From: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: rec.skiing
Subject: Re: Where to go in France...
Date: 13 Oct 92 09:51:49 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <2AD9F88E.3229@news.service.uci.edu> aodyniec@orion.oac.uci.edu (Alex Odyniec) writes:
>In article <1992Oct12.145238.8907@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>>(We've done Flaine, Les
>>Arcs, La Plagne, Tignes/Val D'Isere, and the Trois Vallees -- Meribel,
>>Courcheval, Val Thorens, Les Menuires -- 
>
>Which of the above would you recommend for an advanced skier?
>I'm going to ski France in January. It's possible that my friends will
>not join me -- any particular area popular with singles?
>Will I have problems finding three- or two-star hotels for a few days
>at a time without reservations?

Depends a bit on snow, which of course we don't know about yet, sigh.
All of them have their attractions -- as long as everything is open.
Think if I had to pick, though, I'd say Flaine is probably the worst
for an advanced skiier, though very good for intermediates.  The two
largest complexes, Tignes/Val D'Isere and Trois Vallees, are probably
the best bets.

If the snow is only marginal, Tignes/Val for sure.  The Trois Vallees
are pretty limiting if the links aren't working.  If you go there, you
want to stay in Tignes, preferably either Tignes Lac or Val Claret.
You can ski the whole area from either Val D or Tignes, but the Val D
end is heavier on blue runs, and most of the really interesting stuff
is at the Tignes end.  

Further, Val D suffers from a bit of bottlenecking, a lift bottleneck
in the morning going up, and a piste bottleneck in the evening coming
down.  (The only thing to recommend Val D in my opinion is the night
life, if that's important to you.  Tignes is definitely the 'skiing'
base.)  

And, the run down to Val D is the first thing to go if the snow is
bad.  Last time we were there, the only run open to Val D at all was a
black, with a hand-written notice at the top warning you that there
were ice patches and bare patches, that when they said 'black' they
REALLY meant it, and on your own head be it.  The piste staff (who will
ski down ANYTHING, probably backwards, whistling and chopping the tops
off moguls with their shovels as they go) were taking the chair down.

There is a new hooker in here, which I don't know anything about.
There's a new little area, La Daille (or something like that) about a
kilometer or so west of Val D, which might be a useful compromise.
It's linked (til midnight) to Val D by bus, or you could walk it, and
it's at the base of a high-capacity funicular which goes right up to an
interesting bit of the area.  It *might* be OK.  As I said, haven't
tried it though as a base.

If the snow is really good, the Trois Vallees.  You get into religious
arguments about which bit is best to be based in.  My money would be on
either Val Thorens or Courcheval, preferably Val Thorens.  But then I
don't particularly like the way Meribel is laid out.  If the snow is
really good, so ALL the links are running, Les Menuires is also a very
sensible choice, some very nice blacks and itineraires on the mountain
just across the valley from it, lift base just downhill (30 seconds on
skis), and a bit cheaper for things like eating and rooms.  However, if
the interconnections aren't working Les Menuires is really a bit small
to be stuck in.  

If you pick Courcheval, Courcheval 1850 is the best part to stay in.
Whichever, the Trois Vallees has got to be the top choice of the bunch,
IF the snow is good enough that the interconnections work.  (The odds
ARE in favor of that.  They do put a fair bit of work into keeping the
links open if at all possible.)

Far as finding odd rooms goes, sorry, I don't know.  We always
pre-arrange everything through a holiday company.  I *do* know that we
regularly meet people who are doing that kind of dashing around on
impulse, but I don't know how much work they have to do to find their
rooms.  Anyone have any ideas?  At the cost of a bit of skiing time,
you could probably find somewhere to stay down in the valley below
Meribel, and take the new Olympe lift up in the mornings (and down in
the evenings).

(Oh, do note that all of my evaluations are from a SKIING point of
view.  We don't take much interest in the night-life, that just makes
you feel all fuzz-brained the next morning when you want to be out on the
slopes.  Nothing worse than having to waste an hour in the morning
overloading yourself with coffee to recover from the night before.  If
we wanted bars and discos, we could stay home and save a lot of money.
Of course, we're 'wrinklies', all you young kids might have different
priorities. :-)

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132