First Chapter 

When you take the Highway from Geneva into the Alps, follow that road for two hours higher and higher up into the mountains, and then take a right you will get to a sign that says 

Welcome- Bienvenue- Willkommen.

And there- under a constant cover of rain and clouds and snow- lays the Château de Nuage.

The grand hotel is past its best days but the long hallways and high ceilings are proof of former glory. Being here is like entering an old world with red velvet and big balls but behind the shadows with secrets and mystique. The Château de Nuage is the perfect place to spend the wintertime if you have the cash of course. 

A long time ago it was one of the finest hotels in Switzerland famous for its yearly New Years’ Eve ball. The famous and rich from all over the world would come together in the 25 rooms and suites, enjoy the extraordinary food, spend some time in the Spa, read, gossip, and, maybe if the sun comes out on one of those rare days, ski. Although the majority of those rich and famous don’t come here anymore, the Château de Nuage is still hosting its yearly ball as proud as ever. When you spend time here as a guest the maids and everybody who works here will make sure you get everything you wish for. Like Fräulein Metzler (the head maid and way too old to be a Fräulein) told me on my first day: “You need to get everything to the guests before they can even think of wanting it.” As a maid for everything, I’ve been in every department here, besides the kitchen because I’m an awful cook, and worked with basically everybody. 

In the basement, not a spooky kind of basement but a basement with windows and light, we have Mr. Saltazar who is the head of the Spa committee. Although the rest of the hotel is absolutely beautiful the spa is its blot. Don’t get me wrong it’s not ugly but compared to the rest. On Mr. Saltazars first day here he had a full mental breakdown and since then he has tried with an impressive amount of passion, since we’re talking about a Spa here, to project the other floors’ glory down into the basement. There is Pavel who works in the laundry and has an unexpected talent for singing opera. Pavel is a pretty massive guy with tattoos and pretty intimidating at first, but he treats the laundry with so much care and caution that you just have to love him. 

Nevertheless, my favorite person in the whole hotel is someone else. It’s Monsieur Cloude. He is the Concierge and is the nicest and wisest person one can imagine.  

                  …

Last Chapter 

When you take the Highway from Geneva into the Alps, follow that road for two hours higher and higher up into the mountains, and then take a right you will get to a sign that says 

Welcome- Bienvenue- Willkommen.

And there- under a constant cover of rain and clouds and snow- lays the Château de Nuage.

After years of being neglected due to money problems, the hotel has come back to its glory. Russian Oligarch Victor Smirnova invested a ridiculous amount of money in it and brought rich and famous from all over the world to the Swiss mountains. After 25 years the hotel was finally fully booked again on New Year’s Eve, and every gossip paper in the western hemisphere was writing about the event of the year. 

Despite all that, not a lot changed in this astonishing place in the Alps. Fräulein Metzler is still determined to keep everything crystal clear, Pavel could still remove any type of stain from your clothes, and Mr. Claude is still an angel. Only Mr. Saltazar changed. After the Spa renovation, he overcame his Spa- depression, and as it turns out he’s actually an incredibly happy person.   

It seems like Château de Nuage is less cloudy, and now the sun is peeking through the high windows almost every day. And they changed the name of suite 19. It is now called the diamond suite.