 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from a 2 week New Year family trip to Ste Foy and Puy St Vincent so thought I'd jot down a few thoughts on the resorts which I hope might be helpful for anyone considering visiting.
Ste Foy, Etoile des Cimes - We booked this through Erna Lowe so got the fantastic upgrade to Flexiplus on the Eurotunnel. This is always really useful as it allows you to go straight onto the first available train, particularly handy this time as it was very busy with delays of an hour or so, we we're on a train and away within half an hour of coming off the Motorway.
Leaving late in the day (had to take the Christmas decorations down in the morning!) meant we only planned on getting as far as Reims where we booked a family room in the Novotel (£72 for a family of four), which was straight off the motorway and opposite a v cheap petrol station. We were using a telepeage 'doofer' from sanef.co.uk for the first time and it worked a treat allowing us to cruise through the gates without having to queue. The rest of the journey was fine until we got to around Moutiers where they were operating 'traffic control' lights which caused a massive tailback, seem pointless to me.
Arriving in Ste Foy the Etoile des Cimes building was easy to find and we'd booked underground parking which proved a big benefit. The appartment was fine and v near the lockers, however the view over the adjoining unfinished building and crane was somewhat disappointing - we missed being able to look out onto the mountains. The kitchen was on the small side of compact, no working surface at all! The Etoile des Cimes has a pool which the kids enjoyed and a spas, which we didn't use. The building is very conveniently located and genuinely ski-in, ski-out.
First morning we were up and out and keen to get going. Unfortunately we hadn't figured on the outdated lift pass office. This was crazy, an hour and a half in an angry queue to buy lift passes isn't fun. On a busy day they only had two desks operating and inisist on taking pictures of everyone buying a pass which further slows things down. It's annoying when a resort puts in lots more accomodation but doesn't improve the basic infrastructure to cope with this. One chap in the queue related how he had queued for an hour and a half the evening before only for them to shut when he was one place from the front, such disregard for customers seems incredible and maybe something for Ste Foy to think about.
Skiing wise myself and the kids (Hannah 10 and Thomas 13) had a good week exploring the area both on and off-piste. Myself and Thomas did a three day off-piste coures with Pierre Louer from Evolution 2 which included a couple of trips over to La Masure and back on the bus. Pierre was a great guide, I think he's setting up his own business 'skivan' based in Landry and taking groups to different resorts around the Tarentaise for guided days.
Ste Foy is a fun resort for a family. The kids could go off and do their own thing and their is a fair bit of challenging stuff. Getting up the mountain when it's busy is pretty slow especially when the ski schools are heading up but it was New Year week so to be expected I guess.
Unfortunately for my wife things were not so good. On the first day she started to get a twinge and burning sensation in her hip, it got v painful and we called out a physio who diagnosed a prolapsed disc! She was basically in agony the whole time and ended up in Hospital for a night in Briancon when we moved on to Puy St Vincent. The travel insurance eventually agreed to fly her back so she was picked up by ambulance, taken to Grenoble and flown back to Biggin Hill in a ambulance plane, quite an experience. So no skiing this year but the long term prognosis is good.
Puy st Vincent - Snowbizz.
For our second week we travelled down to Puy st Vincent. The journey took over four hours, an hour of which again was sat in the traffic around Moutier caused by the insane traffic control lights. Then down through the Frejus tunnel and over the pass at Montgenevre.
This was our sixth visit to Puy with Snowbizz so we pretty much know the score. The kids have learnt to ski using the Snowbizz ESI school and have always loved their instructors and the process of moving throught the ESI badge scheme . This year was no different. Hannah had lessons all week and got her Gold badge and Thomas and I had a couple of really good private lessons with the head of the school, Quentin, who is always good.
Snowbizz have a great formula. Michel the owner is on hand all season in Puy and was really helpful with us as we organised my wifes treatment and repatriation. When I had to take her into hospital and visit her, Michel kept an eye on the kids and they could go off skiing without me, knowing they could contact Michel if there was any problem. The nannies looking after the younger kids and running the very popular evening kds clubs were all helpful. The evening entertainment for the kids (games, sledging, torchlight descent, karaoke, disco) keeps them busy. Ski lessons are in the morning but not at the crack of dawn, kids can go down for games at 10 but the lessons don't start till 11. Thomas and Hannah both went on the 'childrens guiding' afternoon with one of the ESI instructors (Jean Pat) who took a mixed group all over and into the woods. We all went on a picnic which had been organised by the ski school, off in the woods to the side of the piste, they brought up great local cheeses, meats, bread etc and 10 litre boxes of wine!
Puy St Vincent is a lovely little resort. Easy to navigate round, so easy to allow the kids to go off and do their own thing. The piste grooming seems very good and this year they have apparently improved their snow making capacity a lot, we've always visited in January and had good conditions. There are a couple of challenging and mogulled blacks (the Roche Noir particularly being a serious challenge) and a number of good fast reds. There's also a fair bit of 'within domaine' off-piste between runs and in the trees. Queues were non-existent, but this was a quiet week. The lift pass seems pretty good value and gives you a day in each of Montgenevre, Serre Chevalier, Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes if you are so inclined. The main station at 1600 isn't particularly attractive but I've seen worse and it has everything you need including a doctors and Pharmacy (I was really surprised that neither of these existed in Ste Foy).
My wife was picked up by ambulance on the friday and driven to Grenoble from where she was flown back. Myself and the kids stayed and skied friday and saturday, setting off at 6pm on saturday for the short drive to La Grave where we spent the night in Hotel Castillian before the drive home on sunday.
So, all in all an eventful couple of weeks but we managed to get some good skiing in and the childrenkids had a great time in both Ste Foy and Puy. Now we start the countdown to the Easter trip to La Tania!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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philipb, Nice TR
Having been to PSV 9 times,10 in three weeks  I was considering St Foye as an alternative for a change next NY.
The vibe of your post is that you stiill preferred PSV ?
Is that because you are so familiar with the PSV/Snowbizz thing?
I like the look of the potential off piste in St Foye coupled with the pistes leading back to one central area like PSV.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Fri 18-01-13 22:42; edited 1 time in total
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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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philipb, what a nightmare holiday for your wife! Hope she soon gets sorted out. Otherwise it sounds to have gone well.
The lift queues here at busy times can be long (though not 1.5 hours!!) though I can never understand why, as it's very straightforward to buy, or recharge, passes on line.
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philipb, really enjoyed your TR, thanks for posting. Been to PSV too with Snowbizz and loved it. Another one who thinks of trying Ste Foy too.
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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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For info, the powers that be in Sainte Foy have acknowledged that there are infrastructure issues during busy periods, particularly with the lift pass office and car parking. They have called for opinions from local businesses and will be looking to address problems.
For what it's worth, we pre-order all our guests' passes, so there are no issues there for anyone staying with us.
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hedley, sarah, I would certainly recommend Ste Foy if you enjoy Puy. there is some great piste and between the piste skiing which is great fun for the kids and there seems to be a huge amount of reasonably accessible off-piste with pleny of schools and guides available to take you there. We've been twice now and certainly haven't been bored. It would be v easy to pop over to Villaroger and access Les Arcs if you fancy a change and Val d'Isere and La Rosiere are also close by.
I think it was more personal circumstances that made Puy a bit more fun for us this year - this was the first time we had been skiing anywhere in a peak week so perhaps weren't prepared for the queues. We visited Ste Foy last Easter and it was a lot quieter. Mountain restaurant wise Ste Foy definetly wins out, the little one at the top of the first lift has to be my favourite place to eat anywhere in the mountains - lovely atmosphere and great food.
I should have booked our lift passes before through Erna Lowe, my mistake there.
pam w, yes it was a bit of a nightmare for her, she was relieved to get home. I have to say the insurance (through Ski Club GB) were very good once they had accepted this was a genuine claim and had the letter from the hospital saying that she couldn't sit in a car for 10 hours on the journey back. Briancon hospital was very good, she had a lovely room with a view over the town over to Serre Chevalier.
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We have also done Ste Foy and Puy a few times as a family and both work well and each have advantages and disadvantages, Ste Foy has more charm, but limited resources eg Pharmacy etc. Both are great for families. We also liked les Orres as a family ski resort, but I think we were v lucky with the snow and its not always that good. Trying Montgenevre this year.
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