To never go skiing in France again

[YellowTulips]

Just got back home from a weeks skiing. The food (so much for French cuisine) was awful - routine evening bill was over 120 Euros for 2 adults and 2 children. The menu was the same in EVERY restaurant. I am not a fussy eater, nor is my family but how much fondue, steak or duck can you consume? Came home and had beans on toast - lovely .

The service was awful. Waiting 30/40 mins to get a hot chocolate/coffee.

The bloody pushing and shoving by the ski lifts by the French nationals was awful (the kids getting knocked over and nearly trampled in the scrum).

I appreciate being able to afford to go skiing is a lovely thing. Been to Austria, Italy, the US and Canada Is my experience of France the norm? Was a total shocker for me. Is this the norm?

[stringbean]

I've only ever skied in France (well, NZ once too, but that was years ago); we drive and rent a self-catering apartment - it's the only way we can afford to go really. Beautiful though it is, I really couldn't face the drive to Austria.....

However, in all the years I've been to France, I've never encountered a problem like the op and am a bit that this was her experience. I can only conclude that it was due to half term crowds. We usually go at Easter and go to Tignes to be sure of good snow. Last Easter we had fantastic weather and empty slopes - I don't think I've ever skied there in such good conditions.

There does seem to be a bit of opposition on Mumsnet to Easter ski-ing - taking the dcs out of school has never been an option for us for reasons I won't bore you with - but there are resorts that are great at this time of year, and the prices are a lot cheaper than half term. The French are generally not on holiday then either, so resorts can often be fairly quiet.

As for ESF, there are plenty of other ski schools to choose from; ds (11 at the time) was in an Evolution 2 class of about 6 last Easter and had a ball. I think he covered more of the slopes than I did!

[stringbean]

I won't argue with the cost of the food though! Again, we self-cater and take everything with us or shop at the bottom of the mountain in one of the big supermarkets. We only ate out on one evening last year. And our one experience of 6 hot chocolates in a village cafe in Les Brevieres (30 Euro!!) meant it was the only one we had! Back to to the apartment for a cold beer and home-made hot choc on the balcony - much better .

[rookiemater]

We are just back from Serre Chevalier. It's wonderful to be back in a comfy bed with a toilet on the same floor that actually has a sink in it ,but other than that I couldn't fault France too much.
Pistes were fairly empty although got a bit more crowded in the afternoon, lift attendants fairly helpful when DH kept falling off at the end of the chairlift, excellent snow and slopeside restaurants good though expensive.

Ironically the best restaurant we ate in was Italian, shunned by the French who prefer eating mostly cheese or crepes it seems, marvellous service from the Italian owner unlike the other establishments where we were definitely second class citizens .
Funny thing happened to us twice at lunchtime, we were asked well told really,by French people to move tables so big squads of them could sit together, the second time we had to move twice and the lady asking wasn't terribly polite about it, but it makes for a good holiday story !

[clam]

We've always copped for huge queues in France as, being teachers, we've had no option but to go at half term (New Year just as busy and I don't like going at Easter). However, this year, we struck lucky - we went to Isola 2000 in the Southern Alps, but their local schools (Nice, not sure what zone that is) aren't on holiday until this coming week, and it's too far for the Paris people to travel - they would have gone to the Northern Alp resorts.
The difference was immense. The longest 'queue' we had all week was 10 people. Hope the dates can work out like this again.

[trixymalixy]

Actually there was a brilliant wee cafe at the bottom of the nursery slope button in Val D'Isere. A massive panini was €5 and enough to feed two, so we eat there most lunchtimes. My lunch when I'm at work is about £5, so I thought it wasn't bad value.

The thing you have to remember about ski resorts is that the waitress is there for the skiing, the waitressing job just enables her to be there.

[winklewoman]

Stringbean, I don't think there is actually mumsnet opposition to Easter skiing in principal. I do not like it because you often get those conditions where the snow freezes overnight so you have ice in the morning, then as the sun heats it up there is too much slush, so you really only get a two to three hour window of good (i.e. the sort this granny likes) skiing. I agree that Tignes is very snow sure even at Easter but we suffered a week of heavy snow and whiteouts there and that was in April and it put me, maybe irrationally, right off Tignes. On the other hand I do love Les Arcs. We have always been full board there, so lovely French lunches back at the hotel, no chilly picnics.

[dollius]

Crazy to go to Les Arcs/La Plagne for Feb half term. We were there for Christmas and that was crowded enough.

If you go to France, go self-catering and hit a big supermarket before you get to the resort.

Pick a less popular resort or go for one that is more spread out and stay in one of the remoter villages/resorts to avoid the crowds.

France is one of the best places in the world to ski, but you have to pick your moment carefully!

[Glitterfeet]

I travel to France regularly and couldn't cope having to eat out in restaurants and hotels every night for a week. It's different in a big city but the menus are often so similar in one region. My family live in a town with several streets full of restaurants and I swear they've all photocopied the same menu.

I think catered chalets are much better for skiing.

[winklewoman]

I would happily go to a small resort, but we are usually accompanied by our adult sons and they want huge tough ski domains, which more or less boils down for them to Les Arcs/la Plagne, though they reckon they have skied it too much now, Three Valleys, where we went this year or Espace Killy. They were barracking for a return to Austria but would only consider St Anton which I find too macho. I would love to return to a little Austrian village but they will have none of it, nor are they interested in Italy. I wouldn't mind, but we pay for the lot of them.

[MissMilbanke]

France - pah - never again.

Went to Meribel a couple of years ago. Great skiing, weather etc but very pricey.

Especially when some french twat keys 4 sides of your hire car cos he didn't like it where it was parked.

Never ever again.

[Burma]

Cervinia in Italy is wonderful no French people. Great high altitude skiing, lovely flamboyant Italians, good food and the Matterhorn to gaze at from every angle.

I've not been for a couple of years and for some reason this year I am totally full of envy and obsessed with the thought that I want to be skiing! Not helped by the winter olympics it has to be said. I love it so much and the whole family do but it is just so expensive.

I've got friends who drive to France and it sounds absolutely hideous, doing it on the cheap but taking days to get there and back, hold ups on the chunnel and break-downs in the car plus taking all their own food and bedding - couldn't do it no matter how much I love to ski!

I have total which is not a nice face I know.

[Burma]

Austria and Switzerland sooooo beautiful. I just adore those little wooden huts with curling smoke from the chimneys and reindeer skins at the bar .

Admit that Canada and the States are a bit character free but wow the pistes are unbelievable......

[Capitola]

The bad manners around the lifts puts me off skiing in France. All that pushing and barging in - I hate it.

Austria is much better.

[Bonsoir]

People ski in France for the actual ski-ing rather than the holiday. I've been to the French mountains lots of times and I dislike the atmosphere intensely - super competitive hard core outdoors stuff in an unpleasantly institutionalised hospitality industry.

[Sleepwhenidie]

Another vote here for Serre Chevalier, very family friendly resort, busiest week of their year but it didn't feel like it on the slopes or in the restaurants (maybe because there weren't loads of Brits as well as French on half term ) perhaps I should shut up and keep it secret. French all v welcoming, weather great. I'd agree there's not a great deal of variation in the food on offer and due to exchange rate it's not cheap, but didn't feel like a rip off either. We had a fantastic week.

[HanSolo]

I haven't been to France for 8 years, I got so fed-up and annoyed with it!

QS- tell us more about Levi, please... how did you book?
Also- do you know anything about Poland, ski-wise?

[CrispyFB]

I'm tempted by Levi but heard they have lots of T-Bars, which given our DC are all under 7 doesn't sound great!

We did La Plagne last Easter holidays and whilst I agree about the food, and the odd bit of surliness, it really wasn't that bad at all in terms of crowds, so we didn't see much pushing in etc.

Would have loved to go this year but am currently 36 weeks and can barely shuffle from the bed to the bathroom thanks to SPD.. doesn't stop me dreaming that I'm skiing though!

[badguider]

Food and service far better in Italy, Austria and Andorra in my experience.

[FraidyCat]

I nearly always ski in France. I find the idea of eating in restaurants crazy. In Courchevel I heard a burger and chips each for a father with two kids cost something like 60 Euros. Having said that, I did have some good pizza lunches for "only" 20 Euros (14 for the Pizza and 6 for a coke) in 1650.

I stay in tour-operator chalet-hotel and find the food included in the price very good. (Not the same as chalet's, which can be hit-and-miss. The cooks may be 18-year-olds whose first experience of cooking is on-the-job training that year. The chalet-hotels should have a proper chef.)

[FraidyCat]

Have almost never seen significant lift-queues in five consecutive years of skiing in the three valleys, the exception being occasionally in Val Thorens.

[rookiemater]

I didn't find the prices in Serre Chevalier to be too bad, although they did increase the higher up the mountain you went.
It's probably because SC is a bit tricky to get to - we flew to Grenoble and it was a pretty hair raising 3.5 hr drive to get to the resort, particularly as we couldn't figure out how to get the snow chains on.

When we ate out, our dinners were around 60 euros for 3 for a main course - DS generally no cheaper than us as he would have spag bol, but that included a couple of glasses of pretty decent wine, usually around 3.50 a glass. Maybe it's because we are from Edinburgh, where it's pretty pricey to eat out anyway, but I thought it was ok - although due to the lack of variety we were happy to eat in some nights.

Our best value evening was when we bought meat from the butchers and they loaned us their fondue set. For three, a good quantity of beef and chicken cost around 16 euros, then an extra 4 euros for some sauces and bread, there was already oil at the apartment so it was an absolute bargain .

Coffees & hot chocs were pricey - 3.50 for a white coffee at the bottom of the slopes, but you did get a lovely view. Also DH and I tend not to go to Costa and Starbucks at home so I don't have much of a frame of reference for the cost and for things such as cake and so forth. We just gave ourselves an overall budget and managed to stick fairly well to that.

I do agree with the poster who didn't reckon much to the ESF. DS had lessons with an English ski school and seemed to progress well. DH had booked a week of 1.5 hr private lessons with an ESF instructor which we ended up sharing due to splitting looking after DS and we both felt that the instructor was not really worth the fairly high price.

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Agree with Serre Chavalier being lovely, the really long transfer with young DC is a no go for me though (unless I flew into the wrong airport last time )

[Theonlyoneiknow]

Les Contamines is a lovely wee resort, very traditional with no built up buildings. I did four ski seasons there

[rookiemater]

Theonly - it's apparently only about an hour or so to transfer from Turin to SC, which might work out cheaper too as people unlikely to think of Turin as a ski flight destination, unfortunately for us no direct flights from Edinburgh though.

[whois]

You went skiing to a French mega resort in HALF TERM and are surprised it was crap? Well, no shit Sherlock!

Go somewhere less popular with no/fewer UK TOs. Or go at Easter.

Try Dolomites for cheaper, quieter at UK half term and better food.