Hi guys and girls, We are back and in one piece, well most of us, scapula managed an unjury but I will let him tell you all about that.
Val Cenis - the village
Not alot to tell, this is a very quiet town, or it was till we landed, we stayed in the BonHeur Des Pistes appartments, which were very nice, clean and tidy. Don't know if it is the typical of France but we were given a list of everything in the appartment which had to be counted and checked on arrival and departure which included, the mirrors, table's, chairs, radiators etc, anything broken etc must be paid for and believe me on check out they do check, one english family was sent back to clean their appartments as it wasn't clean enough.
There are a handful of shops, mainly ski wear, a bakers, small supermarket, tabac and fromagerie,
A couple of restaurants which were constantly fully booked, so we resorted to pizza most nights, but be warned itis take away and closes at 9pm.
Bars - only a couple dotted about and most were shut sat/sun nights, a very quiet village, so if you are looking for a lively apres ski life, this is not it. The cocktail bar was the place to be, and after killer pool tournaments every night, a word of warning don't play snow for money she is a hustler !!
Supermarket, if you are lucky enough to have transport there is a supermarket about 6km out of town so stock up well as the local shop runs out of most things quickly.
The bakers was wonderful and the bread delicious, and luckily a fresh delivery was made to the appartments every morning for purchase.
There is a free ski bus which links the three villages and starts at 8.45am and the last run is 6.30 pm, and it is quite a hike into town from the gondola, where we were.
Ski-ing, after Mr W's report of green green green we actually had excellent ski-ing, it was a bit patchy down below but as long as you stayed above gondola level it wasnt a problem. There were some very challenging runs and all our leg muscles ached from hard work.
It doesn't look much from the bottom but once up and over on the gondola then it opened out and had some fantastic views and some runs. There was even some deep powder which myself and snow became stuck in and lead to a hilarious hour getting out of it.
Frenching grading of runs seems a bit odd though as some blues were easier than the reds and vice-versa, and one to avoid most definetley is L'Escargot, under no circumstances do this run lol, ask snowb4ndit.!!!
From the top you can make your way over to the next village down and some of our group likened it to either Soldeu or Andora i think it was, very open, and beautiful long runs.
The weather was fab a bit icy in the mornings but once the sun had been out the snow was brill, and I enjoyed my time there and so did the rest of the group I think, snowb4ndit is a darkhorse though, she is an excellent ski-er and has an excellent technique. Don't let her tell you any different !
So to sum up, if you are looking for a quiet holiday with family and friends but not into the apres ski life then this is definetley foryou, if you like it lively then it would be a no no, may be different in the main season.
Overall i thoroughly enjoyed my time ski-ing with snowb4ndit and her family.
Val Cenis
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Started by Amanda n in France 12-Apr-2009 - 13 Replies
Amanda n posted Apr-2009
age is but a number but why does it have to keep going up !!
Amanda n
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
Couple of pics, sorry they aren't very good, i am sure snow will be along later and add some better ones, the Cat Archer thief is quite funny. !!
Me and Snow ready for the off - i am in the brown and it was cold.
Watching the ski-er's while we lunched, that is a lot steeper than it looks
Me and Snow ready for the off - i am in the brown and it was cold.
Watching the ski-er's while we lunched, that is a lot steeper than it looks
age is but a number but why does it have to keep going up !!
Edited 3 times. Last update at 12-Apr-2009
RoseR
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
So glad you all had a good time, been dying to hear how it all went.
I'm a laydee
Edited 1 time. Last update at 12-Apr-2009
Ian Wickham
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
Amanda the trees look laden with snow.. :D
Glad your all back in one piece and had a great time :wink:
Glad your all back in one piece and had a great time :wink:
Tony_H
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
Hi Amanda, good to hear you had a great time, and good to have you back.
www
New and improved me
Snowb4ndit
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
Amanda summed up our week so well there is nothing I need to add. We did have a fab time, the weather was good to us and the skiing was brilliant. Val Cenis is a bit too quiet for me (in the evenings)and I don't think I'll go back. If I were to go back I'd go earlier in the season to ensure the ability to ski in and out of accomodation. I did manage to do it on the first day but the snow down to the village was too patchy after that. L'escargot (a 12km green run) was very long and boring and after skiing part of it on the first day Amanda and I made a joint decision to avoid it for the rest of the week. We worked hard on some very tough reds and blues. (The slope grading was a bit hit and miss, as Amanda said) On the last day four of us wanted to do a black. When we got to the top it was a complete white out, very very icey and it was closed! I was secretly happy.
Scapula pulled a muscle by taking a short cut and venturing into meter deep powder. It took him some time to get out of it and it was very entertaining for the rest of us who watched whilst we sipped our hot chocolate. The injury was minor thankfully and he still managed to continue to ski the day after (which was the last day).
I managed to bump and cut my head on the second day by walking into a menu board, on my way to the bar. That'll teach me for sarcastically suggesting in another thread that we should wear helmets to the pub!
Amanda is a very confident skier and I'm flattered that she thinks I'm good. I have good days and bad days but she is consistently good.
Amanda is fun and I will not forget how much we laughed when venturing on to a red that had not been pisted. The idea was to take the quickest route down and we ended up crying with laughter for ages trying to get out of knee deep powder. Scapula, watching from the top, saw me searching for a buried ski and opted out...he told Amanda and I that he'd meet us at the bar. He was there half an hour before us!
I'm sad now that there'll be no more skiing for 8 months.
Scapula pulled a muscle by taking a short cut and venturing into meter deep powder. It took him some time to get out of it and it was very entertaining for the rest of us who watched whilst we sipped our hot chocolate. The injury was minor thankfully and he still managed to continue to ski the day after (which was the last day).
I managed to bump and cut my head on the second day by walking into a menu board, on my way to the bar. That'll teach me for sarcastically suggesting in another thread that we should wear helmets to the pub!
Amanda is a very confident skier and I'm flattered that she thinks I'm good. I have good days and bad days but she is consistently good.
Amanda is fun and I will not forget how much we laughed when venturing on to a red that had not been pisted. The idea was to take the quickest route down and we ended up crying with laughter for ages trying to get out of knee deep powder. Scapula, watching from the top, saw me searching for a buried ski and opted out...he told Amanda and I that he'd meet us at the bar. He was there half an hour before us!
I'm sad now that there'll be no more skiing for 8 months.
Take Life With A Pinch Of Salt... A Wedge Of Lime, & A Shot Of Tequila :-)
Edited 1 time. Last update at 13-Apr-2009
Jonah690
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
Shame you were not there a couple of weeks earlier when I was there would have been good to have caught up with some of you. We had snow nearly every night and it was glorious I tended to stick to Termignon as it has better runs and is quieter. Think your pic may have been taken from their looking at it. If you go again I would recommend the snow coach Hotel its at the bottom of the village and has the new chair to termignon and another which takes you up to val cenis about 50 metres away. Very lively when we were there as well, good crowd in the hotel. I would definatly go again. Not a place for the guys when we want to do serious skiing but great for a holliday with family or with my dad. Although saying that the snow was so good and with such accessable off piste it might suit some.
Jonah690
reply to 'Val Cenis ' posted Apr-2009
P.S off to Tignes or Val Thorens Fri anybody fancy comming?
Topic last updated on 14-April-2009 at 18:11