Julien Favre knows a thing or two about snow. One of the most sought-after
private instructors in the Alps, he divides his time between three French
resorts: the glamour queens of Courchevel and Val d’Isère, and their ugly
sister, La Plagne. And he’s got a dark secret. He’d go for the ugly sister
every time.
La Plagne is large and sprawling – built in the 1960s and architecturally on a
par with Basingstoke. And the night-life’s not much better.
However – and here’s the kicker – the skiing area is vast and the resort has
some of the best off-piste runs anywhere in Europe. What’s more, because La
Plagne is not full of the types who monopolise Courchevel and Val d’Isère,
you don’t have to get up at 5am to make first tracks in new powder.
Most of the accommodation at La Plagne is in ski-in, ski-out apartment blocks
– but if, like me, you have young children, you probably won’t give a
monkey’s about how the place looks. You just want to get your brood to the
slopes each morning with the minimum of shouting and swearing.
And here’s where the ugly sister begins to shine. With 225km of pistes spread
across a huge ski area, La Plagne has always offered plenty of mountain for
your money, but what it lacked in the past was cutting-edge infrastructure.
Over the past decade, though, the resort has ploughed €100m into new lifts
and snowmaking equipment, as well as the Vanoise Express, a cable car
connecting it with the neighbouring area of Les Arcs to create the
super-resort known as Paradiski. One of the newest pieces of kit is a
gondola that whizzes you from Plagne Centre, at 1,970 metres, to the top of
La Grande Rochette, at 2,500 metres, in just three minutes.
Tour operators are taking notice. Last year, the chalet specialist Snowline
bought a block of knackered timeshare flats in Plagne Centre, gutted them
and turned them into luxury suites with weathered oak floors, beamed
ceilings and contemporary furnishings.
We stayed in the largest of the suites, Lucerne, and woke up to views of the
Grande Rochette bathed in morning sunlight. Staff brought us mugs of tea in
bed; we had cooked eggs for breakfast, a children’s tea at 6pm and an
elaborate three-course dinner for the adults. The location was perfect:
lifts just outside the front door, along with the ski-hire shop and a
“bum-boarding” area for kids.
If you’re skiing with small children, the most important thing to get right is
the tuition. La Plagne has a selection of high-quality ski schools, one of
which, Oxygène, is aimed squarely at the British market. Last year, Snowline
launched an own-brand ski school using Oxygène’s English-speaking
instructors and promising no more than six pupils to a class. I sent my
daughter, Helena, who was two weeks away from her fourth birthday, to check
them out.
While she waddled around on the nursery slopes and my 11-year-old son, Callum,
joined a class of speed freaks, I paired up with Julien Favre, the co-owner
of Oxygène, to explore some of La Plagne’s off-piste runs. Leaving the
crowds behind, we took a gondola to the top of the Bellecôte – at a
sky-kissing altitude of 3,417 metres. Standing at the foot of the Chiaupe
glacier, breathing heavily in the thin air, we gazed out over an enormous,
empty, snowy expanse.
Although it had been two days since the last dump of snow, there were swathes
of virgin powder, knee-deep in places, all around us. By the end of the
week, I had enjoyed some of the best off-piste skiing of my life.
The kids were happy, too. Helena was given a medal and certificate, and
proudly showed me how she could ski down from a button lift alone.
After a final session of bum-boarding, we retired to our chalet – ugly on the
outside, beautiful within.
TRAVEL BRIEF
Snowline (0844 557 3118, www.snowline.co.uk)
has a week, chalet-board, at Summit View from £719pp, including flights from
London and transfers. Other family-friendly operators featuring La Plagne
include Ski Beat (01243 780405, www.skibeat.co.uk
), which has 16 chalets there, as well as a crèche and kids’ club for
children aged 4-7. Prices start at £429pp, half-board, including flights and
transfers. Or try Esprit (01252 618300, www.espritski.com).
Skiers and families who prefer to go it alone can take advantage of the
resort’s vast store of self-catering accommodation, which can be cheap if
booked as part of a self-drive package: try Erna Low (0845 863 0525, www.ernalow.co.uk),
Lagrange (020 7371 6111, www.lagrange-holidays.co.uk)
or Ski Collection (0844 576 0175, skicollection.co.uk).
