Piou Piou in Les Arcs / Peisey Vallandry

A snowHead

Can anyone tell me anything about what the ESF kindergartens are like in Les Arcs and Peisey Vallandry? We are deciding where to go next year but I want to make sure there is a decent sized area for my 3-year old to learn to ski in.

Some, for instance the one in Val Thorens, are really good with several conveyer belts and a decent sized area to ski in, but others (like the one my 4-year old was in at Courchevel 1650) are really small and flat and I think she would be bored after a few days.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

A snowHead

dibblette, Where would you plan on staying, have you got somewhere in mind?

We went to Peisey this year with Espirt and used ESF for the first time. Ours are 9,7,6 but was very unimpressed with the ESF teaching. The kindergarten area is very flat and just up behind the main lift in Peisey. If the fecking washing line is open Peisey is a great location. Only thing that I wasn't 100% on was the main road through it which cars do seem to go a bit fast on. Confused

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

dibblette, We have just come back from Peisey, also with Esprit. very impressed with Esprit again.
But same as thefatcontroller, pretty unimpressed with ESF there. I watched from a distance the first lesson our 3 (almost 4) year old had, they all put their skis on, no problem, then one by one were shuffled over to a tow-rope, she fell off and hurt her hand mainly because she noone had put her gloves on her. Screaming of 'Mummy' commenced. The instructor took her skis off her and sat her down, from then on she refused to even put the skis on.
I left it til the after the following lesson as I didn't want to interfere, when I spoke to the instuctor he said 'Maybeee she iz not old enough, I sink she iz scared of sliding' Rubbish we had her on skis last winter twice and her only complaints were ' get out of my way', 'let go of me' and 'Not fast enough'.
I'm no instructor but I was expecting some fun and games to begin with, maybe put one ski on and scoot around, maybe 'let's try and jump in them and see shat happens' etc etc. Why, why, why put a 3 year old on a tow rope, heck, I'm pretty crap at them myself!

I took her off halfway through one lesson (where she was sitting at the bottom) to the flat section near the lifts and she was quite happy to put the skis on and muck around with me. The instuctor then let me put her on the magic carpet so he could help her down from the top, but to be honest I think all trust in him was completely non-existant by that point.
It probably depends on how resilient your child is, some of the others were quite happy going round and round. Some spent most of the time sitting at the bottom.

The kids area is pretty small and seems to consist of tow rope up one side and magic carpet up the other (starts about 4 metres up) but it's pretty flat and to be honest even they could probably have walked up it on skis. The older kids, once ok on this, are taken up to the beginners area at the top of the Peisey lift.

There is also a kids area at Vallandry, didn't take a close look at it though.

I suspect that ESF is going to be down to which teacher you end up with.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

dibblette, would not recommend ESF in Vallandry at all (see http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=509176 ) is a very small area and I don't think they helped at all.

Would however recommend New Generation and Darentasia for private lessons for kids as both were excellent - pricey I admit but worth every penny

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

tizzyb, I would agree with the ESF instructor that 3 is too young. If you are going to put your children in a ski lesson the best thing you can do is disappear for 2 hours!

You'll need to Register first of course.

Fogliettaz, I now tend to agree with you, and am very much of a mind of the 'if they don't like it, don't push them' and I did not. Also after seeing her fall, I left, she did not see me. After my one above described 'interferance' I took her out of the lessons later in the week when it was clear she didn't want to do it. Main problem being that Esprit had no alternative childcare arrangement for 3/4 year olds not participating in the lessons. It is a lot for them to take in, new place, new people, strange sensations, but if 3 is too young they should not be offering lessons, and if they are they should be differently structured wit the emphasis on play.

There were 2 kids in the class who had only just turned 3 and faired better, our's turns 4 this month and is not a small fragile child, so hardly the youngest in the class, and we had her on skis last winter. I still question the ESF methods even for slightly older kids. If you'd seen her on a bum board you would not think she is scared of sliding....

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Tizzy,

Did your nipper go as a "Sprite beginner" or a "Spritelet" with Esprit, or did you book directly with ESF?

When I booked with Esprit, I said my (just) four year old had had one lesson on the indoor slope, and she was put down as a Sprite beginner, even though the minimum age for this is stated as 5! I got her put back into Spritelets, which seemed to involve more snowballs, snowmen and snow angels for the first day or two than "skiing". (Exactly as described.) If she'd stayed in the beginners' group it could have gone pear-shaped in very short order.

My eldest (five and a bit) hated her lessons for the first two days because she didn't like one of the instructors. Once the group split and she had her favoured "Pierre, the famous French ski instructor" she couldn't get out of the chalet fast enough each morning.

Ski instructors are like teachers - kids get on with some and not with others. There are also zillions of reasons why a kid might "down skis", unrelated to skiing. I think you'll just have to go again soon to give your nipper another go. Smile

After all it is free

The Flying Snowplough, We did 2 years with Esprit in Montchavin and Esprit used Evolution2. All the instructors there were great and the parents and kids got to know them. This year as stated above we moved to Peisey and Espirt use ESF there. Found it all very remote, the woman who taught then super spritlets in the morning was a complete batle axe. No teaching just lots of shouting 'follow me'.

What's a Super Spritelet?

Evo2 - as used by Esprit - in La Ros seemed very good, although the ESF beginner area was much nicer. The Evo2 instructors appeared to be a lot younger than the ESF mob on the whole, which might help.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

The Flying Snowplough, We like Evo2 so much we are going to Montchavin tomorrow and have booked a privaye lesson with them ourselves.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

The Flying Snowplough, The little'un went as a Spritelet (booked through Esprit) which I was expecting to be more snowball fights/snowmen/games etc. which is how it's described in the Esprit brochure. We did mention it to the childcare manager who said we were not the first to complain....

As you say I suspect the non-skiing was due to a combination of factors.

This year we just went as a family, rather than our usual bigish group and their kids. We will try again next year when hopefully the company of others she knows (We will have 2 more Spritelets in the group) will help, as well as being another year older.

snow reports

Tizzy - Sounds like you were unlucky. When you spend a relative fortune on one week of the year for skiing it's a pain to be so dependent on uncontrollable factors (e.g. weather, chalet-mates, kids' relationships with other kids / instructors etc.) to extract maximum value.

I'd complain a lot to Esprit - they might give you a discount for next year! I'm sure the fact that they don't use ESF except where there's no feasible alternative tells its own story.

Spent a week in Vallandry last year, Jan 2007, DIY vacation.
My daughter, who turned 3 while we were there, stayed at the Tom Pouce Creche in Vallandry, from which she was taken daily to a ski lesson with ESF. We were very pleased with the results- it started out with the anticipated crying and objection but ended on a happy note. The instructor was a rather menacing gaulic she-warrior named Guillomette, who mellowed and lightened up as the week progressed and the girlie found her footing on the snow. I think that her uncompromising attitude made the girlie realize that resistance was futile (dunno if this is a faux pas in the forum, but here's a snapshot: http://www.vimeo.com/130016).
As for the creche, they were not quite as English speaking as we had hoped, but it was enough to keep our daughter happy and busy for the day. The key factor was naturally to have some friends to play with and fortunately, there were a few of those. The prices were reasonable, about the same as Esprit's childcare+ski lessons. All in all, we were very satisfied.

You know it makes sense.

I'd certainly recommend Tom Pouce, ours have all stayed there with no probs

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Thanks for all the advice. We are going on a DIY holiday to keep the cost down, booking a self-catering apartment and driving - Esprit is a bit out of our price range.

We are also fairly sure we will use ESF as we want our tiddler to have access to a fun enclosed area to learn in, with magic carpet etc. Whilst I agree sometimes the ESF really lacks in some areas of teaching, I have been resasonably happy with the way they've taught my two older boys (4 and 6).

So what I am really keen to know is what the ESF kindergarten areas are like in the different Les Arcs areas (Arcs 2000 etc etc. )
There seems to be little information available on the individual websites. Thanks for any help you can give me. Smile

A snowHead

dibblette, for a family resort I'd thoroughly recommend Vallandry. If its tiddlers first time on skis, then they will be fine with the area there is, it is small but not to bad. The nursery was good and took the kids to and from the lessons.

For anything more than just an experience on skis though I would try and use the other companies

I'll have a route around for some photos of the area

Best I can do - shows magic carpet, lack of snow as was Chrimbo 06

Help!!

Piou Piou in Les Arcs / Peisey Vallandry

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Resort Reviews and Trip Reports