Poster: A snowHead
|
I wanted to give a summary of a weeks snowboarding/skiing in La plagne earlier in March which I hope will be of some help to other members, even if its a little late.
Flew from Dublin Saturday 12th for week, rented a car in Lyon airport , collected a friend at Grenoble airport and stayed in les Coches in Le Carrousel apartment block. As most will know the traffic even mid March is challenging from around Albertville, taking about 1hr longer than 'normal' due to accidents and congestion. We booked via the La Plagne tourist office which worked well, they have a good cancellation policy of 30 days before you start to lose percentages if you do have to cancel. The apartment (Michel Gedda were the actual agents) is well situated from the perspective of being able to ski in and out, very good size for the price versus Belle Plagne, well equipped and you can be over in Les Arc in 20mins - one lift, a short ski down to the Vanoise and off you go. Le Carrousel apartments are, however, a bit further from the small center than I had expected as there is no path down between other apartments and instead you have to walk down the road, taking about 10 mins, longer back up after. Not a problem in the decent weather we had but not so much fun if had it be snowing. Overall Les Choches is quite small, self-catering, mainly French, friendly.
We had visited Paradiski multiple times in the past but had stayed in Belle Plagne. Staying in Les Coches made the excellent network of fairly quiet reds about Vallandry, Arc 1800 and Arc 1600 that bit more accessible. They were well groomed if showing some thin patches at times. Blacks were mostly unpisted and not worth the trouble especially on a snowboard. In general, we had spring conditions, typically for this time of the year, so hard early in the morning, softened nicely during the morning then very heavy and chewed up later. Maybe there has been some more snow since.
We did most of the Anguille Rouge to Villaroger and had lunch in La Ferme - decent Plat Du Jour and good Creme Brulee. The Pizza in Hors Piste in Belle Plagne was OK. Better was Pepe and Cie in Plagne Centre which had a good Pizza, reasonable tartiflette and other dishes also looked good. We visited Blanche Muree twice - good and friendly the first time but too busy late on Friday with large ski lesson groups and cranky staff. The highlight was Union in Montalbert. We had been back in 20017 (I think) and it was excellent this time as well. Great service with a well matched wine recommendation and prices not that far off mountain restaurants but a step up in quality. The Creme Brulle was outstanding. La Taverne du Manchu in Les Coches was good (Duck and Steak) and friendly.
|
|
|
|