SUMMER IN LES ARCS: THE TOP 10

1. Cycling - it's where Miguel Indurain cracked in the 1996 Tour de France. Never the same again... 

2. Spot the development opportunity #1.  Capitalism in action: Gilles and Annick had to move out of the much loved Aiguille Grive.  It is now demolished and "the future site of a 4 star hotel".  Hmm  :(

3. Spot the development opportunity #2.  Probably the most scenic tennis court I've seen.  It will now have a wider market, as the site of the new "EdenArc" development...

4. It is always warmer inside this pool than out

5. At the top of the Transarc (2550m)

6. Remembering the ski season: Top of Cachette lift, Les Coches in the background (2100m)

7. L'urbanisme (1800m) et Le Mont Blanc (4810m)

8. Looking at Marmottes (2400m; below Transarc)

9. Le Golf: Les Arcs' nursery slopes

10. The Architecture.  Arc 1600 (opened in 1968)

IS THE VANOISE EXPRESS THE HUMBER BRIDGE OF SKIING?

This may be a little harsh on the Vanoise Express, but there are times when one wonders whether, like the Humber Bridge, there really has been a return on investment.....

No doubt the Compagnie des Alpes, owners of the lift system in both La Plagne and Les Arcs, would disagree.  Its opening, in 2003, saw the creation of France's 3rd largest ski area, in the rather blandly titled Paradiski.  And its closure for the 2007-8 season was certainly met with gloom and despondency by local shopkeepers and traders.

You can read more about the technical specifications associated with the 4-minute ride across the Nancroix valley here.  And here's a link to the Lord-of-the-Rings-inspired Paradiski website.

The prevailing view seems to be that more go from the La Plagne side to Les Arcs than the other way round.  That said, it never seems to be particularly busy.

Rather than the Humber Bridge, perhaps the better analogy is with the Gateshead-Newcastle "Winking Eye" bridge: it links the two cities in a powerful and iconic way, without ever having too many making the crossing!

In this vein, here are some mountain bikers doing some very silly tricks earlier in the summer.

Looking back at Peisey Vallandry

VALMOREL

Valmorel is the poor relation of the big Tarentaise resorts.

It seems to have lost its way somewhat, and is now competing against southern French resorts like Risoul or Puy St Vincent, rather than the Premiership resorts further up the valley.  It's more of a Nottingham Forest, or a Leicester City.  It's certainly part of the history of skiing (born in 1976, aiming to be more human-scale than the big purpose-built resorts, jobs to stem the rural exodus).  But it's no longer in the spotlight, and investment in the lift system over the years has been patchy.

That said, it has a big ski area (called, appropriately enough, La Grande Domaine), with more than 150k of pistes, shared with St Francois Longchamp, over in the Maurienne Valley.  It is not entirely forgotten - Crystal feature the resort as one of its 33 French destinations in their 2011/12 brochure.  And it's not entirely down-at-heel.  Club Med are building a new 5 star, 1500 bed, centre, which appears to have divided the locals.  To read more, see the French Wikipedia entry for Valmorel.  To see more, click here:
The facilities will be open in summer - a big deal for resorts these days.

Just a few tips about Valmorel:

1.  It's barely 30 mins from Albertville, so one of the handier resorts for a short trip
2.  It's close to a very special valley (Ceillac), which is for ski rando only, has a couple of small hotels and, unusually, a gondola straight into the skiing.  This would be a short ski stay with a difference.  Locals advised me that the road up to Ceillac would be narrow and icy, so I went to...
3.  Doucy-Combelouviere - a satellite suburb of Valmorel.  The road up there was narrow but not icy, and it is a bit closer than Valmorel centre, with easy parking on the main road and a semi-fast lift into the skiing
4.  St Francois-Longchamp.  The more interesting skiing is on this side.  The village isn't very appealing visually, but friendly.  Do not expect to see many Brits.
5.  Col du Mottet, on the Valmorel side.  This is proper, high(ish) skiing.
6.  Tour de France lovers will like the Col de la Madeleine.  You can find the summer road sign.  (I didn't).

www.valmorel.com

TIGNES

Tignes is, of course, one of France's biggest and best known resorts - a skiing equivalent of Manchester City, perhaps: French Ski Resorts: The Premiership

It's white for most of the year - and, if you are keen, you can track the arrival of the season from about mid October onwards by visiting the Tignes website.  It rarely gets too hot here.  Here's a summer scene:

Tignes is clearly no beauty.  It's improving, though the austere setting means that a makeover will only go so far.  But it has a lot to recommend it, and in many ways is feels a lot more genuine than Val d'Isere, its show-off neighbour the other side of the hill.


If you're visiting Tignes, here are six good things about the resort:


1.  Parking at Les Brevieres (1550m) gives you direct access into the skiing - the drive from Bourg is less than 45 mins, and saves you another 600m vertical and having to find/pay for a spot in Lac.  Parking is free, although low marks for having no WC facilities at the main lift.  


2.  Parking at Les Boisses (at 1850m) is an alternative and you can either get a bus (15 or 45 past the hour) or lift up.  Be careful about the snowy car park if you don't have snowchains or winter tyres.


3.  The runs down to Les Brevieres (Black as well as the easier alternatives) have an away-from-it all feeling you don't get, for example, on the motorways between Tignes and Val.


4.  The Lagon sports centre in Lac is excellent (includes water slides etc and a gym used for "stages d'altitude" by French sports teams eg the very pink Stade Francais).  For a young family, including some non-skiers or kids who don't want to ski all day, this will add an extra dimension - worth staying close by though.


5.  The museum in the Maison de Tignes, charting the flooding of the old village and the history of winter sports in the area, is excellent.


6.  The ESF at Tignes does excellent one-to-one off-piste lessons, and the area is of course renowned for having lots of untapped territory.  Perhaps more interesting, though, are the collective "grand ski" courses the school runs, which include off-piste.  This is unusual, in my experience, and, like the Lagon, could give a week here a very different dimension.


Tignes claims to be the "most sportif" town in France, by the way.  It does always seem to be up to something - eg rather odd summer "beach rugby" tournaments.  The French football team trained here before their ill-fated trip to South Africa.  You can see the happy campers here.

CREST VOLAND

Crest Voland (pronounced "Crevollon") is a small village in the Val d'Arly, on the road from Megeve to Albertville.  Despite (or maybe because of) its proximity to such an illustrious neighbour, it's fairly low profile.  But it is well worth a visit for anyone on a tour of resorts, as well as those looking for a family offer.


It's now part of a much bigger ski area - the slightly cumbersomely branded "Espace Diamond" being arguably only marginally less silly than Paradiski.  This gives 180kms of pistes, however, which is the equivalent of Les Arcs sans La Plagne.  You don't get the height of the "big league" resorts, but you do get:


1. Great views of the Arly valley and Aravis range beyond
2. A good sense of travelling from village to village
3. Good value prices: eg 26E for a Crest Voland-only pass
4. A genuine French alpine village - this means v fast lower slopes!
5. Good conditions for the height - in Feb 2011 there was quite a lot of snow at 1200m. Les Granges, below Les Arcs, for example, was utterly green at this time.


Definitely not a place for late holidays - there's very little skiing above 2000m.  Worth thinking about if you're looking for something more traditional but want to avoid the traffic and town-ness that comes with a Megeve or similar.

www.crestvoland-cohennoz.com

LA ROSIERE

UPDATE: 19 January 2013. The future is bright...

Things are changing quite quickly in La Rosiere.  The British Chalet companies like it, there is a new fast lift for 2012/13 to replace the old and slow Fort lift on the way over to Italy....and expansion is planned for 2016/7, with two new lifts scheduled for the Les Eucherts area, along with an additional 40km of pistes.  Bringing the "Espace San Bernado" up to 200kms, this will take La Rosiere right back into the Premiership.

Here are some shots of the area from a January 2013 visit.  Once on the La Thuile side a recommended route is the "Tour" - it brings you onto the "main road" (aka the piste), with a couple of options for lunch.

The Les Arcs pisteurs recommend "La Grotta", which involves being picked up at the foot of the La Thuile lifts apparently.

The green run from the top of the Ecudets chair (1)

The green run (2)

The border.  Take the long red (No 18,
 then No 6) to La Thuile:
1200m of descent

Going back to La Thuile along the "road"
(Piste No 7)

Back in La Rosiere: the restaurant above the Eucherts lift

18 June 2011

La Rosiere's profile seems to have been on the wane in recent years....

Villaroger on the right, Tignes in the background

Without wanting to over-stretch the comparisons with football clubs, it's probably on the Premiership/Championship borders.  Earlier in the year I thought it was probably Birmingham.  And they got relegated.  It has some good lifts, varied terrain (if you include the Italian side) and decent vertical descents.

But it's the views, I think, that make me very, very keen on La Rosiere.  

Coming from Bourg St Maurice, take the N90, go through Seez and its various suburbs and then after a few kms take a left and park at the Les Ecudets lift.  This is at about 1100 metres and means you can avoid the long drive right to the top. You can buy a ticket and get a coffee here, but you can't rent skis.  There are occasional buses from the Bourg funiculaire to Ecudets - one leaves at 9am for example.

The resort itself is modern but feels more of a "place" than its purpose-built neighbours.  The more upmarket accommodation seems to be at Ecudets, which is a suburb slightly away from the centre, served by its own fast lift.

The area above La Rosiere is very flattering - easy red cruising as you look down the valley towards La Plagne or up towards Tignes.  It doesn't seem to get too busy - eg in February half term it was much more fluid than Les Arcs.

Going over to Italy does feel like a trek.  There are two seemingly endless drags while still (just) in France which do make you wonder if it's all worthwhile.  Then there are basically two routes into Italy: take the summer road and weave your way down, or take the higher route.  I'd recommend the latter.  Once over the top, go down via Pontelles and Nuova – this red run is a minor classic – it goes from 2600 to 1400m, away from the lifts, taking you from big open pistes close to the glacier and then down through the trees on a fast and bumpy piste.

The big issue I have when over on the Italian side is that I’m always nervous about getting back (the Col du Petit St Bernard is notoriously windy and prone to generally iffy weather).  I need to go back, relax, and explore the Italian side some more.  It has a good-ish lift system and feels away from the crowds.

Close to "the border", at the top of La Thuile

Restaurants on the Italian side are generally described as average, though friendly and vaguely Italian.  I'd agree with that.    

For some people – eg a real mixed ability party with some adventurous intermediates and some beginners - it could be perfect for a week.

Keener folk could get bored, but definitely worth a day trip if you are staying in one of the big Tarentaise resorts.  You do get much more of a sense of adventure than in a Tignes or Val d'Isere.  And those views...

www.larosiere.net

LES ARCS: 2010/11 Season Review

The best guide to Les Arcs for prospective visitors is in the Where to Ski and Snowboard book (website: wtss.co.uk).  Here are some updates from Les Arcs from the (rather forgettable) season that was 2010/11: 

PARKING

Still much grumping from the locals about the new(ish) parking regime at 1800.  You can still park free at 1600, and also at the tennis courts on the way up to 1800 on the left hand side – assuming you’re early on changeover day.

It's also still free to park at the Funiculaire in BSM.  If you’re skiing on the day of arrival, buy your ticket there – it will then include your journey up the hill.

LIFTS

New lift for 2011/12 at 1600.  This new fast lift will now go to Deux Tetes.  In a way it's a shame as it will make the area served by the old Mont Blanc lift rather less tranquille, but it's a logical development.  Over the last 8 years just about all the key lifts on what is (in my view) the most interesting side of the ski area will have been replaced – ie from 1600 right across to Peisey.

HIGH SEASON

.....there can be 15 min queues.  To avoid these, take the remaining slow lifts (eg Charmettoger, Villards, Renard, Comborciere, anywhere on the Villaroger side).  It gives you a slowcoach, B-road kind of alternative.  Queues for the Cable Car remain hairy for much of the time, high season or not.

PRICES

Ski resorts are never cheap, but Les Arcs seems to be able to serve the full range of customers; from Russians who can’t quite get to Courchevel through middle class French families to Brit university trips.  At the expensive end, Chalets de l’Arc in 2000 is 16-20E for main course.  At the cheaper end, there is the Arcabulle cafe just above which is 4E for a good slice of pizza; it’s 6.5E for a panini at the un-atmospheric but well-located cafe at the top of Col de la Chal.  Down in 1800, Chez Boubou is 9.80E for a plat du jour and, although not technically piste-side, you can ski down to the place Miravidi quite easily.  Hotel de la Vanoise is about 12-13 for plat du jour and very well recommended (just above Peisey lift).  Blanche Muree is still my favourite.  A proper, non-chain, place!

GET UP EARLY 

One day a week there is a trip to start the day with the pisteurs at 0745 (from the Transarc).  10E, coffee and croissants at their hut at 2600m, and first tracks with just the pisteurs for company.  

WEB ETC

Les Arcs’ website is OK but a bit flash and lacking in substance.  Les Arcs TV (the one you watch when staying in resort) is shocking.  Really.  Radio Les Arcs provides the soundtrack and isn’t bad at all as the DJ likes 80s stuff.  You can listen on-line from Britain if you are sad enough....

HOTEL DU GOLF

Hotel du Golf now has a pool and fitness place, so probably the best option for non-skiers who can afford it.  It’s not too expensive out of high season.  They are opening again in summer, so are to be commended.