Argentiere

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:34:06 +0000, in
, LittleRob
wrote:

Ace wrote:

Flaine is probably your best bet - easy access (closer than Cham),
great for kids, very central meeting points, ski schools etc.

Ace

Thanks for that. I'd heard of Flaine (heard it was ugly mostly ;-)

Well, the 'village' looks like something out of Stingray, but you get
used to it, and the scenery is anything but ugly.

but
until just now had no idea where it was. (I found it on Google Maps).

It does indeed look easy to get to. How do you think it compares with
the other resorts in the Grand Massif (Samoens, Le Carroz etc.?)

Personally I'd always rather stay there than at the satellite
stations, as it's so compact and quick to get skiing of a morning.
Also the Flaine bowl itself has the best number and range of slopes,
while all of the other ski areas can be reached with just two chair
lifts from Flaine. Staying in any of the others means a bit of a trek
trek or a shuuttle bus, then a cable car, before getting to the ski
area properly.

It is sometimes possible to ski all the way down to Morrilon or Les
Carroz, but only in exceptional conditions. Samoens lift is a god
fifteen minutes walk from the village.

and there seem to me multiple Flaines (Flaine Foret and so on) are
they very far apart? Is there a "main one"?

Foret and Forum are just sat on top of one another, with two
ascenseurs linking them in about five minutes (or a footpath, taking
about five minutes down or ten up). Both have easy access onto slopes
and their own shops, restaurants etc. The third area is 'Front de
Neige' which is just a ten minute walk down from Forum but without
much in the way of facilities. The Hameau de Flaine is a slightly
separate development of skandi-style chalets, with a shuttle bus to
the main resort.

Ace wrote:

Personally I'd always rather stay there than at the satellite
stations, as it's so compact and quick to get skiing of a morning.
Also the Flaine bowl itself has the best number and range of slopes,
while all of the other ski areas can be reached with just two chair
lifts from Flaine. Staying in any of the others means a bit of a trek
trek or a shuuttle bus, then a cable car, before getting to the ski
area properly.

It is sometimes possible to ski all the way down to Morrilon or Les
Carroz, but only in exceptional conditions. Samoens lift is a god
fifteen minutes walk from the village.

and there seem to me multiple Flaines (Flaine Foret and so on) are
they very far apart? Is there a "main one"?

Foret and Forum are just sat on top of one another, with two
ascenseurs linking them in about five minutes (or a footpath, taking
about five minutes down or ten up). Both have easy access onto slopes
and their own shops, restaurants etc. The third area is 'Front de
Neige' which is just a ten minute walk down from Forum but without
much in the way of facilities. The Hameau de Flaine is a slightly
separate development of skandi-style chalets, with a shuttle bus to
the main resort.

Ace

Thanks. I'd had a quick look at some accomodation sites and there were
several listing places in Hameau. It seems like that would be the one to
avoid and Flaine Foret or Flaine Forum are the ones to go for.

I can't do anything yet as we're going to Courchevel soon and it will be
the first time with the kids. If it goes OK in Courchevel then the
Flaine idea was to have a 2nd week of the cheapest skiing we could
manage (drive, self-cater and so on) but of course if they hate it
(which I *really* don't think they will) then the whole thing would be
out of the window in any case.

Thanks

Rob

In article ,
LittleRob wrote:
Thanks for the info. It seems a shame to be based in Argentiere (in an
apartment offering easy access to lifts) and then drive up the road each
day. I think we'll just look for something that is better located, and I
suspect that means not the Chamonix valley.

There's a fine bus system which goes down to Les Houches.
A ski pass gets you on the bus.
It's not a biggie to take it. It was an English woman who pointed the
way for me.

Tough little kids ski Les Houches.

--

Eugene Miya wrote:
In article ,
LittleRob wrote:
Thanks for the info. It seems a shame to be based in Argentiere (in an
apartment offering easy access to lifts) and then drive up the road each
day. I think we'll just look for something that is better located, and I
suspect that means not the Chamonix valley.

There's a fine bus system which goes down to Les Houches.
A ski pass gets you on the bus.
It's not a biggie to take it. It was an English woman who pointed the
way for me.

Tough little kids ski Les Houches.


Tough little kids ski Les Houches.

That might be so, but there's fat chance of me staying in one resort and
catching a bus to another. Especially with kids. We might have had the
chance of an apartment through a friend of a friend, but it wasn't
*that* good a deal ;-)

Thanks anyway

Rob

Thanks for that. I'd heard of Flaine (heard it was ugly mostly ;-)
Most definitely!

Personally I'd always rather stay there than at the satellite
stations, as it's so compact and quick to get skiing of a morning.
Also the Flaine bowl itself has the best number and range of slopes,
while all of the other ski areas can be reached with just two chair
lifts from Flaine. Staying in any of the others means a bit of a trek
trek or a shuuttle bus, then a cable car, before getting to the ski
area properly.

Not quite... Morillon 1100 is totally ski-in ski out
check http://www.peakretreats.co.uk/morill...rdin-alpin.htm
for instance

Snow is better in Flaine from April though. Samoens has nice north
facing slopes which guarantee good quality snow for longer than
Morillon for instance.

In any case the Grand Massif is definitely a good bet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
XS
Peak Retreats http://www.peakretreats.co.uk
Ski Collection http://www.skicollection.co.uk

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 01:57:39 -0800 (PST), in
,
Excess wrote:

Thanks for that. I'd heard of Flaine (heard it was ugly mostly ;-)
Most definitely!

Personally I'd always rather stay there than at the satellite
stations, as it's so compact and quick to get skiing of a morning.
Also the Flaine bowl itself has the best number and range of slopes,
while all of the other ski areas can be reached with just two chair
lifts from Flaine. Staying in any of the others means a bit of a trek
trek or a shuuttle bus, then a cable car, before getting to the ski
area properly.

Not quite... Morillon 1100 is totally ski-in ski out

True, and you can also stay at Samoens 1600m, but in both cases there
are limited restaurants and shops. Do you know how late do the cable
car connections to the villages continue to run?

Snow is better in Flaine from April though. Samoens has nice north
facing slopes which guarantee good quality snow for longer than
Morillon for instance.

Err, Morillon is also North facing, and has pretty much guaranteed
snow down to 1100m right up until late April, in my personal
experience.

In any case the Grand Massif is definitely a good bet.

We can at least agree on that :-)

There's a fine bus system which goes down to Les Houches.
A ski pass gets you on the bus.
It's not a biggie to take it.

Tough little kids ski Les Houches.

In article ,
LittleRob wrote:
Tough little kids ski Les Houches.

The French kids who ski there are pretty agressive. It amazes me that
any other countries Olympic ski medals except by pushing "the rules."

That might be so, but there's fat chance of me staying in one resort and
catching a bus to another. Especially with kids. We might have had the
chance of an apartment through a friend of a friend, but it wasn't
*that* good a deal ;-)

I would not let the distributed nature of Chamonix put you off. As with
the other posters, I agree with, that Argentiere doesn't seem like a place
for kids. But a bus isn't bad either. ;^)

--

On 30 Jan 2008 15:49:42 -0800, in 47a10d16$1@darkstar,
(Eugene Miya) wrote:

In article ,
LittleRob wrote:

That might be so, but there's fat chance of me staying in one resort and
catching a bus to another. Especially with kids. We might have had the
chance of an apartment through a friend of a friend, but it wasn't
*that* good a deal ;-)

I would not let the distributed nature of Chamonix put you off. As with
the other posters, I agree with, that Argentiere doesn't seem like a place
for kids. But a bus isn't bad either. ;^)

Yes it is. Busses are _always_ bad, if you can possibly avoid them,
and the Cham busses in partiocular are often packed to the gills. If
you wanted to ski in les Houches, staying in Argentiere would be sheer
lunacy.

I would disagree with many of the posters about Argentiere not being
suitable for kids. The drive to Le Tour, which has some lovely
cruising blues and reds and a wonderful tree lined run down to
Vallorcine if the snow allows, takes 5 - 10 minutes from Argentiere.
In seven visits at New Year and Half Term we did not need snow chains
once. As a family we learnt to ski in Le Tour and it was ideal. Once
you have got your ski legs you can try Argentiere - yes there are some
fast kids (French & English!) but you find that in most resorts.
Argentiere has some cosy Bars and Restaurants and the Bar at the
bottom of the run down used to do some lovely donuts and have a live
band at the end of the day.

Chamonix is a good night out for families - there are so many bars and
restaurants that you find they are cheaper than higher resorts - and
there is a MacDonalds!!!

In addition there are a number of off piste activities in Chamonix -
the Montnevers Train to the Glacier and Ice Cave, the Aigullie de Midi
Cable Car trip to the top which are both covered on your ski passes.
There is an Ice Rink too with regular league hockey games. Yes
Chamonix/Argentiere is disjointed but half the fun of that is with a
car is that you can find out which area has the best runs and ski
there or just ski one area in the morning and another in the
afternoon. The scenery is stunning too. I would give it a try if only
just the once - oh and also do not forget the snow! the Ski season
lasts until the end of May some years.

Hope this helps

PSC