 Poster: A snowHead
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b]Resort[/b]: La Tania
Country: France
Domain: 3 Valleys
Author: always29 (aka Mrs richard_sideways)
Date: 28th March - 4th April (1st week of Easter hols)
Our holiday: a sneaky 2nd family week with our 3 and 5 year old boys
Website : catered chalet direct with Family Friendly Skiing; Eurostar direct day train from Ashford to Moutiers.
The terrain : there are so many reports on the 3 Valleys here already! We only skiied the Courchevel Valley due to back and forth with the boys ski school / half day child care; we're not really fans of Meribel valley and I can't remember the last time I did the Les Menuires/ VT valley any justice!
The snow : Powder, scoured ice, beautifully pisted corded, slush, water - the whole mixture! Heavy snow on days 1 & 2 meant pistes knee deep in heavy hard going wet powder high up (Marmottes / Park City) and really low vis where as down at 1850 / LT there was rain, skiing down went from being snowed on, to hail to sleet to rain - I've never been so wet at the end of day! Days 3-5 were a mix of blue skies / snow / cloud but the pistes were definitely choppy low down although we did manage to ski down to LT every day. Day 6 was lush in the morning above LT where we did a few blasts of a blissfully empty and freshly groomed Dou de Lanches / Lanches. The red run down to LT was closed all week but there was enough off white stuff on it on day 6 to still pick a path down to the chalet which was a couple of mins stomp from the edge of Moretta Blanche red. The blue and green were open all week although the green seemed to have fared better.
Off-piste : Didn't do any!
The resort : Functional and the receding snowline meant we had no need for snowboots etc walking round, shops had what we needed although the tabac looked a bit end of season sparse.
Food : Afore mentioned powder day meant a necessary restorative stop for lunch at the Cave des Creux - a mountain stop where the blokey questioned if we had a reservation as we went in was new to me - the salad and soup were enormous portions and more like a light main than the entree they were billed and with a beer and wine that was €50 gone; conversely the Hotel Courcheneige had a snack bar open on the side of the Bellecote piste where 2 big baguettes, chips and drinks was €14. Bouc Blanc above LT was lovely in the sunshine on day 6 and what it should be about - lovely diots and tartiflette and would have been change from €50 had we not had extra wine / coffee and then more coffee / vin chaud mid afternoon to stop the post lunch slump!
Accommodation : Chalet Nicole, Family Friendly Skiing - really the point of this review as they deserve a big up and we've only done packages with Esprit since the boys arrived. An Easter trip with Esprit would have made this 2nd trip unaffordable so after a chunk of research, came across FFS and their set up while not as all seemingly wrap round as Esprit's offering sounded like it would work. We had originally booked their hotel Telemark as it had a 4 bed family room but got a call the week before from the continually helpful Jemma about a cancellation at the chalet and would we like to shift there instead - no extra cost so bit of a no brainer after pondering the bedroom set up (separate rooms across the hall for the boys) but the offering of the hot tub helped swing it! From meeting us to dropping off couldn't fault them at all!
Moutiers is a small station, literally walked off the platform, into the hall saw our name on the board and within 10 mins of train arriving we were in the minibus up to La Tania that we'd prebooked with FFS, we'd not booked a private transfer but we were the only ones. Lovely chatty Josh who was also one of the ski techs even took us up to their hotel en route to the chalet to pick up boys' skis and boots ready for the morning to save faffing. Arrived at the chalet to be greeted by the fabulous cheffing and hosting couple Chris and Annie - there were 2 other families & a friend of one theirs there that week - and we were offered to change mealtimes for the children / adults if needed at the start of the week (settled on 6 and 7:30 for 8 for them), nothing was ever too much trouble. Fussy kids were catered for quite happily, the "cold" selection at breakfast was copious and the hot option each morning was without doubt yummy! The evening aperitifs and meal were all superb - a huge variety including a curry night, tasty tagine, hand spun sugars on deserts, interesting nibbles and even the chalet wine was good. The free for all box wine on the balcony was appreciated in the hot tub too! Oh my, nearly forgot the afternoon cakes, could quite happily have eaten a lot more of those! Telling in that one of the drivers / techs told us one morning they knew we were in the best chalet to head to for left overs!
The two nannies for the 6 children were great in that they came to the chalet - came with us the first morning too (ours were in morning ski school, two others were too young and two others had afternoon ski school) to ski school to show us where it was etc and arranged a minibus the other mornings for us and boys which was a lovely bonus. Having to take the boys to 9:15 ski school made sure we were on the snow at a sensible time each day too! The nannies picked the boys up from ski school at 11:45, lunched them at chalet and entertained them inside and outside til 5pm. There were plenty of paintings to bring home and all the children (age 18 months - 7 years) played really well together from the snippets that we saw. Nothing all week was too much trouble for any of the FFS staff, most of whom seemed to be on repeat seasons which I think says it all.
On the nanny half day, we could have picked them up after lunch from the chalet but we opted to meet them from ski shool (ESF Flocon and Piou Piou) instead and took them up the bubble - the 5 year old and I did a couple of runs on the Bouc Blanc chair before meeting Daddy and the 3 year old to continue down the Plan Fontaine green, long sunny afternoon but good fun! Mind you I know now why we pay for childcare, took us all afternoon what with playing in the snow and diving into the woods to look for Gruffalo's to get down that green!
The actual chalet was comfortable, the rooms were basic but then the living area was so comfy and laid back it was OK for us, children and toys to migrate there to chill out (as did everyone else!), the boot room was massive and plenty of space to store and dry stuff out and seats to get booted up in the morning. Hot tub was just by boot room and certainly welcome a few times - shame the boys piled in with us too but they enjoyed it!
The train journey was blogged already, you may have already read this!
Costs: We booked early with FFS and got last years rates at the Telemark, the actual chalet costs without early booking would have been about £100 pp more but was £2,450 for us includise of 5 half days childcare for boys, transfers from Moutiers and boys' ski / boot hire. Eurostar was £1,018, ski school and lift passes we paid locally and liked the prevailing exchange rate! £436 for 6 day passes for us and 5 year old (FFS passed on the Tribu rate they buy them at so that saved about €40 each adult), ski school I booked direct with ESF a couple of months before getting a 5% online discount and was £118 each for the boys. That was for 6 x 2.5hrs which I think was really good value, not sure the 3 year old progressed a huge amount but we're very much as long as they're enjoying it so what. The 5 year old was out and about down to Courchevel with his group (14 kids, 2 instructors) all week so he's clearly improved. Plus about €500 spends for lunches, beers, voltarol for my geriatric knee, more beers etc. And €450 for his new snowboard....
Conclusion: If you like a relaxed unprentious good value chalet family holiday and don't mind sorting your own travel then FFS is for you. But don't book yet til I've got mine sorted for 2016 
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 12-04-15 11:03; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Is that a very late review of do you mean 2015? Anyway sounds like you had a great time.
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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?
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@JimboS, thank you! Amended to 2015.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Chris and Annie were excellent hosts for us at Christmas. Food and especially the cakes were very good.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Happy Memories of many years in La Tania with Family Friendly Skiing, good to hear they are still doing well.
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