Flaine 1999

After a couple of recent trips to Banff in Canada and a great week in Serre Chevalier a couple of years ago, we took a late booking to Flaine this year.

Our 6 year old daughter decided she didn't want to come this year, so we got a cheapy, sleeps 2-4 appartment.

Unfortunately, we chose to go the week that, next door resort, Chamonix was hit by a huge avalanche and Flaine suffered (did I really say that!) huge snow falls meaning that most of the week saw only a handful of lifts open.

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Above : Lots of snow all over the alps this winter and Flaine was no exception..."

On the good side, we were able to ski every day, even if sometimes it was limited to a dozen runs on a short drag lift. The snow, itself, was near perfect and continuous in its fall.

The Stade and TS de Bois drag lifts got a lot of use, the short red Stade run getting a lot of use as it is short, but fairly steep. However, both these lifts are very fierce in operation, being able to lift adults off the ground, so there were lots of fallers to contend with. Queues for these lifts and the 'egg' gondola nearby, were always bad the week we were there (even when the bigger DMC gondola was open), except early on and during the 12-2 lunch period.

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Above : Looking over the Stade and TS de Bois lifts from the Residence De La Foret, Flaine Foret.

When the large and fast DMC gondola was open, we generally skiied on the Faust red run (being, mainly, the only run open from the top of the resort). This a long (4-5 kms) and fairly challenging Red. Everyone who could snow-plough was on it the week we were there and this added to the challenge.

To either side of the worn track, there was waist deep powder, which I usually stuck to as it was actually easier than dodging snow-ploughers, lousy snowboarders and the invisible (in poor visibility) bumps. Due to avalanche risks, the proper off-piste areas were strictly out of bounds for most of the week.

We did manage to get onto the lower half of the main Black run in Flaine, the Diamant Noire. This starts from the top of the DMC gondola, but we joined it part way down. What we skiied was fairly easy, except for a steep, narrow section near the bottom, although, from the gondola, it looked tougher near the top.

Fortunately, on the last day we were there, the sun shone and the pisteurs got many more lifts open, including the all important link into the Grand Massif area and to the nearby resorts of Samoens, Les Carroz and Marillion.

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Above : On the way to Les Carroz

This area has many fast, well groomed blues and reds (some fairly steep) and there was some great fast skiing to be had down to Samoens. The lower section of the run to Marillion was actually icy (quite a shock) and we experienced a 15 minute queue to get back up the mountain from here on a bottleneck chairlift at the top of the gondola.

There was also quite a lot of good off-piste to be had in the larger area.

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Above :Even the Piste Bashers couldn't cope with the amount of snow.

Overall, the area is good for beginners/intermediates and there is plenty of scope for off-piste skiing for boarders and better skiiers, under normal conditions.

Our accomodation was at the Residence De La Foret, run by the (it said in the brochure!) 'respected Pierre & Vacances'. Our appartment was small and basic (no oven or grill and we had to draw a picture to explain what a kettle was - and no, we didn't get one!), but ok for us for a week, although a decent shower would have been nice. Others on holiday with our company (who, admittedly, paid more) got much better appartments.

The building was bland on the inside and, like all of Flaine Foret and Flaine Forum, bog ugly on the outside. However, on the whole, the staff were friendly and helpful and there was a useful free early morning bread delivery service to your room.

As I said, the resort was plain ugly - Bauhaus my eye! Lots of cheaply constructed blocks made of concrete slabs. The two levels of the resort didn't seem to work that well either as the Red Devil and Yoghurt pot lifts were all prone to long queues at peak periods and erratic operation, although it is normally possible to ski down from Flaine Foret (where most appartments are) to Flaine Forum (where the local lifts start from).

Strangely, for a resort concentrating so many people in a single area, there wasn't much to do at night. There were few bars or restaurants, but even they never seemed that busy as most people seemed to buy food a the supermarket and eat in their rooms - perhaps this was because there were so many French families there due to the start of the French school holidays.

For non-skiiers, Flaine doesn't seem good as, although it has a swimming pool, cinema and auditorium, there are hardly any shops or daytime non-skiing events to occupy the non-skiier.

One night we went skidooing for an hour or so, which was extremely enjoyable. The machines seemed pretty quick and it's a fairly physical action to ride one, requiring the rider to throw themselves in the opposite direction to that which you want the machine to turn. If you get the chance to try it, I'd recommend it.

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Above :Skidooing was a first for us - Give it a go, it's great fun!

The ski school seemed to be well geared up for kids, although there were signs that unhappy kids weren't particularly well looked after (something we found with ESF ski school in Serre Chevalier).

If you are self catering in Flaine and do, like us, venture out to eat here are some tips :-
The White Grouse Pub - I almost hate to recommend the 'English run, English Style pub', but it did serve good food, drink and have a big screen projector TV showing the World Championships.
We went to the tour company organised curry evening - The curry was a typical pub curry, but there was a choice, with plenty of popadums and a second helping for those who could manage it.
The 110FF Menu De Chef was great value, offering a peppered steak, 1/4l wine, starter, dessert and coffee - The best value meal in the resort? I also had a great Chilli there, which was the plat de Jour one day.

Pizza restaurant next door to the White Grouse - Ignore the tiny entrance, and sour faced waitress - the pizza was excellent and the pasta, reportedly, good.

Salon De The - Next door to the Residence De La Foret - Great filled Pita breads, but very busy whilst we were there. You may need to book a table for an evening meal.

Residence De La Foret - The take out pizza was thin based and sparsely covered, but the crepes by the ski room door where good value.

Overall, the weather conspired to make this far from the best skiing holiday we've had, but we did ski every day (not something possible in all the resorts in the area that week) and Friday's skiing almost made up for the rest of the week.

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Above :When the sun shone, it was great!

Would we go back to Flaine? Well, until Friday it was a resounding NO, but now it's a maybe...

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