Sex, skivvying and squalor. My life as a REAL chalet girl

Sex, skivvying and squalor. My life as a REAL chalet girl

 

As a new film starring Tamsin Egerton and Brooke Shields is released, JULIA STEPHENSON looks back at her days at an exclusive resort in Switzerland and explains why real chalet girls were podgy, rubbish at skiing and ANYTHING but glamorous....

Love on the slopes: Julia Stephenson met her first husband while working as a chalet girl

In the late eighties I worked as a chalet girl in a beautiful ski resort in Switzerland.

Back then this was a rite of passage for 20-something Sloane Rangers who had done a rudimentary cordon bleu course and were happy to cook and clean a chalet in return for unlimited skiing, cheese eating and the chance to spend four months in a swanky ski resort.

For me the season began one cold December morning when I boarded the bus to Crans Montana, Switzerland, departing Sloane Square 6.30am sharp, with nine other chalet girls.

Several appeared to have led very sheltered lives, memorably, a patrician blonde called Arabella who announced that it was her first time on a bus of any kind.

I loved being a chalet girl and wrote a novel, Chalet Tiara, based on my experiences.

It's currently languishing on Amazon priced at 1p so imagine my surprise when a friend rang and insisted a new film was about to come out based on my book.

I thought it a bit of a cheek that no one had told me but feverish with anticipation I dashed to a screening only to face a crushing disappointment.

Chalet Girl, with its old-fashioned fun and frolics, will appeal, not just to its target teenage market but to all those who enjoy a fairy tale with a few mountain pratfalls.

Sadly though it is nothing like my book, whilst plucky heroine Kim is like no chalet girl I have ever met.

Played by newcomer Felicity Jones, who stars with a cast that includes Bill Nighy, Brooke Shields, Tamsin Egerton and Gossip Girl heartthrob Ed Westwick, Kim is stuck in a series of dead end catering jobs while caring for her hapless Dad in a dreary London suburb.

Fed up with serving burgers she enrols in a finishing school to improve her employment prospects. 

Thrown together with a bunch of posh gels and weighted down by a heavy chip on one shoulder and a frying pan on the other, our plucky heroine finds herself posted off to the Alps to become a chalet girl.

1989: Keep fit with friendly punters in Crans Montana, Switzerland

Chalet Girl - sadly there is no such thing nowadays, they have been rebranded 'chalet hosts' a dreary utilitarian word a bit like air stewardesses being called flight attendants - was filmed in the Tyrol's premier ski destination of St Anton and features some intoxicating views of the Arlberg mountains but this is where any connection between the movie and your average ski chalet holiday ends.

Not just because 19-year-old commoner Kim ends up bagging a betrothed billionaire. But because unlike most real chalet girls Kim can actually cook, clean and make a bed - something we all managed to avoid back then. Instead we’d bribe our hapless punters (as our chalet guests were affectionately known) with ‘fun-size’ mars bars that we threw onto their unmade beds as an incentive for them to make their own.