And I regret not bringing a camera with me on this trip. “Yeah, seen it all before”, I thought.

I have seen it all before. But that doesn’t stop Chamonix, particularly after snowfall, being one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. I’m sat in the hotel right now looking out over one of the nursery areas in the direction of the Aiguille du Midi.

It’s stunning. Frankly, simply, ridiculously stunning.

The sun has just gone over the peak so is streaming towards me. I have to shelter my eyes to see the view. Everything’s coated in fresh snow, including the tree in the distance that looks ghostly as a result. The trees on the mountain slope to my left have a dusting while the peaks are now covered in a gorgeous white glow.

Even though the lifts aren’t open yet, some people are hiking up the nursery area and skiing, boarding, sledging and bum-boarding down.

Ha! And I just spotted a snowman on the other side of the street!

I’m sorry I can’t share the view. Believe me, I’m not trying to make anyone jealous. I’m just trying to leave myself a memory as a blog post as I’ll have to carry this year’s images away in my head.

I was going to add a stock image to this post, but I just can’t find anything that would do it justice.

Midnight Express is, from what I gather, a superb motion picture. Some may argue John Hurt‘s finest hour since a half-ton of animatronic nastiness exploded from his chest and squirted blood and viscera over Sigourney Weaver et al.

However, I talk of the burger bar in Chamonix.

Oh. My. InsertDeityOfChoice.

You know when you have memories of somewhere and you give it much more credit than it deserves? It was a fantastic holiday and that little restaurant made the best profiteroles in the world? Or the bar with those wonderful canapes?

Then you go back sober and realise they actually kinda sucked?

This will never happen with Midnight Express. I popped by tonight and I admit to having some reservations. Perhaps it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered. How many times was I drunk when I bought one, so I wouldn’t notice that it wasn’t really that good?

My fears were unfounded. A five-Euro burger was enough to remind me that they probably make the best fast food in the world. My taste buds are still bouncing. I have a whack-load of chocolate on my desk and I don’t want any of it in case it takes the taste away.

Oh, I hope Google picks this one up. Chamonix. French Alps. France. Burgers.

Midnight Express. No other option. Forget McDonald’s. Midnight Express.

I want another one.

Now.

In honesty, just a post so people know I’m still here! Not a lot has happened outside of the working environment since my last post (over a week – sorry) and there’s yet to be any snow in Chamonix. It did try yesterday, but we only managed some sleety rain for a few hours before it gave in.

From what I gather, Tignes has a small amount and La Rosiere has around 10cm lying on the pavements. Courchevel 1850 has quite a substantial amount, but that’s to be expected at such an altitude. You also pay for it there as it’s one of the priciest resorts.

Head chef training has just finished and today/tomorrow all the management trainees will be arriving here to start abusing the PCs I’ve been setting up. The big pain is going to be in around a week when I have to uproot every training machine and lug them over to Tignes for the remainder of training, then distribute them to the various resort staff.

It has been great to catch up with more people I remember from last season as they appear in little groups. I believe we’ve got quite a high percentage of returning staff amongst the workforce this season so we must be doing something right!