France
by Iain Martin
IF YOU are thinking about taking a late season ski break, then maybe it’s time to try somewhere different and head to the French Pyrenees.
With the resort open until April 22, Cauterets is the perfect solution if you are looking to get away from it all and enjoy some great spring skiing. There are many great reasons to choose this captivating resort, but let’s start with these five:
by Rob Rees
If you still haven’t decided where to go to enjoy this bumper ski season, and you’ve just about recovered from ‘The Beast from the East’, Les Arcs is a perfect venue. The gorgeous boutique Chalet des Cascades above Les Arcs 2000 still has some spaces left, at cracking prices through Flexiski (www.flexiski.com).
FOUR Pyrenean ski resorts have combined to create a new ski area – the Pyrenees 2 Vallées.
PHOTO: Peyragudes
Saint-Lary, Peyragudes, Piau-Engaly and Val Louron will be linked by shuttle bus and between them offer 247 km of skiable terrain with 166 pistes and 66 lifts.
AFTER a period of uncertainty for La Grave, the future of the legendary off piste area in Les Hautes Alpes has been secured by SATA, the lift company associated with Alpe d’Huez.
SATA has taken on the lease to operate the lift system in La Grave and has pledged to maintain the unique off-piste atmosphere of the area.
Val d’Isère is embarking on an ambitious €200m (£170m) building project to redevelop the centre of the world-famous resort.
The project is being called Le Coin de Val d’Isère and involves the demolition and reconstruction of a giant triangle in the heart of the resort.
It might be one of the hottest months of the year, but most of the talk was about skiing and snowboarding last week when representatives from the Savoie Mont Blanc area of France visited London to spread the word about new attractions in the their resorts for the coming season. Here are some of the highlights (for more info on the resorts, click on the names):
Why is there no Sunday Ski Train? The direct daytime Eurostar Ski Train, which runs every Saturday from London to the Tarentaise region of the French Alps, is now so popular that at February half term it sells out within hours of going on sale.
The expression ‘hidden gem’ can often be overused when it comes to ski areas. It seems to cover every resort that does not appear in the mainstream holiday brochures.
But the reason not many people from the UK go to these places is because these ‘hidden gems’ are usually quite small with a limited lift system.
After months of tasting, French Alps specialist Ski Amis has announced that their brand new and vastly improved menu has been finalised for the coming season. The team have been working extremely hard to create a more focused collection of new dishes whilst keeping a few of their old favourites.
Peak Retreats is offering its clients a brand new luxury 4* apartment for this season. Chalets de Layssia is situated in the heart of the very attractive, traditional resort of Samoëns.
Plus, another addition this season in the recently built Kalinda Village in Tignes is the Kalinda Flocon apartment extension located within two new buildings.
In the two seconds or so it took to rotate 360 degrees in mid-air – my care-free world of powder-filled hedonistic pleasure transformed into a stressed-out world of nauseating pain!
My anticipation of this late March day could not have been higher. The previous evening thick snowflakes began to fall from the chilly night skies over the affluent French resort of Courchevel 1850 and when I peeked through my bedroom curtains at the luxurious Chalet Montana the next morning there was a fluffy blanket of boot high powder.
The off-piste ski area of La Grave in the French Hautes-Alpes has a unique atmosphere that attracts skiers from all over the world. But, as British ski instructor CHARLOTTE SWIFT explains, a question mark hangs over the future of this French mecca. March 2014
DURING a British university championships in Tignes a few years back a couple of students embarrassed themselves when, after a night time snow storm, they spent all morning digging out their car – only to find it was the wrong car.