Blogs from Les Arcs, Rhône-Alpes, France, Europe

Boys club was off again on its annual snowboarding trip, but this time the number of Basingstoke originals had dwindled and new recruits Bennett, Diamond and Tommy has swelled the ranks so we were back up to eight people. Given the dire snow reports from around Europe for the whole season, we'd left our booking late and gone for Les Arcs, a high altitude resort stretching up to well over 3,200m with decent snow conditions virtually guaranteed on these upper reaches. The chalet was the now required self catering option, but this time we'd gone for a chalet apartment type vibe, a self contained 8 person chalet within a much larger chalet building with shared communal facilities such as the sauna, steam and swimming pool (which were most welcome at the end of each day!!). Once ... read more

I must say, it's really wonderful to be dating someone with a real job. Every year Guillaume's company offers a fantastic weekend in the alps to all of their employees, each of whom can invite their friends or family at an additional cost of 10 Euros a night, train and meals included. And Guillaume had invitied me, so for 30 euros I got to come with him to Les Arcs and stay in a beautiful little alpine village and ski some of the best slopes in the world for 3 days. It was a wonderful, romantic, weekend; just me, Guillaume, and forty of his colleagues, all tucked away in the mountains together. Friday afternoon, after finishing my Franco-American Relations final exam and going for a long walk from the 4th to the 10th just shopping the ... read more

Snow, snow, snow—and skiing!!! This Christmas holiday we took a trip with our friends Matt and Megan to Les Arc 2000 in the French Alps. It was incredible. The scenery was like no other. However, we were in unanimous agreement that the Rockies are far better for skiing. But we still had a great experience. After a bit of a mess-up on the ski company’s part, with our flight, we made it to our resort. Our lift passes were for 6 days and also covered the runs on the next mountain called La Plagne. It took us all a while to get back in the swing of things. Koi and I hadn’t been skiing in 7 years. We made a pact to go much sooner next time—maybe before we’re done in England, who knows! I would ... read more

Seven months ago, during the midst of our travels, we were writing about the amazing conditions we had whilst snowboarding in Valle Nevado, Chile. It was such a fabulous change from the holiday we'd taken to Flaine in Jan 2007 where'd we experienced record high temperatures (sitting outside your chalet in t-shirts at 2000m in the Alps in Jan!) and record low snow cover. So, this year was a real gamble - we'd booked another holiday to the French Alps in January, most people thought we were crazy, but wow, did the gamble pay off. We have just returned from the best snowboarding holiday we've ever had in the French Alps. The conditions in La Plagne were second only to our Chile trip. It snowed for two days before we arrived, so our first day on ... read more

I thought this wasn't bad, 2 countries within the first month, and I'm looking at a few weekend's away too... Another trip well-organised by Jane (and Alex, although I think Jane sorts it all!)... to Chalet L'Ours (nearly 'because we're worth it' - no, not really!). 18 of us, all known to at least one other person in the group, but not necessarily to each other. Goes without saying that it was a good mix, and good to catch up with some of the previous year's crowd... such a good mix could always find someone to ski with! We went to Les Arcs 2000, in the Haute Savoie region of France. Despite claims that the snow wouldn't be up to anything, it was fine.... if a little slushy in places. We spent most of the week ... read more