Manchester from £114.
easyJet (tel: 0870 600 0000) offers return flights from Luton, Gatwick
and Liverpool from £50.
Read the report on the Mail
on Sunday site:
http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/
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