Val D'Allos
From snowheads
Country
Ski domain
l'Espace Lumiere (shared with Pra Loup) - 230km in total (180km La Foux/Pra Loup and 50km Le Seignus).
Website
Getting there
In the Alpes de Haute Provence, 2 hours from Nice and 3 hours from Marseille or Toulon. The drive from Nice is mostly on single-carriage roads, from Marseille the first 2 hours are on autoroute. Whichever way you arrive, the last 40 minutes are all on single carriage road although traffic is only a problem on local school holiday changeover days.
There is also a train from Nice to Thorame Haute (15 minutes from Allos) from where there are bus connections to the resorts.
Coach transfers are available from Nice and Marseille airports on Saturdays but the journey from Marseille involves a change and takes more than 4 hours.
The resorts
The Val d'Allos consists of 3 villages - Allos, Le Seignus and La Foux d'Allos - and a free shuttle bus runs between them (last bus approx. 5PM, gondola between Allos and Le Seignus until 7.30PM).
Allos is the original village in the valley and the main part of the town (the Grand Rue, behind the newer main road) is picturesque. There is a supermarket, bank, post office and other shops and restaurants.
A few self-catering chalets are available to rent in Super Allos which is a newer collection of mostly wood-clad chalets above Allos and facing the Seignus pistes but this involves a 10 minute drive to the slopes.
Le Seignus is a small ski resort with a dozen old former farm buildings at its core and a few low-rise apartment blocks. There are none of the concrete monstrosities that some other French resorts suffer from. All apartments will be within a minute or two of the slopes but the Hameau de Chapelle is on the other side of the piste from the village centre so a bit of a tricky walk at night. The village has the usual choice of hire shops, restaurants and bars.
La Foux the closest thing in the area to a mainstream resort. The village is quite spread out with a river dividing it so check that your accomodation is handy for the lifts/village centre. There is an internal navette which runs until mid-evening. Most of the village has been sympathetically developed but there are a couple of apartment blocks which are showing their age and a lack of attention.
There is a cinema (VF only) and an ice-rink.
The season
Lifts usually open the second weekend in December with weekend openings for the first week or two in Le Seignus and with the lifts in La Foux opening 7 days a week. Due to lack of visitors, the lifs in Le Seignus close at the end of March while those in La Foux continue until the 3rd or 4th weekend in April.
Terrain
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Allos Children's and beginners' ski area only.
Le Seignus 50km of slopes with something for everyone although skewed towards the week 2 onwards skier as 9 out of the 13 runs are red or black. Particularly recommended is Valcibiere off the Gros Tapy chair. Possible to ski from 2400m down to 1500m on a blue.
La Foux/Pra Loup 180km of pistes and the best stuff is in the area between La Foux and Pra Loup. The runs in the trees on the rive droit are a bit short and are mostly suitable for beginners. Only possible to get to Pra Loup and back if you can ski a red and manage a long button lift.
Pra Loup has a lot of motorway cruising along with a good snow park and some gulleys that you can play around in.
Off-piste Plenty of off-piste above Le Seignus and in the area between La Foux and Pra Loup.
2 fatalities in the area in 2005/6 (both skiing in areas closed due to high risk) which were the first for many years and 2 more over at Pra Loup in what was a record bad year for avalanche deaths in France.
Eating
Le Seignus Only 1 resaurant and 1 snack bar on the mountain. Plenty of choice in the village at the front de neige.
Hotel Franz offers the most traditional fare and is excellent. The Wapiti (perhaps surprisingly as it's run by young snowboarders who seem more interested in boarding than running their business) does very good food and is a bit cheaper. Hotel Ours Blanc does slightly fancier food although they do the usual gut-busting fondues and pierrades. There are also a couple of other places serving pizzas, crepes etc.
La Foux Quite a few mountain restaurants serving a variety of food. Nearly all are self-service so take care with that ski boot/tiled floor combo when carrying your tray!
Pra Loup For all-round ambience, view and food the two best mountain restaurants in the whole area are at the top of each of the gondolas in Pra Loup (Costabelle and Dalle en Pente).
Accommodation
Allos
Only recommended if you've got a car (or the accomodation offers transport to/from the lifts) or if close to the children's/beginners' ski area as you can then catch the gondola up to Le Seignus.
There is a colonie de vacances run by VTF on the edge of the village.also a self catering apartment run by an english couple living on site which can offer up to 8 people accomadation.http://www.alpsholiday.co.uk
There is a year-round camping car site (with showers and toilet emptying facilities) in the car park at the base of the gondola up to Le Seignus.
Le Seignus
Hotel Franz and l'Ours Blanc. Hotel Franz offers a combined half-board/lift pass deal but the pass is only for Le Seignus.
Plenty of apartments to rent via the Tourist Office or local estate agents. Outside the local school holidays most apartments are empty so you should have no problem arranging accomodation. Only a couple of self-catering chalets in the village.
One catered chalet, Chalet Vallons, run by snowHead Ben Wright.
La Foux
Plenty of choice of hotels and apartments and although slightly busier than Le Seignus it should still be easy to find somewhere at the last minute outside the local school holidays.
No catered chalets.
There is a youth hostel located in the middle of one of the beginner's pistes.
The camping car site has been significantly reduced in size due to the construction of a new bridge to carry the piste from one side of the road to the other so may be full at busy times.
Nightlife
The area is very French which means it's usually pretty quiet.
Allos Piano Bar Alexandra for live music, the occasional strip show and the transvestite bar-man/maid. Relas St Jean only if you're desparate to spend the evening with a couple of miserable old locals.
Le Seignus The Wapiti is where the young ski instructors, lift attendants and piste patrollers go. Cheap drinks but the entertainment is limited to recorded music, dice-based drinking games or ski instructors dancing on the bar.
Hotel Franz has a bar which the older resort workers go to and which is very popular with locals on Friday evenings.
Le Laetitia (changes name every few months) also known as Mrs Bunn's because the owner used to run the bakery. Rancid red wine unless you buy a bottle but good Corsican beer and simple Corsican food (watch out for the donkey sausage). Live music - usually Corsican (can you spot the theme?) and sometimes DJs. Regularly switches from being the most popular place in town, packed to the doors at 2AM, to dead at 10PM with only the owner and 2 of her pals playing cards seemingly without reason.
Bidule nightclub under Hotel Franz doesn't open until 11PM and all drinks are EUR8 or a bottle of vodka is EUR120! You can usually do a deal with the barman and also avoid paying the entry charge if you ask nicely.
La Foux The ski instructors like to drive up here at about 11PM after a heavy night in the Wapiti so there must be something going on but I've never been tempted to join them.
Costs
Cheap e.g at the cheapest places in Le Seignus you can get a burger and chips slopeside for EUR5 and a litre of drinkable wine in one of the mountain restaurants for the same price. More expensive food available.
Lift pass very cheap - most expensive is EUR137 for 6 day, whole area. Low season, whole area pass is EUR103.
Lessons are also very reasonable - EUR45 for a 90 minutes private lesson for 2 people with the ESF in Le Seignus.
