I’m off skiing. That’s nice. Where? Valmorel. Never heard of it. Me neither…
If you’re looking for an alpine adventure before the snow melts, check out the slopes at this underrated resort: perfect for Francophiles
THE above conversation happened every time I told someone I was going to Valmorel. Virtually no one from Britain goes skiing there. Before my trip I could barely find a mention of it in the UK press.
Chief among its charms is the location, just an hour from Chambery Airport, which is served by Swiss Air flights from London City Airport. That means you can catch the 6.50am flight from London and be on the slopes by 10.30am – ideal for a short break or long weekend. Imagine the bragging rights over the water cooler on Monday morning when your colleagues inquire about your weekend. “Tickets to see the new play at the Donmar? Pah. I was careering down a mountain at 30mph. The wind in my hair, not a care in the world, etcetera, etcetera…” If you can arrive on a Saturday morning – changeover day for the tour operators – the runs are virtually empty save for a handful of French day-trippers.
The locals know this resort well. While Russians have colonised Val Thorens, where the restaurants and hotels get ever glitzier, and Val D’Isere feels like Chelsea in the alps, with its hooray-Henry nightclubbers and Jaegerbomb-guzzling teenagers, Valmorel is unabashedly French.
This is a good thing – you should only go skiing in the French alps if you like France: the language, the aperitifis, the drinking of alcohol for taste over oblivion, the self-important waiters and the food. If you don’t, you should go skiing in Austria. It really is much cheaper.
Not that Valmorel is particularly hard on the wallet. Everything from a coffee on the mountain – normally a few euros – to the prices in the restaurants seem like a bargain compared to other French skiing destinations.
One standout offer is a snake-gliss ride followed by dinner in a mountainside restaurant. For the uninitiated, a snake-gliss is a sledge where up to 10 people are linked together on individual sleighs before snaking down the mountain, normally shortly after the last run of the day. It’s great fun and the views of the sun setting over Mont Blanc are pretty special. The destination is Le Pariond restaurant, which serves up standard alpine fare such and cheese and meat fondues alongside breathtaking views. The price including the ride, aperitif and a glass of wine or two is €50, which is almost unheard of in these parts.
Valmorel is known by the French skiing bureaucracy as a fourth generation resort, which means it was built in the 1970s but eschewed the brutalism of some of its neighbours. Instead it was constructed in a faux alpine style, all pretty low rise-wooden chalet buildings clustering around a pedestrianised centre. It’s very pleasant if a bit twee in parts.
The resort is serviced by the Grand Domaine ski area, which links Valmorel in the Tarentaise with nearby St François-Longchamp in the Maurienne Valley. A preponderance of easy, wide green and blue runs account for about 80 per cent of the slopes, making it ideal for beginners and intermediates, although there are a handful of thorny black runs for those requiring more of a challenge. If you get bored of the area around Valmorel it’s well worth skiing over to neighbouring St Francois-Longchamp for a mountainside lunch at La Petite Bergerie, which does all the cheesy classics for as little as €14 for a main course.
Accommodation is not as plentiful as in some resorts, but there is something for most tastes and budgets. I stayed in the Hotel du Bourg, a tidy little three star in the centre of the village. Its house bar, Pub du Bourg, with its open fire, is also one of the better spots for an apres ski stop for an evening drink. In a sign of just how francophone these parts are, the hotel owner caused a small sensation when he switched the house beer from Kronenbourg to Peroni.
A Club Med hotel caters for those after something classier, although you have to be a fan of the all-inclusive holiday to make it worthwhile. As well as a smart four star hotel that is aimed squarely at family skiers, there is Le Lodge, a collection of five-star suites that have Mont Blanc views. More luxury accommodation is being built for future seasons.
There is little in the way of michelin-starred fine dining, but there are several standout restaurants. Ski Roc, which also has an outpost up on the slopes, serves up excellent steaks and standard mountain fare, as does nearby La Marmite. Don’t expect much in the way of variation though.
Aside from Pub du Bourg, there are a handful of bars, but don’t go expecting a hot night spot. It is actually quite nice to stay somewhere without the constant blare of the 1990s dance music that is de rigueur in France, but there is such a thing as too quiet. And this is it. We ventured out to the only nightclub one evening, where we found more bouncers than dancers.
Valmorel is the shy, retiring resort in this stretch of the alps, overshadowed by the big-hitters such as Courchevel, Meribel and Val D’Isere. Yet there is something beguiling about it, a whiff of the undiscovered, as if you’ve been let in on a skiing secret. Which is all the better for that water cooler bragging session.
Need to know
GENERAL INFORMATION
Savoie Mont Blanc is home to 110 winter sports resorts and 18 linked ski areas. For more information visit savoie-mont-blanc.com
valmorel.com
saintfrancoislongchamp.com
ACCOMMODATION
Hôtel du Bourg hoteldubourg.com
From €131 per double room per night (including breakfast)