weekend warriors #LTfriendsgiving // an intro to thanksgiving in val-d’isère

The holidays have come and gone, and we’re pretty sure that no one’s more mixed up than we are to see this season go. It kicked off with an intro to Thanksgiving in Val-d’Isère that we’ll never forget. After that, it was basically non-stop Christmas cheer until the New Year.

So on the one hand, we have a whole year to wait until Santa returns. Nearly 365 days until we eat all the Christmas cookies guilt-free. Whomp whomp. On the other hand, the end of this month marks the wino’s first wedding anniversary! AND somewhere in there, we have the expected arrival of the romantic’s little lazy baby! Whoop whoop!

In the meantime, while we sort through our emotions, we figure the best way to cope with how fast the festivities came and went is to relive the #1 highlight of our holiday season: #LTfriendsgiving at our VIP Ski Chalet in Val-d’Isère.

As you may recall, we arrived in Geneva, hopped in our snow-friendly SUV thanks to AutoEurope, and made our way to our alpine escape after a mini lunch stop in Annecy. By the time we got to Val-d’Isère, it was dark and snowy, and we inched our way through the town, all on the lookout for our home: Chalet Madrisah.

photo via VIP ski

It was love at first sight.

Then, our hosts for the weekend, Charity and Josh, greeted us at the door. We are pretty sure they are the two best people we met in 2015. They immediately told us to kick off our boots. Then, they led us to the downstairs ski room, and advised us to hang them on the BOOT WARMERS. Why don’t all houses have boot rooms with boot warmers??

photo via VIP ski

We filled 3 of the 4 en-suite bedrooms, and made full use of the open-plan kitchen and lounge. When we arrived, they greeted us with an already-roaring fireplace. Throughout the weekend, we also learned there was a terrace, a balcony, and a wet suite with a hot tub and sauna. You can imagine that it wasn’t hard to make ourselves feel immediately at home.

Because we were there just before the season officially started, we weren’t totally clear on just how self-catered our chalet would be. This means that we came prepared, having stopped at Carrefour en route for wine, cheese and bread to tide us over for the night. Turns out, for once in our lives, we totally over-prepared! The VIP Ski chalets are all fully serviced. In a slight twist, we also learned that as of this season, guests are technically not allowed to personally use the kitchen facilities. They accommodated us for friendsgiving, fortunately, so we could cook our signature meal. But during the rest of our time at the chalet, Charity and Josh made sure we were well-fed and didn’t have to lift a finger.

On our first night, they laid out a full spread of snacks and sweets, tea and coffee, plus wine, wine and more wine. Charity and Josh remained on hand for anything we needed. They were there, topping up wine glasses, stoking the fire, and indulging us in our high-LARIOUS jokes. Basically, our first night was spent exactly how we envisioned. We cozied up around the fire, catching up and eating/drinking our faces off. Success.

We woke up the next morning, greeted by the smell of freshly brewing coffee and a basket of croissants. And! Charity and Josh, ready to prepare a full breakfast.

Because we arrived on Thursday (official Thanksgiving, for our non-American friends!), we had decided in advance to celebrate on Friday. This doesn’t mean we didn’t indulge in plenty of pain au chocolat, though, don’t worry. That would have been rude.

Also worth noting? While we started our meal prep, Josh built a BEER IGLOO:

What a time to be alive!

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, we divvied up our cooking jobs. We also tried to figure out how to coordinate oven times. In past years, we’ve gone more than a little overboard with the food. But this time, we kept it simple. We had turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, pecan pie and pumpkin and nutella brownies. The necessities!

Our fellow traveler Amy, who lives in Geneva, kindly offered to figure out where the hell to get a turkey. Ashley & Jeff knew firsthand that the continent doesn’t really do turkeys. In fact, they served turkey breast the year they celebrated in Montigny, because the only other option was a 10 kg beast of a bird.

We’re still not totally clear on the details, but we do know a Russian expat drove her across the border from Switzerland to a French farm. There was brief concern that the bird would still be alive. Fortunately all was fine, and in the end, Hugo le Dinde fulfilled his feathered destiny.

Charity and Josh stopped by throughout the day to see if we needed anything (and to oversee our cooking/ensure we didn’t burn down our house made of wood). We also informed them that they had the night off and would be joining us for our meal. Later we learned that VIP Ski chalet hosts are under strict orders to never tell a guest “no.” As a result, we honestly don’t know if they wanted to join us. But they put on a good show and we’re, like, pretty sure they had fun.

Plus, as is tradition, we sent them off with piles of leftovers to share with their fellow chalet hosts.

You may be wondering how we spent our time in Val-d’Isère when we weren’t eating and drinking. Hint: there were very few times we weren’t occupied by said food and wine. However, we DID spend Saturday afternoon taking the wino’s husband, Sean, for his very first ski experience, and the romantic partook in a little maternity R&R back at the chalet.

Intrigued? Stay tuned for part deux!

xo!

the romantic & the wino

– Thank you to Heaven Publicity and VIP Ski for hosting us, and for Auto Europe for providing us with our car. All opinions are, as always, our own, and additional details on our chalet rental are below:

VIP SKI Val-d’Isère Fact Box

For more information on Val-d’Isère please visit: www.valdisere.com

For more information on VIP SKI please visit: www.vip-chalets.com

Accommodation: Chalet Madrisah is part of a small private hamlet built on the sun-drenched knoll of Le Cret, overlooking Val-d’Isere. The chalet boasts an open fireplace, terrace and a wet suite with hot tub and sauna.

A week’s stay in November at Chalet Madrisah is priced from £519pp. This includes all meals, and VIP SKI’s chalet service. A week’s stay including return flights from London Gatwick, all meals, and VIP SKI’s chalet service is priced from £699.