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Will French Alps Close Today / Weekend?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
young_bairn wrote:

A sensible step would be to close the big cable cars?


Or just restrict the numbers allowed in them surely?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
young_bairn wrote:

A sensible step would be to close the big cable cars?

I thought similar for any enclosed lift but for Chamonix that would close Brevent, Flegere and Le Tour in one go. I was due to go to La Plagne today stopping in Montalbert and that would have been the same as the main lift to access the domain is a 8 man cable car.
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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?
We don't have a cable car here anymore but one large gondola takes 20 at a time. The alternative is a faster, new 8 man gondola which I normally use. I'll take a look at how capacity is being managed. The largest après bar takes many 100s. Not sure what they'll do. I'm not going to stay up to check the clubs out.
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bigtuboflard wrote:
I was due to go to La Plagne today stopping in Montalbert


I assume that you've decided not to go?
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@young_bairn, @Handy Turnip, and this is what STVI in VdI are doing:

Quote:

Le nombre de personnes autorisées dans le funival et le téléphérique du Fornet est limité, conformément aux directives gouvernementales

Translated as:
The number of people authorized in the funival and the Fornet cable car is limited, in accordance with government directives.


Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Sat 14-03-20 9:58; edited 1 time in total
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@chocksaway, I was talking about now not usual, as noted above it’s deserted at the moment. I’m well aware how many tourists it gets hence why I hardly ever visit!!


Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Sat 14-03-20 9:58; edited 1 time in total
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Claude B wrote:
The largest après bar takes many 100s. Not sure what they'll do. I'm not going to stay up to check the clubs out.


I assume the apres bars with live music will have to stop, and maybe operate just as bars and restaurants, hopefully with capacity limits so that there's plenty of room between tables.
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@young_bairn, there are only three cable cars in Cham valley, top of Brevent (blacks only but who knows why they're black), Belvedere in Les Houches but it's so much easier to go up Prarion, and the Aiguille which contributes an enormous amount to the CdMB's numbers...

On that basis ... not worth the bother, frankly.
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@chocksaway, No point in quoting numbers in say York or elsewhere in the UK they are no longer testing unless you are old or underlying medical problems . On Thursday when the tested number was 500 plus the PM and medical experts suggested the real current number was somewhere between 5 and 10 thousand .
I don’t know what the current testing policy is in France but I would think this far down the line official numbers should be taken with a pinch of salt .
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@Handy Turnip, The biggest here, Umbrella Bar is only open from 4 to 7. Just booze and piped music, occasional live or DJs. Purely a vehicle for getting pissed early really.
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Currently working my through Gatwick airport, where for the most part, it is business as usual.

I decided to go ahead with my trip as I figure there is no disadvantage to doing so. Other than the potential hassle, should the situation change. This is often the nature of travelling anyway, numerous times I have had transfers stuck up a mountain due to snow, unable to get to the airport. Ultimately for me, the decision is a financial one, not a health one, where I have concluded I will be no worse of by going in any event. I do however live and work in Central London so appreciate the health risks may be different for other individuals.
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lenniem wrote:
Probably asked elsewhere so apologies, but does anyone know where you stand if they close the resort but you are still ok to travel and hotel open from an insurance perspective? While I like the alps, don’t really fancy spending 4k for a week in a chalet in a closed village, there is only so much ‘articulate’ I can stand

Surely in that circumstance you wouldn't go, regardless of whether you get the money back on insurance?
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
If the opportunities to be in close proximity to other people e.g., in a gondola or bar are being restricted AND the supply chains of food and other essentials aren’t disrupted; then Alpine ski resorts feel like the perfect place to be?
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
This is a pretty sobering article that @skimottaret posted on Facebook.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

Particularly this section

Quote:

France claims 1,400 cases today and 30 deaths. Using the two methods above, you can have a range of cases: between 24,000 and 140,000.
The true number of coronavirus cases in France today is likely to be between 24,000 and 140,000.
Let me repeat that: the number of true cases in France is likely to be between one and two orders or magnitude higher than it is officially reported.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
RedandWhiteFlachau wrote:
400 Cheeses and no word for Elephant. All you need to know about the French Very Happy
Puzzled

Current nomenclature is l'éléphant which is from the Old French elefant, via Latin from the Greek elephas.
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sugarmoma666 wrote:
lenniem wrote:
Probably asked elsewhere so apologies, but does anyone know where you stand if they close the resort but you are still ok to travel and hotel open from an insurance perspective? While I like the alps, don’t really fancy spending 4k for a week in a chalet in a closed village, there is only so much ‘articulate’ I can stand

Surely in that circumstance you wouldn't go, regardless of whether you get the money back on insurance?


Well of course you wouldn’t go, but if You can’t go then You want your money back from the insurance company. I wondered where I would stand if technically I can travel, the flight is operating and the hotel is open, there is just no point in going.
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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?
kitenski wrote:
This is a pretty sobering article that @skimottaret posted on Facebook.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

Particularly this section

Quote:

France claims 1,400 cases today and 30 deaths. Using the two methods above, you can have a range of cases: between 24,000 and 140,000.
The true number of coronavirus cases in France today is likely to be between 24,000 and 140,000.
Let me repeat that: the number of true cases in France is likely to be between one and two orders or magnitude higher than it is officially reported.
. That's been discussed over the last couple of days in one or other of the Coronavirus threads. It's an interesting article although nobody's sure of Tomas Pueyo's bona fides, he seems to be an online journalist with no particular focus on medicine in his writing, and we have no idea if he has a medical background.
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Handy Turnip wrote:
bigtuboflard wrote:
I was due to go to La Plagne today stopping in Montalbert


I assume that you've decided not to go?
yep, spoke with my French brother who gave some more specific local advice and figured the best approach is to just stay put.

As it happens EasyJet are waiving fees to change flights so I’ve moved them to October. Got 50% back on the car hire and the apartment owner has offered a full refund which is incredibly generous given the circumstances. I’ve said I’d rather carry the booking forward to 2021 so he doesn’t lose out.
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Well I'm going up; Sun cream, lip salve, hand gel, tissues, check
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bigtuboflard wrote:


yep, spoke with my French brother who gave some more specific local advice and figured the best approach is to just stay put.


What was the more specific local advice?
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That Haute Savoie was around a week behind Italy in the spike of cases and that the generally held view is that number of cases reported is a lot lower than actual due to the limitations of testing.

Having said that, Savoie itself appears to have fewer cases than a lot of other departments.

I was probably more concerned about getting stranded than getting there too. And given my father in law was rushed to hospital last night (COPD sufferer) it’s a good job we aren’t going.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
OK your last post suggested you elected not to go because of specific local advice, but I see you’re heeding more general advice and have other non-local considerations at home.

Anyway - I questioned the post because we’re in similar circumstances (although arguably I am a small minded pedant as well! :0) )

We (2 adults + 2 kids) should be heading to La Plagne on the 27 Mar 2020 in the car and staying in a hotel when we’re there.

I’ve got an elderly but currently ‘healthy’ OAP in the family here in the UK who is self isolating.

So the question for us is whether to go (to La Plagne) or not.

We’re pretty comfortable that the risk of catching any infection up the mountain (whilst taking precautions) is probably no higher in La Plagne than here in the UK if everything around us is functioning as it should.

I guess the worry is what happens if we’re out there and the unthinkable happens i.e., one of us comes down with the flu and / or the resort / health system starts to shut down / fail around us and we need it.

If one of us gets an infection; then courtesy of the hotel room and / or the car - we’re all getting it!

It feels like the sensible decision is to stay at home; however at the same time I can also see how we could go, enjoy the time away and get some skiing done and wonder what all the fuss (for us) was about (clearly there is an elevated risk for certain segments of the population).

I’m more inclined not to go, but clinging on the hope that we should.
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Sound reasoning, @sasha320. Really hard decisions being made all round.
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I was basically in the same position 48 hours ago. We made the decision not to go based on speaking to my brother and the risk of being stranded or conditions accelerating whilst we were there.

The issue with the FiL happened after we decided which is just as well.
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@sasha320, well balanced post & I am in same (maybe a bit better) position, you say if 1 gets it you all get it due to car/hotel but is that not the case if you stay at home anyway, in real life , families that stay in the same home have so much interaction with each other it would have been passed on by time any symptoms show.
My thinking is U.K. is so infected now I go
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 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.
@lenniem, apparently, although 'entrepreneur' is a French word, it has a different meaning in French, not quite as much emphasis on 'bleeding edge businessman exploring new ground'.
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 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
Jonny996 wrote:
@sasha320, well balanced post & I am in same (maybe a bit better) position, you say if 1 gets it you all get it due to car/hotel but is that not the case if you stay at home anyway, in real life , families that stay in the same home have so much interaction with each other it would have been passed on by time any symptoms show.
My thinking is U.K. is so infected now I go


Yes completely true, however I think the whole family being ill at home with the prospect of online shopping and helpful neighbours is a different proposition to everyone being ill overseas.

I guess travel insurance would cover getting the hotel stay extended whilst we recover (assuming the hotel doesn’t close) and / or cover repatriation if things went horribly wrong - but then is there an ambulance to get you to the airport? Or even a nurse to sit with you as you fly back?

Dunno, thinking along those lines feels a bit too ‘armeggedon’ to me, but if I lived in some parts of Italy I may be thinking exactly along these lines...

As an aside I am assuming that
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Who on earth suggested that there wasn't a French word for elephant? Puzzled
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
once you have recovered you can’t get it again (unless you’re a real edge case who had a ‘glancing’ infection that built enough antibodies to recover but not create an enduring immunity?
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 Poster: A snowHead
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@sasha320, worth confirming exactly what your insurance covers. Someone posted somewhere on here to say they'd spoken to their insurance and they said they wouldn't cover extending the hotel if you're quarantined. Not sure if they would of you were ill. Lots of people are making assumptions on here about what their travel insurance will cover.
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Quote:

Who on earth suggested that there wasn't a French word for elephant?

I was wondering that. Clearly not a lover of Babar.
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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?
pam w wrote:
Quote:

Who on earth suggested that there wasn't a French word for elephant?

I was wondering that. Clearly not a lover of Babar.
good point.
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@sugarmoma666,
Quote:

Lots of people are making assumptions on here about what their travel insurance will cover

Indeed. Insurance contracts are a minefield of small print at the best of times. It's essential that people check carefully now, no two policies are necessarily going to be the same.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@sasha320, @Jonny996, pretty much the lines along which I'm currently thinking for the EoSB, if VT is still open then. Car journey, self-catering, plus for me a knowledge of and trust in French medical sevices and the fact that I have fluent French, so getting stuck there wouldn't scare me any more than being ill at home.
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When french resorts say they are restricting numbers in cablecars and gondolas, all it means is, it's not busy so they are not rammed. I am here skiing now, and no one is stopping strangers sharing your gondola and standing 20cm away. Just now I had someone sit next to me on a long slow chair and cough all the way.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
[quote="rob@rar"]
kitenski wrote:
It's an interesting article although nobody's sure of Tomas Pueyo's bona fides, he seems to be an online journalist with no particular focus on medicine in his writing, and we have no idea if he has a medical background.


I missed the discussion, what thread was it on? I've been self isolating in the Highlands Smile

His "about" is interesting without much detail!

2 MSc in Engineering. Stanford MBA. Ex-Consultant. Creator of viral applications with >20M users. Currently leading a billion-dollar business @ Course Hero
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Quote:

no one is stopping strangers sharing your gondola and standing 20cm away. Just now I had someone sit next to me on a long slow chair and cough all the way.

Yebbut. Nobody is stopping strangers sharing your carriage on the underground or standing next to you in the checkout queue in Tesco coughing over your fruit and veg. As time goes on there is some homogenising of risk, isn't there?
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kitenski wrote:
I missed the discussion, what thread was it on? I've been self isolating in the Highlands Smile
Honestly, I can't remember, the threads move fast and have been flourishing of late. Much like the virus itself.

kitenski wrote:
His "about" is interesting without much detail!

2 MSc in Engineering. Stanford MBA. Ex-Consultant. Creator of viral applications with >20M users. Currently leading a billion-dollar business @ Course Hero
That what was discussed. It's an interesting article, but questions about its provenance.
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Handy Turnip wrote:
young_bairn wrote:

A sensible step would be to close the big cable cars?


Or just restrict the numbers allowed in them surely?


Tram at Jackson Hole, Wyoming has closed.
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