It was 1770 when the 1st tourist hotel was completed in Chamonix Mont Blanc.

Prior to this Chamonix village constituted a savage and rugged rural place where locals hunted their animals and grew their own wheat.

Farmhouses at that time were used to raise dairy herds over the summer months.

The milk was conserved by making it into different types of cheese and kept down in the valley for use over the long winter times.

During the winter the barns were bolted, and valued possessions were put safely in a tiny mazot.

The person who came up with luxury chalet holidays is unknown, however it was likely a few zealous folk who recognised a set up that worked.

With Erna Low it commenced when she was a nostalgic postgraduate and could not afford to visit her family back home in Austrias often as she would like to.

And so in the early 1930’s she took a punt and took out a small advertisement in the papers to invite guests on a skiing vacation. For only £15 they traveled to and from the village, enjoyed food and lodging in the only inn, and paid for skiing hire and lessons.

The holiday was difficult, there were no chair lifts, no safety fixings, simply hard leather boots, but it was so popular that Erna Low kept on taking friends on holiday, seeing to it that she found superb hotels and skiing instructors.

These Skiing breaks during the early years were very different from the luxuries we can get nowadays.

In the early days hot water was in limited supply, bathrooms were shared out by all of the customers, and there wasn’t a chef; the guests needed to help out with the chores.

It was a real gamble who might share the accommodation for the week, one might be agreeably surprised by meeting fresh acquaintances, or spend a week of hell with people you didn’t get on with.