Resort: La Plagne (Plagne1800)
Country: France (Savoie Region)
Domain: Paradiski
Author: Bertie Bassett.
Date: 29/1/2011 - 5/2/2011
Our holiday: Myself and another good mate, couple of other friends of his staying in resort elsewhere, all pretty experienced. La PLagne chosen as original group size was bigger with more beginnners
Website:www.la-plagne.com,www.paradiski.com Basics: Located in the Savoie region of the Alps, La Plagne is part of the Paradiski domain that also includes Les Arcs. We flew to GVA arriving around 10:15, left the airport come 11:30 and arrived at resort at 14:15 having taken in a nice trip round Lake Annecy on the way down. I small stop in Moutiers to put 3 boarders onto a minibus to montchavin.
Lift system: Made up of several 'villages' La Plagne is a huge area that is easy to navigate once you have the basic geography under control. With fantastic visibility all week and having spent some 20 days skiing there previously I didn't look at a piste map all week.
The terrain: Undemanding is probably the fairest description - there's lots of cruisy blues and reds around the resort without many huge challenges. You do have to watch out for flat spots on the blues especially when going down to champagny or taking the tunnel run back towards Plagne Bellecote. Very few of the blacks were open (see snow conditions) so the opportunities to challenge oneself were limited, until we went to Les Arcs for a couple of days. My travel mate really liked les Arcs, and I think he would have been a bit fed up if we hadn't been over there a couple of times and ticked off all the key reds and a number of the open blacks.
The Snow: Well as per the snow reports it hadn't snowed for over 2 weeks when we arrived. Still the pisties had done a fabulous job at keeping the blue / red pistes in good shape, and only those particularly south facing (e.b. below verdons sud) were showing brown patches. Good number of black runs closed due to poor snow conditions. Was able to ski to all the low points in the domain including La Roche (emile alias is a great run but was in poor condition when skied), Champagny, Montchavin (icy!) and Montalbert. Towards the end of the day you got lots of icy patches on the key pistes which made lift tricky - I was Very glad I chose to ski not board for the week
Off-piste : Didn't really bother - with such sketchy snow conditions not much fresh around although one of our chalet buddies claimed some 6 inches of freshies after a long traverse off the roche de mio.
The resort: We stayed in Plagne1800 which is a village of predominately chalets below Plagne centre, now with two decent lifts out of resort (Melezes & 1800) it's pretty easy to get going in the direction you need. Return runs to 1800 are tricky in poor snow conditions, and whilst in theory we could have ski'd in/out from the end of our road, after a first go we sacked it off and took the navette (bus) from the roundabout to/from Bellecote. Return buses running at 20 past the hour and every 15 minutes thereafter, it was pretty easy to go for sun-downers in the arpette (above bellecote) and then ski down on a 10 minute warning - fantastic way to end the day. Two bars - La Mine, which seems to have moved and grown since I was last there in c. 2001 and the Bobsleigh Pub. La Mine is a little more trendy with live music and dj's and the bobsleigh is good for live footie/rugby etc, but otherwise is somewhat bland. Spar supermarket, Intersport, Sport 2000, LIft Pass, ESF office etc and a smattering of restaurants - Mamma Mias (nr Intersport) was good for lunch on Saturday. Loup Blanc near the 1800 chair was the venue for a fab fondue on chalet hosts night off.
Food: Ate at the Forporet (montalbert) a couple of times (cheers snowcrazy for that one) - excellent and well priced, the place under the colosses chair, and in les arcs Chez Eux (opp. Lanchettes lift and the arpette). Didn't pay more than 15 euro for lunch and a drink, apart from a last day blowout in PLagne Centre at la chaudron which was great, but closer to 30 with pudding/coffee etc
Accommodation: We stayed at Chalet Juliette, a crystal Chalet. Sleeping upto 17 with a big communal lounge and complete with a hot-tub, sauna and heated boot dryers it pretty much ticked all the boxes. We had a real mixture of groups in the chalet, an older family of 4, a couple of couples and a big group of friends, all seemed to mix along well enough and do some skiing together. The chalet hosts were FANTASTIC - super friendly, very hard-working and decent cooks! The even would go out of their way to help their guests, for example loaning a personal laptop and some dvd's to a guest who injured themselves part way through the week and thus could not ski.
Costs: Rack rate was around £600 for the week inc. 1/2 board, flights, txfrs etc. Lift Pass was 269 euro for full paradiski with Carte Neige (taken given snow conditions). Ski Hire was a very reasonable 65 euro for the week for the top rated skis from Intersport (via a discount code) - list price was closer to 150.
Conclusion: As ever La Plagne is a good venue for mixed ability groups. It's a little under challenging for good skiers unless the off-piste is worth using, or you go to les arcs.
I was really impressed with Crystal (ok so we had brilliant chalet hosts) but everything else seemed to work well too and the food was good. I'd almost definitely book with them again.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 6-02-11 16:21; edited 1 time in total
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
That report has brought back some good memories. Thanks for that.
I worked for Crystal as a Chalet Host in La Plagne 3 seasons ago. We had an elderly couple in their 60's running the Juliette. Lovely Chalet.
My fav place to eat was Loup Blanc...amazing Pizza's, with great Chillie oil, and great Fondue. Many an Apres Ski was spent in La Mine too.
As with many Chalet Holidays, it's the luck of the draw as to which Chalet Hosts you get. They can make or break a holiday.
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
nice report thanks.
Check your dates though as it seems you left before you got there!
bertie bassett, good reort confirming once again that Les Arcs is best for Advenced and Off piste skiers long may people think that spud, Loup Blanc has unfortunately slipped a long way downhill in the last couple of seasons. Which is a shame.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
daveqpr wrote:
nice report thanks.
Check your dates though as it seems you left before you got there!
bertie bassett, good reort confirming once again that Les Arcs is best for Advenced and Off piste skiers long may people think that spud, Loup Blanc has unfortunately slipped a long way downhill in the last couple of seasons. Which is a shame.
That's a shame...they were always good to us, and went that extra mile. New Owners?
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
spud wrote:
Boredsurfing wrote:
bertie bassett, good reort confirming once again that Les Arcs is best for Advenced and Off piste skiers long may people think that spud, Loup Blanc has unfortunately slipped a long way downhill in the last couple of seasons. Which is a shame.
That's a shame...they were always good to us, and went that extra mile. New Owners?
New owners about 3 years ago. We nickname this restaurant the Slug and Lettuce... and there is a story behind it
After all it is free
After all it is free
Mouth, Slug IN Lettuce
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Boredsurfing wrote:
Mouth, Slug IN Lettuce
Oh yes that was it
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Mouth wrote:
spud wrote:
Boredsurfing wrote:
bertie bassett, good reort confirming once again that Les Arcs is best for Advenced and Off piste skiers long may people think that spud, Loup Blanc has unfortunately slipped a long way downhill in the last couple of seasons. Which is a shame.
That's a shame...they were always good to us, and went that extra mile. New Owners?
New owners about 3 years ago. We nickname this restaurant the Slug and Lettuce... and there is a story behind it
What full of 20 something braying sloanes trying to pull each other?
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
bertie bassett wrote:
Mouth wrote:
spud wrote:
Boredsurfing wrote:
bertie bassett, good reort confirming once again that Les Arcs is best for Advenced and Off piste skiers long may people think that spud, Loup Blanc has unfortunately slipped a long way downhill in the last couple of seasons. Which is a shame.
That's a shame...they were always good to us, and went that extra mile. New Owners?
New owners about 3 years ago. We nickname this restaurant the Slug and Lettuce... and there is a story behind it
What full of 20 something braying sloanes trying to pull each other?
Wow...things have definately changed then. It was very French when i was there. In fact, of an evening, it was hard to find any English speakers in there. What a shame...
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Fellow Snowhead wrote:
Hi Bertie,
I found a review you gave of la Plagne and Chalet Juliette on snowheads. Im looking to book a holiday with Crystal and considering this chalet. I can pick my room and was considering the room on the 3rd floor, do you have any comments regarding the rooms in the chalet, are there any pros and cons to certain rooms?
Got this query by PM so I though I would reflect back on the thread
I think the video here http://youtube.com/v/0zAYgFtpJ1E provides a pretty decent reflection of a typical room in this chalet. There are a little on the 'basic' side, you've got the beds - comfortable enough, bedside cabinets and storage space, ensuite showers and washbasin, then the WC's in the corridor - slighty tedious for the midnight pee..
The third floor is a bit of a lie - it's a mezzanine level above the kitchen/room at rear of the chalet, and access is by the quite steep ladder you can see going up in the video. I didn't hear any complaints about it from the couple that had that room during the week, but personally I couldn't be doing with the pfaff of going up/down the ladder - I'm always leaving something in my room when getting kitted up
The lounge area doesn't quite have enough room for everyone to sit on comfortable sofas, but I guess they work on the basis that most people will be running on 'different bathroom shifts' on the lead up to dinner, so it wasn't a huge problem - but one of my 'chalet bugbears'
I guess the only other thing I would add is that I don't think this place is that great for kids based on location - probably ok if they can carry own skis for 500m stage, but any younger and the walk in/out would just become really really tedious. For those of you that like a beer then my note above about sun-downers and getting the bus back from bellecote, can hardly be beaten
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Thanks for the update
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Stayed in Chalet Juliette in January this year (2013), booked through Crystal. Travelled via eurostar from St Pancras which was nice and easy for us as we live in Bedford and the train from Bedford goes to St Pancras. Service from Crystal was very good, chalet hosts (Bob and Charlotte) where great, the food was lovely, good size portions and nice hearty meals, bonus being the 3 course meal on the last night which was roast lamb. The Chalet itself provides ideal facilities, good size boot and ski/board room on the ground floor, the hot tub and sauna are great after a days skiing or boarding too. The stair case is a bit narrow going up to the 1st and 2nd floor. The rooms as bertie has said are basic but are clean and spacious. WC are shared but guest are asked to only use their toilet i.e. on the 1st floor there are 4 bedrooms and 2 toilets, rooms 1 and 2 will share a toilet and rooms 3 and 4 share the other. The 2nd floor is where the kitchen lounge and dining area are along with a further 3 rooms. There is a mezzzanine above the kitchen that can be used if the chalet is booked out by a large group I believe. There was slight confusion when I was first booking as to where room 8 on the 3rd floor was. Room 8 is on the 3rd floor which is next to the chalet hosts room towards the back of the chalet. From photos of the chalet its not obvious that there is a 3rd floor.
Its approx 300m to the slope, you can ski down the road/track outside the chalet to the slopes but there is a short (20-30m) walk up hill to reach the slope at the end. The slope takes you down to the 4 man Melezes that takes you up to the La Bergerie chair lift. Or you can carry on to the 1800 chait lift which takes you up to Aime La Plagne.
FAQ
Poster: A snowHead
