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We first met in 2017 when we bought an apartment in 360° on Route du Bonde. Nicholas and Jane met on the road outside the McGarry’s chalet and we were invited for drinks on New Year’s Eve.

Livi and Charlie hit it off immediately with Tamsen and Kirsty and spent many evenings together in the Avalanche Bar.

Ian and Jane have hosted the whole family for dinner and drinks over the last few years we have known you. We adore the champagne cocktails, smoked salmon spreads and particularly enjoyed Jane’s apricot chicken dish.

Ian gave Gloriana the best skiing advice she has ever received, without even seeing her ski – ‘to steer with your toes and think of nothing else.’

During the famous ‘Beast from the East’ Ian saved Charlie’s bacon by helping her get her car up the snowy drive so she could get home, using a mat so her wheels could find some grip and offering many words of reassurance and encouragement.

Even though it hasn’t been that long, we feel like we have known Ian, Jane, Tamsen and Kirsty for decades! Thank you for making us feel part of the Chatel family.

Lots of love The Pages (Gloriana, Nicholas, Livi and Charlie) xxx

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• Your Name: The Pages

Ian and I met in a chalet in Verbier in 1978. We had much in common- a love of the mountains and with it a passion for “sloping” snow! 

Much of our “together time” has been spent on the mountain in Wengen, Avoriaz, Flaine and latterly many weeks with the McGarry family in Chatel. Our children have grown up together and we have all been able to share the McGarry pride in their accomplished ski racer children,Tamsen and Kirsty.

Ian and I  have now been the closest of friends for well over forty years. We have the sort of friendship in which you don’t have to say too much! We both know…. what the other is thinking!

In the early days Ian would come and stay with me in Highgate in North London. He would bring recorded material from RTE to tidy up with the techy people at the BBC. We got on so well even without a mountain!

I stayed with Ian, and his lovely mother, in Stillorgan when I was taking my final anaesthesia fellowship exams in December 1979. I passed the exam! I have always felt that I owe my success  to  having had a McGarry “oasis of calm” to revise all the topics which, as if by magic, all came up in exam. We even found a mountain to ski…the dry slope at Kilternan!

I have a passion for Ireland, her culture, her music and her fabulous scenery. I have traveled widely since 1971. This love of Ireland is founded on the bedrock of my enduring friendship with Ian, Jane, Tamsen and Kirsty McGarry.

Whenever Jackie and I are/were over we would always end up in Dalkey. Whenever possible the “team” would come to us on the way to Chatel.

I have thousands of memories of the good times spent together. Not the least of these come from the mountain!

The memories of having skied with one best technical skiers of his generation fills me with pride.

What an amazing multi-talented man he is….

As an aside doesn’t he just love sweet desserts!

JR 23.12.2020

• Your Name: Jeremy Rickford

Wow! I’m exhausted just reading his achievements!! Wish I had something to add apart from what everyone already knows of what a thorough gentleman Ian is in every respect However, his generosity made Kirsten [Ferris] very happy when she was 11! Howard Keel was performing on Sunday Night at the Olympia. She was making her confirmation on the Saturday. We are huge fans of Keel so tried to get tickets as a treat only to find none available ?. Contacted Ian who not only arranged seats, but a box!! 34 yrs on, she still remembers it. Forget about a website…his story deserves a documentary.

• Your Name: Dolores Ferris

Happiest of Memories

Ever since Jane and Ian and Garry and I found each other in the Alpine village of Chatel in 1986 our lives have remained intertwined. The McGarry family and the Haywood family have shared many, many happy times in the French Alps over the years since. We have each been to the other’s homes in Chatel for Christmas Brunch for many years, more years than I can remember. In recent years Ian and Jane have been the generous hosts of the most lavish Christmas Brunches at La Corniche and we have looked forward so much to these warm and mellow afternoons together with fabulous food and great company and great laughs.

We have also shared many a New Year’s Eve together at some of the finest hotels and restaurants in Chatel and Chapelle d’Abondance and at our own chalet, Chalet Iris, since the early days when Jane and Ian kindly invited us to join them at the New Year’s Eve parties they held at Chalet Chataigne when they were running their very successful ski business. We have watched each other’s children grow into fabulous adults and shared in all their wondrous achievements with pleasure and pride.

These special days and nights together, with our sons and daughters beside us, at the close of each year and the beginning of the next have always been so pleasurable and profoundly happy. We will always hold the warmest memories of these times, and of Ian’s generous hospitality, good humour, kindness, and modesty.

Andrea Haywood

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• Your Name: Andrea Greenlees