"Luxury Essentials" Winter Stockpiling

With our first winter guests due to arrive on Saturday 17th December (that's just 72 days away), we've started stocking up for the long winter ahead.  Like hibernating animals, we buy up big as the Autumn draws to an end, ready to bunker down in the snow for months at a time.  It is, of course, far too early to be buying food in, but there are plenty of far more fun things to purchase in preparation for indulging our lucky guests...

This weekend we placed a range of orders from our usual suppliers.  The first purchase on the pre-winter To Do list was our customised selection of Molton Brown bathroom products.  There's always the temptation to be distracted when browsing through all the goodies that are available for wholesale purchase from Molton Brown, so strong will power was required to avoid over-ordering.  They all look SO good!

Next on today's list was a vital Christmas element that we simply can't get here in France - the turkey!  Here the local butcher can only source small turkeys, but with a full house of guests over Christmas we'll need a whopper!  We order it from a fabulous organic butcher in Somerset and have it delivered to us here in France, so the order needs to be made well in advance.

Also from a secret source are the handmade chocolate favours we dress the beds with as a welcome gift for arriving guests.  A serious selection process was happily endured and we think we've found the best of the best.  When you see them, you'll appreciate their beautiful presentation just as much as their divine flavour.  These are seriously good chocolates!

Next on the shopping list were new staff uniforms.  This year we've redesigned shirts, jackets and aprons for our staff with the chalet's new logo.  We think they're professional and modern - and hopefully the staff will like them too!   We'll post some photos when they're delivered so you can make your own decision.

Slightly less exciting but absolutely necessary were the fine new towels we've purchased - 150 of them!  We like our guests to use quality products that are in top condition, which means re-buying linen and towels regularly.  There's nothing worse than a lovely bathroom with a threadbare towel!  A hot bath on a cold snowy night calls for a seriously big, fluffy towel; and we've now got enough to dry an army on their way to us.


Last on the list were scent diffusers from Perfume ID.  We find that scented candles produce too strong a smell for the shared areas of the chalet and love a scent to compliment the smell of the wood fire in winter.  Christmassy, heavy scents can be overpowering to live in (they're fine for an hour or two, but all day every day they're just nauseating), so we prefer the fine hint of perfume produced from diffuser sticks.  Perfume ID are specialists in 'sensory communication' and we feel their Eco-diffusers convey an elegant, modern message just right for relaxing our guests.

That's enough ordering for the time being, the fun bit will be receiving all these orders in coming weeks.