Category: Chalet Dairy 2013

New Year week brought us mixed conditions, sun and whiteouts!! All our guests enjoyed the torchlit descent in Villaroger and the fireworks after. We then all saw the New year in at the chalet and had a lovely meal and champagne. Another great New Year!! We are gearing up for our Off Piste Development Week in January. Its aimed at people who like to have a go off piste but need to improve their technique. We are hoping for a successful week and will let you know how we go on. Fi and Anneha are back at school early Jan after 2 weeks off. Im back on my Miss Behaved skis after fresh snow. Jonny is loving his Soul 7’s. Looking forward to a happy and healthy 2014!!! Here is some skiing footage from Villaroger. Click Here

The snow came early and we had fantastic conditions in Val D’Isere and Tignes , infact we skied there at the end of November. Les Arcs opened on the 15th Dec and we had fresh snow that week too. Villaroger didnt open on the 15th but a few days later Guests enjoyed the quiet pistes and discounted lift passes pre xmas and it was a great atmosphere in the chalet. My dad came out for Xmas week and he had a ride in a helicopter for the first time ever!!! We are looking forward to a great season, still got plenty of availability throughout the season so please get in touch!      

We are gearing up for the start of the season in 3 weeks time. Val D’Isere and Tignes open at the end of November , Les Arcs on the 15th Dec and Sainte Foy on the 20th Dec 2013. Our early guests will be skiing Val D’Isere and Tignes before Les Arcs opens. Conditions are already great on the Glacier in Tignes , infact people were skiing down to Les Brevieres today!!! Checking the web cams Italy has not had as much snow as us yet. We have snow already in the Village and its got cold in the last week. Our nursery area in Villaroger is taking shape and will be a great asset to the Village. We have also got a new restaurant in the Le Pre Village. Not sure if its Savyorade food or more bistro but will let you know. Anneha  is now 13 and we celebrated with family in the UK. We cowered back for a few days and caught up with all the cousins, aunties , uncles etc.  Jonny has treated himself to a pair of Rossignol Soul 7’s and I’m looking forward to greeting back on my K2 Misbehaves. We need to get the girls sorted with ski pants and boots as they have grown so much over the Summer. They both want the bright fluorescent helmets for Xmas.  We still have limited availability on our Off Piste Developement Course 12th – 19th Jan. We’ve got availability from 5th Dec to 15th for only £55pp pn , 1 room left for 15th to 22nd so let us know if we can tempt you. 5th to 12th Jan is still available for a discounted price of £450 per person for the week. Lots more availability throughout the season so please get in touch. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook SKIVILLAROGER  and follow us on twitter for snow reports/ weather etc.        

A little bit of missed weather here in Villaroger in the last couple of weeks. Lovely now and enjoying having the sun back. We are just changing bedrooms with the girls so they can fit a desk each in their room for homework etc. We have a new avalanche puppy here in the Village. He’s been trained this year and then will be in Les Arcs next season. He’s a border collie and very cute. Villaroger has made a new nursery area for beginners with a tow rope which will be ready for the opening in Dec. They have also put in another piste which goes down to La Planay along with more snow cannons. This is good news for us all. We could have a new restaurant too quite near the lift for lunchtime and evenings on chalet night off. It’s due to open before the start of the season. We still have availability for our off piste Developement week 12th – 19th Jan for people who like to have a go off piste but would like to improve their technique. We have teamed up with Pierre Lohen, a local intructor, and it includes 5 days fully qualified off piste tuition and will be enhanced with videos and talks on evening. Please get in touch if you would like more info or to join us. Our chalet in Les Arcs opens 5th Dec to ski Val and Tignes.. Millionaires skiing , no-one on the pistes and no queues. Les Arcs opens on the 15th Dec, Sainte Foy on 21st Dec. Click here for a taster of skiing in Les Arcs. Cheap flights are out for next season with airline so have a look at travelsupermarket.com for deals. Our nearest airports are Chambery, Grenoble, Lyon and Geneva.  

Villaroger and Les Arcs have started work on the pistes in Villaroger to make a nursery area with a little drag lift at the top of the first lift in Villaroger. They are also widening some of the pistes down the Villaroger side.That’s great news for us as it means beginners can take lessons in Villaroger or Sainte Foy now.  They are putting in snow cannons all the way down the pistes  from the Lanchettes in Arc 2000. This means snow  will be consistent all the way through to the end of season in April, although it has been great for the past 3 years anyway. We have been trying out some new recipes for the coming season. Fi is fab at meringues and Anneha made a great courgette cake the other day. We have an abundance of courgettes from our neighbours so great to find a new way of using them. Click here for the recipe! Girls are back to school this week, having had nearly 10 weeks off..Hurray. Fi is back to Sainte Foy and Anneha Bourg St Maurice. Lovely to see Angela and Stephen Fry this week. Stephen ran the Trace des Ducs de Savoie, a massive race over the Cols that took him 22 hours. He was the first British man past the finish line in the Vets category.. Well done him. The Ultra Trail Mont Blanc  took place this week too. Big respect to all who completed it. Short ski breaks seem to be the thing this month as bookings and enquiries coming in for these, still got New Year and Half Term availability as well as other weeks so please get in touch!

The Valley is looking amazing at the minute and the closeness of the mountains made more vivid as no haze at the moment. Here are a couple of photos below taken in the last couple of weeks. We cheered on Froome and Team Sky last month as the Tour passed through Annecy. My mum and GT and the Taylor family came out especially for the event. We saw them 2 days and had great views. The kids colleted lots of goodies from the Caravelle , which was probably more exciting for them than the tour. She got to meet Froome too at the Dauphine, see below. Anneha is loving cycling and has got the bug. She did Col De Leschaux just before the Tour and got cheered on by the spectators. Just need to get Fifi into it now and then we can head off all together. We cycled the Tour de Vin , near Albertville and Pierre St Albany. It was a great day out and we finished off with a lovely late lunch. They are altering the pistes in Villaroger at the moment. At the top of the first lift we will have a little tow lift for beginners and a nursery area to learn how to ski. This will be a great attribute to Villaroger and Skivillaroger for our novice guests. They are also putting in more snow cannons for the route back down from Les Arcs 2000. Bookings are starting to come in for next season and we are holding prices as of 2012/13 for another week or so. We start the beginning of Dec to ski Val D’Isere and Tignes, with Les Arcs opening on the 15th and Sainte Foy on the 21st Dec. Millionaires skiing pre xmas with no one on the pistes and well groomed slopes. Nice view from the Chalet , see below, love sitting on this terrace at the end of the day! Its the Village fete on the 15th so we are busy getting the float ready and will be making cakes for the cake stand. The girls are on their own stands this yea with friends. For any walking holidays prior to Dec please click here, short breaks, long weekends or a weeks stay. We are doing an Off Piste Developement Week in January for those who like to have a go off piste but would like to improve their technique. 5 days fully guided off piste tuition with Pierre Lohen our local ski instructor and enhanced with talks and videos some evenings. if you are looking for a short ski break dont forget to get booked in to get the dates you want.           

The weather has started to warm up and the Col de Petit St Bernard is now open. We drove up the other day and there is a banking of over 9m of snow at the side of the road. It shows what a great winter season we have had. Anneha has finished school for 10 and a half weeks, Fi finishes on the 6th July. We will be keeping busy. Anneha is looking forward to her road biking. She’s already done a Col and beaten me up t! We are looking forward to the Tour de France in July. My mum is coming over for it along with the Taylor family so we will be seeing lots of them. I asked my mum to bring some England flags, she’s been out and bought 100!!!

We had a good trip back to the UK seeing friends in Coventry, Edinburgh and Yorkshire as well as family. The girls had a great time with Anna and Tess riding on their quads, ponies and jumping off the tractor shovel into the grain. I fulfilled  a lifetime dream of riding on the beach in Edinburgh and galloping in the sea, thanks to Christine and Flash, their lovely cob. We arrived back to France with warm weather although it has now changed and we have had snow down to 1700m. We drove up the road to the Col de Petit St Bernard this week. This is the road over to Italy and the Aosta Valley and where we ski in the Winter for Pizza. The road is not open yet but they are clearing it with ploughs and blowers. Here are a couple of photos showing over 9m of snow on the roadside. Unbelievable! We have been out on the bikes a couple of times but the weather has stopped a few outings. However lots of cyclists in the area cycling the Cols. There is certainly an increase in people cycling in the French Alps , Tour de France and Bradley Wiggins has a lot to do with that. We are planning on viewing the Tour de France when it passes by. It starts from Annecy one day so we will be there cheering our boys on. The girls love it, especially the Carnival that proceeds the race, as they get lots of freebies ! My mum and GT and the taylor family are coming to visit especially for the event. Fifi goes on her School trip on the 3rd June. Its a trip based round animation and she has been picked to make a short film about the school trip. She is very excited especially as she is sharing a room with her best friends. The tulips are only just coming out in the garden and we need to tidy it up a bit after the Winter.  Our terrace collapsed with the amount of snow on top of it this season.  We still have snow down to around 1900 m which is unusual for this time  of year. We have till got availability this Summer for your family holiday or a walking or cycling break.      Prices still held as of last year for early bookings for skiing next season. We are still offering short breaks and long weekends as well as the normal weekly stays.                                  

Well its the end of the season for us ..our last guests have left as the girls break up from school this week and we are heading back to the UK to see family and friends. Paradiski is still open until 27th April , Sainte Foy and La Thuile in Italy closed yesterday. Val and Tignes are open well into May. What a season we have had here in our Chalet in Les Arcs. The snow has been amazing with us having had Powder weeks as opposed to powder days! It must be one of the best end of seasons we have had for years judging by how much snow is still around. It has however warmed up dramatically this week, with temperatures in the 20’s at the minute so the avalanche risk has shot up! We only just lost snow in the Village in the last 3 weeks and we still have full coverage right down to the Village of Villaroger. The first picture below was taken on April 14th in Sainte Foy. We had friends in for the last couple of weeks which made it a great end to the Season, and my stepbrother and his son Rhys finally came to see us. Rhys’s first time skiing he was doing reds on the 3rd day.. brilliant. Pierre our Instructor has been great this year, both on and off piste with clients. Thankyou once again to everyone who visited this year and for making it a happy successful Winter. Anneha and Fi had a great time learning to snowboard. They love it. Jonny has passed his INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN LEADER qualification, whoop whoop!!! He’s been studying for it for around 5 years so its great he has finally got his reward. This enables him to take guided walks in the Alps and all over the world. He is also a qualifed snow shoeing guide now too. So if you came and stayed here at the Chalet he would be able to take you walking in the Mountains. We will be dusting our bikes off now and looking forward to the Summer. The Tour de France passes through Annecy in July so we will be following that and my mum and GT will be with us too. Looking forward to seeing some cyclists here in June to cycle the cols.  WalktheAlps and Marginal Gains Alpine Cycling  are live so please have a look for your Walking and Cycling Holiday in the French Alps, or your Summer Chalet Holiday, for Summer Activities. Bookings being taken now. We are also holding an off piste week 12th to 19th January 2014 for those who like to have a  go at off piste, but feel they want to improve their off piste technique. We have teamed up with Pierre Lohen to offer a weeks course with 5 days off piste tuition enhanced by videos and talks. We will be including avalance awareness and transceivor training during the week. This will get booked up quickly so please get in touch if you are interested. Prices for Winter 2013/2014 held as of this last season for Early Bookings!               

Its been an EPIC season for snow and now at the end of March it still keeps coming!! We still have snow in the Village and conditions for this time of year are AMAZING!! Its ssnowing again now and yetserday was Bluebird , how bizarre is that? The girls have had a go at snowboarding and really like it. They have picked it up well and are mangaing to come down blues and Anneha even did a red yesterday!! She did say her bottom hurt last night though lol. Jonny is on his final assesment for his IML this week in the Pyrenees. He finishes today so we will find out soon if his 5 years of hard work has paid off and he can get his badge. Lots of lovely guests been to visit. Bob Stratton reurned with a bunch of great people( Rugby boys) after 4 years of being away. They were fabulous with the girls too and taught them lots of games and tricks. James and Ben came too along with some new faces, some of whom were Welsh Supporters , right at the time they won the Rugby. We got some banter that week. The Fareham family joined us too, the girls got on great with their children. Harry who had only skied once before skied over the Water in Les Arcs..Brilliant. Rory , with Zoe and Mac from Spain visited and he was such a good little boy! Last week it was the XGames in Tignes for trick skiers and boarders. We went up twice and had a great time. Good atmosphere and the girls got lots of autographs too. We have some new people who have christened the Basin in the Village. Brrrrrrr !!!! Easter is upon us and we haven’t had the usual sunny warm springlike weather we are normally used too. We are hoping it come soon as it doesnt feel like the end of the Season is approaching. We love that time when you can relax in the sun with a beer after a good day’s skiing! We have booked to go on a Flotilla holiday in July. First time we will have ever done anything like this , but really excited. We may have to take some lessons on the lake at Annecy to learn the basics. The Tour De France passes close by again and through Annecy around 19th July so we will be watching again from various points along the way. The chalet is still available for that week if there are any keen cyclists/Tour de France enthusiasts out there? Please check out our Summer websites for walking and cycling. Bookings being taken now , as well as long weekends ! Here are some photos from the last few weeks.