Tuesday 30 December 2008
Paolo Zanetti, player for Torino FC, and Lorenzo Bich, supporter of said club. Everyone is welcome at Les neiges d’antan, whatever team they support… and this comment was written by a “gobbo”, in other words a Juventus fan! (“Gobbo”, hump, is a nickname for Juventus players and fans, deriving from the fact that the very first jerseys worn by the Juventus team were ordered from the UK, the same production as for Newcastle United – black and white stripes – with traditionally British measurements and high collars that, on pitch, gave the players a sort of hump on their backs).


Published by Diospero at 0.06

Sunday 28 December 2008
Hot spot
Our barmen surfing…



Saturday 27 December 2008
What a life
Oh yes, it’s a fine life at Les neiges d’antan, you arrive with your skis, eat and drink to your heart’s content, and then, to make sure you don’t risk losing points on your licence, you ask the helicopter to take you home…


Sunday 21 December 2008
Frankie Dettori is the most famous jockey in the world. He has won all the most important races, and holds the record for 7 wins in a single day at Ascot. He left the hotel yesterday after a week’s stay. How did he come across Les neiges d’antan? Well, last year we had a waitress, Mimma, who loves children and had wanted to learn English for some time. During the 2007-2008 winter season, she met one of our regular guests, who found her a job as a baby sitter, looking after the five magnificent/terrible children in the Dettori family! Mimma has been with the Dettori family since May, and stayed here with them, no longer as waitress, but as a babysitter… We have lost a valuable member of our staff, but we have found some new friends… Thank you, Mimma!
Above, Frankie Dettori at centre, with my father Maurice on the right.

Across the planet
An Australian couple staying here commented, “Nice part of the world…”

Thursday 18 December 2008
Yesterday I visited my friend Tullio Zenone near Lake Maggiore, who filled my van with branches of silver pine for our Christmas decorations. It is a cherished tradition at our hotel that we wait right to the very last moment to do the job… Anyway, together with the pine branches, he also found me 24 orchids. On the way back, I went through Val Cerrina near Casale Monferrato, and dropped in to see another friend who gave me a hundred grams of white truffles… In the photo, you can see the orchids in the bar, before being placed in the various guest rooms. So, the orchids that you will find in your room are of a rare and unusual species, notable for their fragrance… of truffles!


The Twelfth (Full) Moon
View from the steps of Les neiges d’antan on 12th December 2008, full moon, during a break in the snow…



Enchanted psychedelia
Psychedelic Wood light on the enchanted snowscape that can be seen from the lounge window.


Wednesday 10 December 2008
A 1968 Barolo
Some time ago, two wine merchants contacted us, after they had discovered our cellars during their internet searches. They booked a room, had a fine dinner, and the day after, they visited our cellars and chose the bottles that they wanted to buy so that they could sell them to their customers, collectors of rare and valuable wines. In fact in our cellars we have some very old bottles of Barolo by many different winemakers. The two traders made us an offer: we will buy 500 bottles of old wines for 5,000 euro. We waited for a time, and a few weeks ago they contacted us again hoping to clinch the deal, but they said that, owing to the global economic crisis, the value of our bottles had dropped to 4,000 euro! I refused the offer, and after having spoken to our chef Damiano, we ordered a fine piece of meat, and made a fantastic brasato (braised beef) with a superb Barolo, a child of the flowers… year 1968! This braised beef will be a highlight of our menu for the 2008/2009 winter season!

Wednesday 3 December 2008
Whymper Carrel & Company
Yesterday, some guests arrived. Years ago they lived in Brussels, where they met Luisa Montrosset. The day they met her, she was holding a copy of my book Whymper Carrel & Company, “a cross, 400 photographs, a different Cervino”. It was with Luisa and my brother Luca that in 1996 I formed a publishing company, Eubage, specially to publish this book. Luisa introduced these people to climbing, inviting them to a gym with an artificial climbing wall in Brussels where they discovered the sport! They are now keen rock climbers. The moral of the story is: even though there is just a single narrow road that leads up to Les neiges d’antan, in actual fact, all roads lead to Les neiges d’antan…

Sunday 30 November 2008
It’s still snowing, and, thanks to the abundant snow, we have opened our season earlier than usual, with guests staying on during the week and not just at weekends as previously. I asked one guest, who works as the engineer on a ship belonging to a wealthy American industrialist, whether I would be able to find a job as a Purser on a ship… Apparently there are specialized agencies that match supply and demand for staff on board yachts. He told me that, first and foremost, you must not suffer from sea-sickness, and, considering my curriculum as a hotel manager, I wouldn’t have great difficulties in finding a job, and that the salary for my sort of position would be around 5,000 euro per month! The idea is tempting in summer, when there is never very much work at Les neiges d’antan. I like the idea of sailing the oceans, looking after people in a restricted environment…

Friday 21 November 2008
Today there has been a lot of snow at Les neiges d’antan. I went to pick up Lorenzo and Pierre at Gouffre des Buserailles, because they had no chains for their car wheels and they couldn’t get any further. There were also two Belgians with a rented car, stuck at the side of the road, no chains, and they were very unhappy because they had to reach their hotel in Cervinia. I loaded their luggage onto one of our Landrovers, and I took them to Les neiges d’antan for a moment because I had to look after some guests who had just sat down in the restaurant. Meanwhile my brother Luca had to go to present a film at the Cinemountainfestival in Valtournenche, and took a Landrover… unfortunately he took the one with the Belgians’ suitcases in it! So I took the other Landrover, drove down to Valtournenche, and brought the other one back up. The Belgians then realized that they had left a suitcase in their rented car, and so we went back to fetch it. While we were retrieving the suitcase, we saw the shuttle vehicle of their own hotel going past: they were looking for the lost, abandoned passengers that I had abducted! So we chased after them, got them to stop, and transferred the Belgians and their luggage. They gave me a twenty euro tip… The situation reminded me of the film “After Hours” by Martin Scorsese, have you seen it?

Wednesday 19 November 2008
Yesterday I went rollerblading in Paris looking for a hotel for the daughter of famous wine-collector Rino Fontana. I found a cosy hotel near Notre Dame. The lady I spoke to there had an Italian accent, and so I told her that I was Italian and did the same job as her: looking after people in my hotel. She was surprised, and asked me where. I said, Cervinia, and so, even more surprised, she told me that she had been there often. So I gave her my card, and she smiled in surprise, and said, “Ah, Les neiges d’antan! I was there fourteen years ago when I was expecting my son! We had a wonderful stay, and the restaurant was superb!!”

Sunday 16 November 2008
LNDA
Mais ou sont les neiges d’antan?
There they are…