A Tale of the Early Luxury Chalet Breaks to Chamonix Mont Blanc France
It was 1770 when the 1st guest house opened in Chamonix Mont Blanc France. Prior to this Chamonix Mont Blanc France embodied a uncivilized and tough agrarian place where the populace captured animals and produced their oats.
Chalets then were used to stock cows during the summer. The milk was conserved by making it into cheese and butter and stored in the village for consumption during the difficult winters. Throughout the snow season the farmhouses were secured, and all valuables were put safely in a tiny shed.
The person who invented catered chalet holidays is unknown, however it was in all likelihood some spirited folk who realised a set up that people liked. With Erna Low it began when she was a homesick postgraduate and couldn’t visit her parents back home in Austria as frequently as she liked. And so in 1932 she gambled and placed a small ad in the papers to ask clients on a winter holiday. For only £15 they journeyed to and from the town, were provided with meals and board in the sole hotel, and took skiing gear and lessons. Skiing was laborious work, there were no lifts, no quick release bindings, only strong leather shoes, but it was so popular that Erna Low carried on taking groups on holiday, seeing to it that she employed exceptional hotels and skiing guides.
Ski holidays in the beginning were a long way to the standards we can have nowadays. Back then hot water was in short supply, the bathrooms had to be used by all of the customers, and there was no a cook; the guests had to muck in. It was a real gamble who might share the chalet for the trip, one could be enjoyably surprised to encounter brand new skiers, or have an uncomfortable week amongst strangers.
Ski holidays were later advertised on their additional pluses. Your own cook, who served you continental breakfast and a four course dinner and baked you afternoon tea, plentiful warm water for bathing.
