Poster: A snowHead
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We have for the last few years been lucky enough to have had Grandparents with us for our annual Easter ski Trip but this year they are unable to make it. We will have our 22 month old boy with us and would like to look into the possibility of putting him in a creche perhaps for the mornings or afternoons each day. I know several of the tour operators offer creches but are these facilities available to book if you don't holiday with the company?
Does anyone know of any independent creches, preferably british owned/staffed (give wife piece of mind) or they can be French run.
We will be going sometime during Easter fortnight, prefer to drive and usually go to LDA or VT but would be willing to try another resort. I'm a teacher so can only go in the holidays.
Any help/advice/warnings will be very appreciated.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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garethjomo, there is a new garderie (Nursery) in Samoens, which has a good reputation - it's run by the tourist office (IIRC). There is also a Ski kindergarten at the top of the Grand Massif Express lift, at 1600 - this has the plus of you being able to leave your son there, go and ski for a while, and come back to check him or even just for convenient drop off/pick up without having to go down to the village. Your wife may be happier if she can surrepticiously sneak a look now and then! You may feel this area is too low at Easter,but Grand Massif does have a very good snow record.
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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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garethjomo, A few years back some friends of ours simply chose the resort and then phoned all the UK TO's offereing creche's and eventually found an operator that took 'outsiders' at a price
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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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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garethjomo, just about all reasonably sized resorts will have a creche/nursery, the standards for child care in France are very high. I can recommend Les Galopins in La Rosiere, which you can check out on www.larosiere.net by clicking through to ski schools.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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We've travelled independently a number of times and have the same restrictions (school holidays). Never had a problem with local creche facilities. Most resorts have some form of creche and most offer English speakers, if not English staff!
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garethjomo, (declared interest - am owners in Arc1950, but nothing to do with the facilities in the village)
Arc 1950 has a great creche, the Cariboo club: http://www.cariboo1950.com/
It's not a bad ski resort either...
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garethjomo, two of the kids in our party at Easter went to the creche of another TO, we were in a chalet which didn't offer childcare and the chalet host just asked around the seasonnaire nanies for us. I am pretty sure the official line from TOs would be that they only take their own clients kids but in practice if they have space then they seem to do it. Also two British run childcare outfits I have heard of operating in France are Merinannies in 3V and Val d'Isere and also Baby-Cham in Chamonix and Morzine. Not used them but they look ok.
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We used L'Outa creche in Morzine in March for our 11 month old and were very happy with it. Located near to the pistes, the premises were spotless and the staff lovely. We put him in from 9am until 1pm and he seemed more than happy there.
Partly because of this we will probably go back to Morzine next year and use the creche again. I would consider putting him in for a couple of longer days too so we could have a longer ski on these days.
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We've use the creche in Samoens (mentioned by Anniepen) for the last two years at Easter (when #2son was 11 months and 23 months) and it's been great. Friends have also used it and have a similar opinion. Plenty of snow around at that time of year.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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