James Middleton, the younger brother of Princess Kate, has shared details of their past holidays together – and they were decidedly unglamorous.
The 37-year-old lifted the lid on the Middleton family’s very down-to-earth getaways in an interview with The Sunday Times , revealing how parents Carole and Michael would whisk their three children away to no-frills destinations.
“Holidays tended to be packing up the car and driving somewhere,” James told the outlet. “My parents, sisters and I would visit different places in the Swiss Alps each summer, such as Les Masses, or we’d go to Avoriaz in France.”
He continued: “Dad would find a mountain refuge where we’d have a rather sloppy soup-like meal for tea, but we were so hungry from a day of hiking that it tasted amazing. Then we would fall fast asleep in our bunk — we’d sleep on one long bunk, all five of us — surrounded by other walkers. The next day we’d wake up early, put our walking boots back on and continue our trek, ending up in another village.”
James went on to describe “distinct memories of the beautiful butterflies, wildflower meadows and the sounds of cowbells — and those memories came back to life this summer when we took Inigo to Valmoral in the French Alps to visit Alizée’s family,” referring to his wife, Alizée Thevenet, and their one-year-old son, Inigo.
“There were the same smells, the same marmot calls; it was a pinch-me moment that brought me back to childhood summers when I’d hike up mountains with a rucksack that was bigger than me,” James added. “I can’t wait for Inigo to form those sorts of memories.”
