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?

[Theonlyoneiknow]

We flew from edinburgh with skiworld to Serre chevalier and it was about four hours on the bus, so maybe Grenoble? I was looking at Snowbizz recently but they go from Manchester to Turin. I am in Aberdeen so it's just too far really as would need a hotel too the night before. Shame as they get great reviews as a company. Only go to Puy St. Vincent.

[rookiemater]

Sympathies theonly, I would assume that Aberdeen is even worse for flight options than Edinburgh.

[truelymadlysleepy]

I've never been anywhere at half term that wasn't bombed out. We normally ski in France (Val or Tignes) and stay in a chalet. I think that if you ski in french/uk school hols you just have to expect that it will be busy and expensive.
theonly my DC learned to ski in Puy with Snowbizz and it was brilliant with little ones.

[Burma]

Surely you don't go back to the chalet for lunch though? You would never get very far if you came back every day. We ski for miles and so always end up having to eat in a restaurant/caff. I love all that gluhwein too !

Which ski companies does everyone use? We usually go with Inghams but they are quite expensive.

[trixymalixy]

Depends on the ski resort. We had lunch provided at our hotel in Flaine 2 years ago. We thought it would be a right PITA, but actually the ski school meeting point was right outside of the boot locker room so we all ended up outside the hotel at lunchtime anyway.

[LadyMacmuff]

Haven't skied in France since having the DC but our last two summer holidays there have been grim so No, YANBU I'm not going back either and the food was a big part of that - v. disappointing. We drive through France regularly still to go to Switzerland and I literally can't wait to cross the border if only for clean loos and decent food on the motorway. Sad. I used to love France. We tend to ski when it's quieter anyway, either before xmas / xmas week (although snow is not so great and not all lifts open) and now have slightly different 1/2 terms so can go when it is less busy. Luckily.

[formerbabe]

Went all over France on holiday as a child but never went skiing...(my family didn't do holidays that involved anything energetic). I do not like France for holidays...bad service/expensive/over rated.

[truelymadlysleepy]

Mind you, the 1st time we went skiing in Austria we went out of school holidays to Obergurgl. We were stunned at the lack of queues, the helpful staff in the hire shops & restaurants and the very clean loos.
We decided to go the following half term and the quote was £16K

[Theonlyoneiknow]

I used to chalet maid with Skiworld so pre DC thats who I tended to book with. DP and I used to book the time off then wait till two weeks,before and book somewhere last minute. Got some stupidly cheap deals, especially to the US and Canada. Not possible now we have DC though!

[hmc]

Should send this thread to the French tourist board!

[trixymalixy]

Theonly, we used to do the same pre kids. We got some great bargains. I remember keeping very quiet in a luxury chalet in Whistler when others were discussing how much the holiday had cost them!!!

[MrsMot]

We've just had a lovely week in Alpe d'Huez.
Masses of snow, good weather, fab ESF instructors, queues manageable.
Found a great cafe for lunch every day, dinner at the apartment.
Grenoble airport atrocious coming home but since it was their busiest day of the day not completely surprising.
Expectation management's such a large part of it though, travel to France on the busiest ski week of the year - what do you really expect?

[JohnnyBarthes]

Is this just a ski resort thing? We always manage to eat very well in France, although that's avoiding obvious tourist traps and doing a lot of self-catering.

I've never been skiing :(

[AphraBane]

"the 1st time we went skiing in Austria we went out of school holidays to Obergurgl. We were stunned at the lack of queues, the helpful staff in the hire shops & restaurants and the very clean loos.
We decided to go the following half term and the quote was £16K"

Obergurgl really is lovely, isn't it, truely! We've had two summer holidays in Ötztal, based in Sölden, and I'd love to go back for skiing. But if you were being quoted that kind of hike-up you must have been going via a British company. Next time try booking a hotel and flights directly - the local tourist information will help you with info about a ski pass. I guarantee you it will be nowhere near 16,000 quid. There tends to be less of a price hike in Germany and Austria because the school holidays are less uniform (essentially, each state can set its own holidays and they are deliberately staggered to avoid clogging up the roads).

I've also heard really good things about skiing in the Czech Republic, based around Spindleruv Mlyn.We're thinking about that next year. Reports I heard were that service was great and prices well below western European averages, although the lifts can be crowded sometimes (particularly if there's not much snow which means the lower lying resorts are closed, so everyone flocks to the higher ones).

[MrsMot]

day of the year

[smokeybacon]

Yellow tulips... space bar in courchevel 1650 was my local when I worked there. Oh the toffee vodka......
I can't give up skiing in France. Love tartiflette too much.

[rookiemater]

Mrsmot - did you come back from Grenoble yesterday - it was completely mad wasn't it?
Lots of mutterings from DH about French incompetency, but unfortunately, the airport is clearly not geared up to cope with such a large influx of people. Hey ho, we got our flight though, and DS enjoyed watching out for the Milka lady ( handily dressed as a purple cow) handing out free samples.

[MrsMot]

Yes it was bonkers rookiemater, flights late off because noone could get through security on time!

[Chocaholics]

Go to Austria! I have been to France a couple of times and the slopes were great but the people and the food really put me off. I have been to Austria about six times now and love it. The people are lovely, the food is really tasty, the slopes are good, and they are so nice to beginners, I had lift attendants slow the lifts down for me as I was obviously nervous, had then take me up with them on the T bar lifts, everything about it is lovely.

[Borntorun25]

We have skied France every year with DCs , La Plagne, Tignes, 3 Valleys, but have taken them out of school for a week in Jan .

Has been very quiet, almost no queues and food has been reasonable. Our fussy kids only like crepes so that was lunch every day. We avoided the big self service restaurants and found small creperies, staff were usually fine and friendly and happy to help me and DC1 practice our limited French! Definitely recommend catered chalet/hotel for big breakfast and fab afternoon tea and dinner. Don't need much lunch then .

Used Mark Warner at first who were brilliant when kids littler, have stopped doing flights from Scotland now though so went with Familyski this year who were fantastic, really recommend them.

Never been at half term, we will be going Easter hols next year though as DC1 will be at secondary school. Still thinking about where to go, want somewhere 'snow sure' so wasn't sure about Italy or Austria. Would love to go back to Canada but can't get enough time off work.

yellowtulips it sounds like your awful experience was down to the very busy crowds at half term. I would probably avoid France at this time from what I've read here, but it is lovely if you can go quieter times, we have has superb holidays there. Don't write it off altogether.

[eslteacher]

I live in France and can confirm that shit service in shops/restaurants is not uncommon. I think it's due to a mixture of a no-tip culture, and a French resistance to subserviance after so many revolutions. If you feel you are being treated badly in a restaurant, don't bother trying to be polite and patient, you have to go straight to angry to get anywhere, IME.

In terms of food, if you go skiing here, eating entirely red meat and cheese-based meals for the week also seems to be pretty normal. I am going (self-catering) skiing with a group of French friends soon and the projected menu for the week is basically: Monday - raclette, Tuesday - fondu, Wednesday - magret de canard, Thursday - tartiflette, Friday - welsh rarebit (yes, bizarrely the French love this). French food as a whole cuisine, and as an aspect of their overall culture, is indeed wonderfully varied but I'm not surprised you didn't get the best of it in a week's holiday in a tourist resort. Very little good value to be had unless you get lucky or know exactly where to look.

As for the pushing shoving people, it was French half term last week and so I'm not surprised it was crazy. Going skiing every year with the kids a way of life to many French people, much more so than in the UK, so if you can possible avoid French half term weeks I'd advise you to do so!

In short, I don't think you are being unreasonable and I think you either have to go zen and let it all slide off you, or go somewhere else next time!

[difficultpickle]

Never skied at half term and only done catered chalets in France. Much prefer Switzerland and Norway. I got fed up of standing at the edge of the piste and being mowen down by out of control snowboarders.

[insomniarules]

Try Finland!

[AnnaBegins]

Try Bulgaria! DH always goes to Bansko and loves it - they are so friendly to tourists!

[tumbletumble]

We've just got back from a fantastic week skiing in France. The snow was amazing! We go self catering so we didn't have your issues with the evening meal. Didn't notice any pushing at the lift queues either