 Poster: A snowHead
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Now guys - no winding up PG please. He's only got 7 more posts to the magic 5000 and we don't want any unpleasantness on the way. Get your special smileys ready now for a posting milestone. On topic - the Scandahoooligans I've met on my travels are an outgoing, friendly bunch up for anything on offer. And some that isn't. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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 also haven't tried a chalet holiday yet. Just came back from Bourg St Maurice staying 2 weeks in a PG studio flat. Before that I stayed 3 days at a Monthley hotel trying out the Swiss side of the Porte du Soleil. Went through different resort each day and only did La Rosiere and La Plagne twice after exhausting the choice of resorts. Don't think I can get this type of skiing with a catered chalet.
Staying in Bourg St Maurice I would head Abertville for dinner after every time skiing in 3 Vallees or Valmorel, as I would be the same distance from Bourg as from Albertville.
I am always fancinated by the different food available in each country's supermarket and want to try them out. In the last trip to Bourg I had 2 huge prawns of size like a lobster for dinner (one for the wife). The 15 Euro we paid later for two huge crabs were less rewarding. However having afternoon tea in Chambery and dinner in Annecy was a great way to spend a rest day to me.
I suppose there are different ways people can choose to enjoy their skiing holidays. Staying with a catered chalet would be boring for me. Generally a candle lit dinner would cost 50 Euro for two of us. Eating out in cafeteria cost half of that and cooking ourselves would be a quater of that amount. Thus cost wise one do a mix of combinations to suit circumstances.
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Chalet holidays can be great. You get a ready built instant mini community, they're not as formal as hotels, food is usually excellent and the free wine saves you a fortune.
You run the risk of their being some knobheads though and their isn't much in the way of privacy as bedrooms are usually too small to do much more than sleep in (etc. for the smartarses). For these reasons best to book a whole chalet or at least have a large group of your own in there. The chalets run by smaller companies are also a better bet i.e. not Ski World.
Which nationality goes out the most/mixes best etc. Depends on a whole host of things, I've eaten out quite a lot in French resorts and there never seems to be that many French out. Italy seems to be completely the other way and often out as whole families. The Scandanavians I've found fairly easy going, quite boisterous but without the knobhead element we have.
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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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saikee, you can get crabs cheaper than at at North Shields. We've been on 2 chalet holidays. Both were OK, and the food and the chalet staff brilliant . Camilla did serve us a lukewarm Lasagne in La Rosiere. but the rest of the week was fab. Fee in Les Arcs was great too, and the crowd there a bit more lively. Consequently we went out more in LA Ros and had a great time with the locals, and stayed in more in Les Arcs, and as it was almost the last week of the season, helped her to finish off the wine.
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| Quote: |
| The Scandinavians I have met are far more prepared to experiment and indulge in local culture that the British, and bear in mind that we're not just talking about those we find in ski resorts, I was referring to foreign travel as a whole. |
PG, could those Scandinavians be a self-selecting group? After all, they've allowed themselves to be met by you! By the same token, they might take the Brits to be an outward-looking bunch in your image.
FWIW, I think there are different types in all countries. I have to say that, outside of Europe, I've met Brits/Dutch/Germans/Scandinavians in some pretty out of the way places, less so French/Spanish/Italians. But, in the former group (not least the Brits), there are certainly those who display herd-like instincts abroad.
Congratulations on the 5k posts 
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Helen Beaumont,
The crabs we bought in Bourg were the dandy long leg type and totally different from the ones we have in the North Sea. I spent my student years in Sunderland surviving on £2/week for food. We got by mainly eating fish, prawns and crabs bought directly from the dock. The same things cost an arm and a leg now.
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laundryman, of course as you suggest, anecdotal evidence is just what it says, with an 'impression' value, and little else. All the same, to develop it a little further, within France there are two main expatriate communities with a reputation for introspection - and for quite different reasons. The North Africans - and the British. IMO that reputation is deserved - and self-inflicted - in the case of a large proportion of the British community in France, although with respect to the North Africans the French themselves have greatly contributed to a dislocation between two ethnic and religious groupings.
Away from Europe it is a little harder to spot a well-defined trend, numbers are less, individuals tend to make their presence felt more. Not least the eccentric British adventurer type. We naturally tend to gravitate towards those from our own countries, so perhaps that would account for our different experiences - I'm sure I have met at least as many French and Italians in such places. Brits/French etc tend to favour their own out of the way destinations as well.
There are a number of studies on this topic if I can find the time to dig them out!
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