This is my fourth winter season in France. And the most French I can speak is voulez vous couchet avec moi ce soir?

The most embarrassing thing is I am working in a bar this year in Tignes.

One of the most advantageous aspects of my job is you have the option to get first lifts almost everyday, but when you’ve been working till 2/3 am, customers have been buying you shots and for the last week you’ve been surviving on 5 hours sleep your bed is a lot more appealing than it should be. Riding all day then working for 10 hours just isn’t an option.

We usually try and get out on the mountain for ten, which means we have a good 4 or 5 hours to shred. My boyfriend works in a different bar here too which is good for our body clocks and since we work nights most of the time the only time to see each other is on the mountain. We try and get an hour together on the mountain just us everyday we are out which is fun.

This is my 3rd year snowboarding but I’ve been skiing since I was 8. I mostly prefer to board as it’s easier for me to do tricks on a board. If the boyfriend isn’t out on the mountain there is a good group of girls I like to board with. There’s nothing like bombing down the mountain with 4 or 5 girls who are all trying to jib and pull tricks off the side of the piste.

There’s a blue run in Tignes called Palafour which is pretty much a seasonaire holy run. It’s the kind of place that you can meet up with someone you know. It allows you to go there and meet loads of different groups and end up riding with new people whenever you want. On chalet days off its also a great place to see people throwing up the previous night’s excesses… always a lovely sight.

Our bar opens at 4 so we start work at 3 to prepare the bar for après. Working après can be fun and busy, people just want to celebrate a good day on the hill and I am more than happy to ensure the fun continues into the evening, albeit in liquid form! These 2 hours usually pass in a blur of shots, 2-4-1 cocktails, pitchers of beer, dancing in snow gear and funky body odors.

We serve food from 4 till 9 so if it’s busy with the food side because we only have one chef we have to wait.

From 9 the masses pile back in for happy hour which is 9 till 10. We get pub crawls 4 times a week from the tour ops which can be the bain of my job. You have 2 or 3 reps whose only reason to be on the pub crawl is to get as wrecked as possible. These guys or girls are here to get free drinks which is fine as you are taking in over 100 guests into my bar. But don’t ask me when your not in uniform. You earn the same as I do and we don’t get free drinks even in our own bar. All these guests will want to be served at the same time and we can quite often run out of glasses/ice/drinks. When the guests move onto the next bar you’re left with a sea of glasses to wash between 2 people before the next group of people come in, be it pubcrawls or random seasonaires/punters.

Most shifts people buy you shots and drinks. They are in a party mood so they want you to be too, and by the end of the shift you can have a nice buzz on. I don’t mind saying this can be a massive perk of the job as long as you are not too wasted to work it can help you get into the same party mood everybody else is in.

The great thing about working in a bar though is you meet so many different people, in particular locals. French people are always in the bar for me to try and practice my terrible French on, they seem to love it if you try and I’m getting better. I’ll keep you posted on that. You meet different groups of seasonaires and you’re not kept to the same groups of people day in and out.

I couldn’t think of doing a different job on a season now. The laughter, the time on the hill and the people I live and work with who have become my second family.