 Poster: A snowHead
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| brokenbetty wrote: |
| eblunt wrote: |
| Anyone got any info as to whether Altibus transfers back to Geneva are still running ? |
They certainly were as of last night, Ispoke to someone in person about midnight and booked a place for today (although I later cancelled, it seemed solid on the Altibus side) |
Do you have number to contact them on ( from a UK mobile ) ? The +33 4 79 68 32 96 number just cuts off straight away.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Fortunately, bakeries appear to be considered an essential commerce so baguettes and pain au choc supply lines will remain hopefully unaffected.
Super U in Cham busy today but no one seemed to be panicking and no empty shelves. I'm expecting town to be quite eerie in the coming weeks. Still, I now have no excuse not to get fit for summer, time to get the running shoes out.
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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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I called +33480965008 which is actually Chamexpress (https://www.chamexpress.com/ ) but the booking confirmation was Altibus.
As far as I can tell, Altibus, Bensbus and Chamexpress are operating interchangeably.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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In Risoul / Vars, where lifts are open today, at least some of the mountain restaurants are also open today. 
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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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| denfinella wrote: |
| In Risoul / Vars, where lifts are open today, at least some of the mountain restaurants are also open today. |
I have every sympathy for the businesses that are affected by this pandemic; however the flip side of the coin are the businesses who persist in operating against advice...
Part of the reason we seem to have ‘sped’ through the lower levels of response to this pandemic is because either the lower levels of response were never adequate or people / businesses ignored them.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@sasha320, yes, and surely also the risk of a big fine?
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Looks like the panic has hit le fayet, huge queue at the fuel pumps, no diesel last night when I went to fill up for our return journey but got some in Passy plus 20 litres in the jerry can I bought wednesday so we have enough to get to the chunnel, no toilet roll or much soap and lots of empty shelves, even bigger queues at the check outs but everyone looked fairly chilled, packing up today for early start tomorrow, sat on the balcony in glorious sunshine looking at the runs, its a first world problem not being able to stay for the last three weeks we are booked in for but we havent lost any family or friends yet so have to keep thinking we are lucky
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Good skiing at the Sept Laux. All open. Even the restaurants
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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.
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| davidof wrote: |
| Good skiing at the Sept Laux. All open. Even the restaurants |
How have they managed to swing / justify that in light of almost every other ski area in France shutting??
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| denfinella wrote: |
| @sasha320, yes, and surely also the risk of a big fine? |
I suspect fines will be a fleeting thing. If and when the population tips into a bit more panic no one is going to tolerate the issuing of fines or the paying of fines.
Clearly the fines aren’t deterring everyone.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| offpisteskiing wrote: |
| davidof wrote: |
| Good skiing at the Sept Laux. All open. Even the restaurants |
How have they managed to swing / justify that in light of almost every other ski area in France shutting?? |
No idea. I'm shocked I tell you.
Not huge numbers but terraces pretty much full.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Sun 15-03-20 19:38; edited 1 time in total
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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.
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The webcams in Avoriaz clearly show some lifts open and people skiing???
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Yup, seeing loaded chairs going up SuperMorzine etc., even a few parapentes up. Guess it's just an unofficial last hurrah for today only. Only the lower lifts are running. Hopefully some very disappointed folk are at least getting one (beautiful) day 
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You know it makes sense.
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| bobhitch wrote: |
| The webcams in Avoriaz clearly show some lifts open and people skiing??? |
Yes.
My daughter and some friends arrived in Morzine yesterday for a week.
Not quite the total disaster we thought it might be yesterday as at least they have been able to get out to ski a bit today.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Pumba wrote: |
| The piste badgers will have been given their work for the night before the announcement At least it will be some skiing! |
I always preferre to ski on piste prepared by Badgers, it's so much nicer to have a naturally made surface.
French Badgers are always better at it too.
Vivè le Broc
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Poster: A snowHead
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| ski3 wrote: |
| Pumba wrote: |
| The piste badgers will have been given their work for the night before the announcement At least it will be some skiing! |
I always preferre to ski on piste prepared by Badgers |
Yep, the difference is black and white
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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On our way back home via Le Shuttle after a great family holiday in Vallandry. We can count ourselves very lucky indeed.
Hoping the best for all those seasonal businesses that will now be in difficulties.
Ski Olympic sent some of their staff back to the UK today
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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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| bobhitch wrote: |
| The webcams in Avoriaz clearly show some lifts open and people skiing??? |
Suspect they might be in trouble for that, and rightly so if operating against clear instruction not to!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Love a piste badger..
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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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@HoneyBunny, very good 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Currently looking at refunds - quite a few should be fairly straight forward but I can see Easyjet being a pain. They are currently still flying to France so no luck there (although there's a fair chance that might stop over the coming days/weeks). They've waived the change fee, so will reschedule free of charge. That would be great if I could reschedule for next Easter but there flights are only scheduled currently till October and we have no requirement to fly anywhere in that time. So I guess we might need to resort to drawling through the small print of the travel insurance.
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Currently sitting at Dunkirk ferry port. Roads very quiet. Service areas in Belgium and France closed if not selling fuel. If open all food and drink for take away only and payment by card preferred.
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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.
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| tarrantd wrote: |
| payment by card preferred. |
I have to confess, being a slight germaphobe I have always preferred this tbh. Same goes for cashiers scanning products - I’m loving self-scan and pack at Sainsbury’s. But then I’m weird...
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| Handy Turnip wrote: |
| Currently looking at refunds - quite a few should be fairly straight forward but I can see Easyjet being a pain. They are currently still flying to France so no luck there (although there's a fair chance that might stop over the coming days/weeks). They've waived the change fee, so will reschedule free of charge. That would be great if I could reschedule for next Easter but there flights are only scheduled currently till October and we have no requirement to fly anywhere in that time. So I guess we might need to resort to drawling through the small print of the travel insurance. |
I’m in the same boat, just playing a waiting game now til they (surely inevitably) have to cancel. I believe Jet2 have just cancelled flights to/from most of France so EJ should follow...
If not, the flight change options is valid up to 2 hrs before departure so I think I’ll leave it to the last minute then change to an impromptu city break in September maybe!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| ScarlettInSpace wrote: |
I’m in the same boat, just playing a waiting game now til they (surely inevitably) have to cancel. I believe Jet2 have just cancelled flights to/from most of France so EJ should follow...
If not, the flight change options is valid up to 2 hrs before departure so I think I’ll leave it to the last minute then change to an impromptu city break in September maybe! |
Yep, Jet 2 aren't flying anyone OUT to Geneva, Lyon or Grenoble as of now, and are only flying folk back until next Saturday (because as any fule kno, people only ever go on ski trips for exactly 7 days).
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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.
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The Aires close to Calais all seem to be shut, so if you’re heading there this evening take your comfort break when you get the chance!
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Also the café and food outlets at the French end of the tunnel are closed. Trains running.
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You know it makes sense.
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@agw, the aires close to Calais have been shut for quite a while - I assumed that it was to discourage stowaways boarding lorries.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@ScarlettInSpace, @andy from embsay, yes I agree, you'd think either the situation would worsen to a point that they'd have to stop flights or so many people who were going skiing have cancelled or rescheduled that they need to cancel the flights anyway.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Walked down the valley to Cham today. The car park at Grand Montets was half full - I guess mostly tourers, many of whom we saw making their way up Pierre a Ric. Still some coming down tonight at 6:30.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Yoda wrote: |
| @agw, the aires close to Calais have been shut for quite a while - I assumed that it was to discourage stowaways boarding lorries. |
Ah, thanks
It’s many years since we’ve driven to France
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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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| agw wrote: |
| The Aires close to Calais all seem to be shut, so if you’re heading there this evening take your comfort break when you get the chance! |
Was there still fuel stations open near Calais? Heading to the tunnel tomorrow for a late evening crossing.
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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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Prosneige ski school in Val Thorens have emailed to say they will refund the kids lessons. They say it might take a while to get the refunds sorted due to volume of cancellations, which is fair enough
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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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Friend of mine went skitouring today too. They ended up calling a heli (for someone in a different group who crashed).
This is not the time. Even a small stupid crash and broken thumb ligaments would be an unnecessary impact while the health and rescue services are already stretched.
I get your thinking, because I was thinking the same a few days ago when our lifts were first closed.
A few days on and finally getting my head around the real situation, and it's clear that taking unnecessary risks like that is just irresponsible. It's not good for the societies we're a part of.
I would urge you to wait a week or two and then re-evaluate the situation. And given your other recent posts, I particularly urge you to not help other people start to learn to tour - in funky spring snow, with pin bindings with some funky release characteristics - at this time. That's the last thing the rescue services need.
Sorry for the lecture - just my opinion (from locked-down Innsbruck).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Yoda wrote: |
| @agw, the aires close to Calais have been shut for quite a while - I assumed that it was to discourage stowaways boarding lorries. |
They seem to shut a lot of them in winter when there is less traffic too. PLaces with fuel should be open.
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| timlongs wrote: |
| agw wrote: |
| The Aires close to Calais all seem to be shut, so if you’re heading there this evening take your comfort break when you get the chance! |
Was there still fuel stations open near Calais? Heading to the tunnel tomorrow for a late evening crossing. |
Didn’t see any on the Autoroute, we filled up some time ago
Maybe search on Google maps near your route?
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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.
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Well, we learnt of La Plagne closure last night. Fortunately had already chosen to leave today, but were worried about traffic chaos so left an hour early at 0500.
Ended up as one of our smoothest journeys.
Roads quiet. Restaurants shut, but coffee machines working (and we had our own sandwiches).
Garages open. No trouble with fuel: our last top-up near Reims.
One of our quickest runs through check-in and security at Eurotunnel.
Now home and a bit dazed but relieved.
We were obsessional about handwashing the whole way. And definitely no contact with anyone.
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@timlongs, we're on our way home at the moment, so can't look up details, but there is a Carrefour market and fuel station about a mile off the autoroute, just before the tunnel. Way cheaper than on the autoroute and only a tiny diversion, versus overshooting the tunnel to go to the big Carrefour at Cite d'Europe. Will post exact details in the morning for you.
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