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I grab a takeaway coffee outside the hotel where I meet my ski touring companion for the day. Francesca Smith has lived in the Alps for nearly 12 years. It’s a season like no other, she tells me. I don’t think we will ever experience this again. She used to run an 100-bed luxury catered chalet business, Powder and Shine. But first Brexit, and then the COVID crisis meant she had to let it go. The three weeks surrounding the day that the UK were due to leave the EU in March 2019 were exceptionally quiet because people were worried about crossing borders, Smith explains. ....