 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from a few days in the GM.
We flew from Bristol on the first GVA flight not to be cancelled due to the Beast from the East - we were very lucky! Traffic getting to Samoens was dreadful though and took nearly 3 hours on Saturday afternoon/evening.
We stayed at Chalet Marie Stuart just below Vercland - clean, warm, comfortable, really superb food and lovely hosting. Would stay there again. Bus stop pretty much outside to take you up to the Vercland bubble but be sure not to miss it. Easy walk back down if not in ski boots.
Some of my friends hired skis from Roland Gay at the top of the Vercland bubble- very friendly staff and skis in good shape for this far along in the season. Good selection. We were then able to hire lockers which was a massive help.
We caught the end of the French school holidays, so later in the afternoon there were some runs which were ridiculously busy, but generally speaking the skiing was great - especially up at the top of the bowl. Some really nice cruisy reds over on the right hand side of the bowl, in great condition. Sunday and Monday were nice and sunny, Tuesday was warm and wet - vis was poor up high so we stayed down in the trees towards Les Carroz and Morillon. Some really nice runs down there but getting a bit slushy (which I prefer over ice anyway  ).
Lunch stops - day one we ate at the Desert Blanc at the top of the Platieres lift. The food was good but we stood in the self service queue for best part of an hour. Day two we booked a table at The Refuge du Lacs de Gers - we headed down the Cascades piste, stopping by the sign where you call them up. A nice man on a ski-cat comes down and tows you back up to the restaurant! What a great experience. Food was lovely and the service was exceptional. Easy to book on WhatsApp - +33 663 91 8828. Day 3 we ate at le Blanchot and I was a bit disappointed tbh - onion soup with hardly any cheese and frites which were cold.
Apres - we only ever went to Le Reposette in Vercland ono our way home. Absolutely lovely place with really nice staff and very reasonably priced drinks. Massive thumbs up for this place.
We had an afternoon flight on Wednesday so in the morning we were able to walk down into Samoens to enjoy the weekly market. Well worth a visit if you fancy the morning off the slopes - make sure you turn left at the building site rather than carrying straight on.
Bit disappointed with the bus service - infrequent and often not to schedule. When we got the bus back from Sixt it was late and so busy they had to put on two buses which were absolutely jam packed. On our last day the last bus down the hill was about 4 minutes early - not a disaster for us but it left a family with two small kids stranded with no way of getting down. Not impressed.
Overall - a good trip!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip. We've just got back from Samoens and were very pleasantly surpised with the range of ski-ing on offer, from the wide open bowls in Flaine to the tree lined village runs in Morillon and Les Carroz. Loved the long runs available everywhere although they are hard on unfit legs. It was a bit soft lower down as the tempertures were quite high but the snow was amazing higher up and it topped itself up nearly every day which meant a couple of days were shorter than they might have been.
On the mountain, we had an excellent meal at Le Blanchot and also at Chalets des Molliets and tried to see if we could get in at La Luge, but it was very busy and we didnt feel that the staff were particularly receptive (I appreciate that we probably needed a reservation but would have gone back another day if we'd had a friendlier greeting). We also liked the K at the top of the Kedeuse gondola at Les Carroz, easy self service with a pretty good soupe du jour which included a slab of what we took to be the local cheese (Tomme?) and some bits of french toasted bread
I would agree with your comments about the bus service. We were planning to use that but when we checked out the timetable and saw that the buses were only every 25 minutes or so, we decided that it would be much easier to drive down to the car park each day - which worked brilliantly. The walk from Samoens was really too far in ski boots, but I saw that there was a locker service opp the GM lift.
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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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Yes there were some lovely long runs. Even the green - Marvel - was a joy to ski, though probably even more enjoyable outside of school holidays
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I did a great off-piste week in Flaine last year but have thought that Samoens may be a good place to go with my wife who is a non-skier. Are there many good walks about? Spas?
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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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@hawkesbaynz, yes, I think Samoens is a great place for any groups with non skiers. Especially if you stay be the centre then you can access all the tourist office activities, go to the botanic gardens (if the village is warm) and there are several spas - la reine du pres (Cgh) has a spa and so does fiffines. There are also lovely walks along the river and free access to the ski buses to see different villages along the valley. Great weekly markets, tours of the cheese factory, and walks around Boix aux daims are all looking very things to do. 👍🏻
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I would agree that Samoëns would be a good place for non skiers. The other CGH residence, Chalets de Layssia, which is very central, also has a spa. We loved the whole feel of the town.
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