 Poster: A snowHead
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Left Val Cenis yesterday ( sat 6th Feb ) and drove back to blighty. 13 hours door to door
It snowed all day on Friday 5th Feb 2010 from 0830-1700 loads of powder everywhere.
Anyone there this week should have loads.
Sorry its brief but just got out of my pit and booted up the computer
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Timbobaggins, Where did you stay in Val Cenis?
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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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BMF_Skier, Les Balcons in Lanslevillard, best appartment i hve ever stayed in 
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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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That was one that came up when we were considering this years trip. Can you post some additional details of the appt and resort? Any info appreciated.
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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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BMF_Skier, will do later this week on tuesday when i have more time
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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BMF_Skier, I had just written a whole load here from a family pov as we were ther the week before but I just deleted it by mistake - I really need to get back to work so I will have to do it later. Is there anything specific you want to know.
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In preference to doing what I should be doing I've written my report instead...
(Sorry for hijacking Timbobaggins thread but now you can have at least two different types of view on the resort in one thread as I believe he was not on a 2.2 kids family holiday.)
We stayed in Les Balcons Les Villages (23/01/10 to 30/01/10) – classed as Lanslevillard but in reality nearer Le Haut.
Our lessons were based in Le Haut which was 2 minute walk from our locker room (Chalet 9)
You can ski right back to the locker room door but the link back from Lanslevillard (and beyond) if you didn’t want to go back up the mountain was via a button lift (queues at lunch or tea time) or a small track with a little jump followed by a walk – for that reason and the lack of slope-side eateries we would try to stay in Lanslevillard proper next time we went - bum-boarding was better there too.
We bought a family deal for the lift pass from the lift office at Le Haut Gondola – this deal did not seem to be available online but seemed to save us about 100Euros.
I was booked in to Level 3 lessons but in spite of being good enough (according to both instructors) the others were much faster, younger and fitter than me and after being buried in off-piste snow too many times to count I was exhausted and moved down to Level 2 the next day. Even though this group was a bit slow and not advanced as I would have liked I enjoyed my skiing and did improve. Apparently the Level 3 class does vary enormously depending on who is taking part (personally I would have said the others were Level 4) – this group did some serious off-piste with some serious equipment.
The “problem” with going to a resort with very few native-English speaking folks around (only heard 3 other families) is that the lessons are very definitely in French – my school French (from 30 years ago) improved by trying to talk to the French pupils and listening to the instructor but for every 5 minutes of French explanation we got about 3 or 4 words in English. Depending on when you go (GB holidays or not), how good your command of French is, and how wide the range of ability is in your group, you may be better booking a Private lesson for the family.
My girls are 13 and 10 and they were probably the oldest holiday children we saw all week – so it was not very sociable for them. I think this is the last year of going term-time anyway as GCSE’s loom now. The 10 year old was in kids lessons she enjoyed the skiing in spite of not making any friends - there was one other English child - this wan't her favourite holiday from that pov.
The skiing & conditions were fantastic – stunning views – Termingnon is definitely worth a visit.
It was cold (-14) some days and being North facing you don’t get much sun. Loads of real and pretend off-piste. Don’t bother with L’escargot unless using it to get to Lanslebourg and Termignon.
Apartments were warm, comfy, spacious (we had a 4/7 for the 4 of us as we wanted 2 bedrooms) and well equipped (apart from only enormous saucepans) – we took our own kettle. The only negative was only one rather smelly toilet (typical Mediterranean toilet smell despite air freshener and spray). Both Spa bath and shower were excellent. We had free access to swimming pool across the river but we never used it.
We ate in most evening (advantage of driving and taking frozen meals) but we did venture out 2 nights. L’Bergerie (Onsite) was OK but we wouldn’t rave about it. The other night we went to the restaurant at the left end of the row of shops by the Spar – the food and service was good but like all the restaurants in Le Haut it was virtually empty.
The onsite supermarket seemed reasonable and you could by croissants from 7:30 each morning – it seemed like only the men were allowed to do this though!
We drove with one overnight stop eachway - no problems on the way down at all, slight queues in Chambery due to accident and a slow descent of mountain (probably took 15 minutes longer due to snow and a very slow Belgian!) on the way back.
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Zwee,
So would you go back?
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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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Mitchell, Yes, but...
- we would try to stay in Lanslevillard proper or Lanslebourg. Other reviews said Lanslevillard village had more going on than Lanslebourg but L'bourg looked bigger and more lively to us when we drove through. We're not after spectacular Apres-ski - just a few bars and restaurants with some people in.
- Maybe going with a group (or in GB Hols) so that we could have others to socialise with - whilst it is nice to spend time with the family and practice french its also good to be able to easily talk to others as well.
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I'd love to go back there, but when there is better snow. We went last April, and by the end of the week the runs down to the main lifts were barely open, ski-ing on wet grass at one time.
But higher up, the snow was lovely and even in the first week of Easter 2009, we had a big dump of snow mid-week, so much that it even caused an avalanche.
We booked a cheap self-drive with SnowTrex and stayed at Les Alpages, which had its own chair lift up to the long green run, which ran you down to the main gondola. However, this too became unusable by the end of the week, so we resorted to bunging the skis in the car, and driving to the gondola most days.
Theres some lovely runs up at the top, and I liked Val Cenis because it was good for family ski-ing. Not sure that it would have the wildest night-life though if thats what you were looking for.
Looks great there now, though.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Good to hear positive reports. I last skied Val Cenis about 15 years ago when we had done about 4 seasons in a row. Have just booked for the first week of the easter holidays,so last week in March, with MGS ski who have operated only in Val Cenis for some time now. Should mean that there will be some other English children in our kids lessons as they are almost booked up now for that week apparently.
On the lessons front I don't think it makes much difference whether there are French in the group or not. We did the last week in January in Peisey and the other adults in the chalet commented that the ESF instructors still said very little even with an all english speaking group. The Children's lessons seemed to go better but I still seem to think that the ESF would be better described as guides a lot of the time rather than Instructors. Hopefully Val Cenis will prove me wrong as we had an excellent instructor when last there.
Looking forward to going over to Termingon as the link didn't exist 15 years ago! Did anyone make use of the lik into Val Thorens at Orelle? How long does it take to drive down to the cable car and was it worth it? Similarly, as we will have a car, is it worth the drive up to Bonneval sur Arc?
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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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frozennose,
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ESF would be better described as guides a lot of the time rather than Instructors. Hopefully Val Cenis will prove me wrong as we had an excellent instructor when last there.
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our experience of ESF in Val Cenis was generally positive though I think ESF is as much instructor dependant as resort dependant.
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! Did anyone make use of the lik into Val Thorens at Orelle? How long does it take to drive down to the cable car and was it worth it? Similarly, as we will have a car, is it worth the drive up to Bonneval sur Arc?
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It is about 30-35 minutes to Orelle, its decent skiing though if I had to choose Orelle or Bonneval which is maybe 15-20 minutes away I would choose the latter, beautiful and uncrowded. Both are days for good weather as both are high and lack trees.
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Timbobaggins,
Did you get round to doing a report?
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