MOST mums with grown up daughters might think city break or spa retreat when considering a winter holiday together. But I have just returned from a week skiing with my 22-year-old and can recommend it as an excellent way to bond and to see your now adult off-spring in a new light.

Francesca and I have previously sampled together the life of shows and shopping in New York, the back lanes of Barcelona and the views from the Eiffel Tower but a holiday with a sporting theme was a different challenge.

I am of an age when a few a years ago I would have been considered a pensioner and Francesca is not long out of university but luckily our skiing ability is similar.

After trying skiing as a very young girl Francesca decided it was not for her but as a teenager she wanted to catch up with the rest of the family and two weeks of private lessons means she now has excellent style that carries her down most runs with panache.

My own technique is not so pretty but years of experience means I also get down the slopes even if I do tumble now and again.

We decided on a chalet holiday to Meribel in the French Alps with winter sports specialist Crystal as we thought this would be the best way for us to have people to mix with socially in the evening and hopefully have company on the slopes.

It is obviously a big gamble as ski chalets tend to be compact and you have no idea who you will be sharing a dinner table with each night for a week.

From previous experience I also knew that chalet holidays could be made or spoilt by the staff who run them.

Some I have encountered with smaller ski companies are spoilt girls straight out of public school who see serving guests as beneath them while others are party animals who role in after a night on the tiles with barely enough energy to boil an egg.

But thankfully luck was on our side. Our chalet girls Maddie and Jody were not only great cooks but they were cheerful and obliging at all times.

Even when one of our fellow guests turned out to be a woman training for a bikini-style body building contest in America and revealed a diet that even Gwyneth Paltrow would find limiting they just smiled and made a list of her requirements.

The 12 of us in Chalet Clearmount were an eclectic bunch including four semi-retired men who had Welsh as their first language, the body builder and her army sergeant partner, a guy and a woman in their late 20s who turned out just to be friends and two women who had met at university in Norwich ten years ago.

But incredibly we all got on and the four Welsh men, who knew the extensive slopes of the Trois Vallees well, became our guides.  I thought Francesca might find skiing with us oldies a bit dull but she found their old-school charm beguiling and they loved the way she could quickly sort out the apps and internet connection on their mobile phones.

They were also excellent skiers who made getting around the world’s biggest ski area that takes in Val Thorens and Courchevel as well as Meribel an adventure rather than a bit of an ordeal.

Most evening the 12 of us lingered over our five course meal served with a plentiful supply of free wine, played cards or watched a downloaded movie in the cosy sitting area.

The week turned out to be a perfect holiday full of laughter and memory making moments.

 

We travelled with Crystal Ski Holidays.

For more information go to http://www.crystalski.co.uk/