Forums

JENKS

Just a quick post, to say we had never been skiing before any of us!!

We travelled down to Les Gets, stopped there for the first night on the aire ,
moved on the next day to COURCHEVAL 1850 , loads of snow arranged hire
of boots and Skis etc, stopped at the bottom of village 1850 next to Piste.

Joined for next night by a Spanish family and a Belgium couple both very friendly! Courcheval was absolutely beautiful and I could get a pass up and down even though I wasn't able to ski, due to a knackered hip.

after three nights we were all moved on by the local police who left a note saying camper vans weren't allowed to stay in Courcheval from 2200hrs to 8.00hrs. the spanish guy thought it was because it was good Friday and the place was packed out !.

We moved down to la Tania aire , I wasn't too impressed with it, not flat at all no snow and all crammed into a corner of a carpark on a noisy road junction , I think it may have been made worse as when I awoke the next day after leaving the cab light on I had flattened the sprinter battery. The kids and wife went back up to Courcheval 1850 on the frequent bus service. Luckily for me another British motor homer who was on the aire had a spare battery and some jump leads he had borrowed from his son , and when he learnt of my problem he kindly helped me to get started !! Wink

We moved on the next day to Alpe Duez (sp ) really nice place more suited to beginners at skiing , we wild camped next to the slopes as the aire was full over easter !!

I really enjoyed this place , as did the kids loads of green runs for them to get going on .

The last 2 nights we spent on the aire I was a bit dubious as it was half full of new age travellers and gypsy types with loads of their dogs roaming around the site , but after I told myself an old friend of mine had become a new age traveller and you couldn't want to meet a nicer guy i slept really well ,we stopped for two nights with no problems on the site.

All in all it was a steep learning curve, the Rimor was fantastic we were never cold once , even though the temperature dropped quite considerably on a few nights. The fact it has a big garage to hang the ski wear in to dry was a big bonusI thought, and the polycarb waste tanks never froze once .

The experience for me even as a non skier was fantastic ,the views and the fresh air are wonderful to say the least.

For the kids a great experience they can't wait to go again, for the wife painful but that’s another story!

Thanks to Ruthiebabe for inspiring the trip with her reports of her trips whilst skiing on here, also thanks to Sagedog for the encouragement to go for it and the great advice he gave via the phone.

Jenks

Les Gets GOOD aire with water and waste emptying and electric

Courcheval 1850 no facilities for M/HOMES, in fact actively discouraged !

Courcheval 1650 flat carpark only no water or waste. Bus ride up to 1850 regular basis upto 20hrs

La TANIA small aire corner of busy road ! Water waste and Electric avaiable. Ski lifts and bus rides up the mountain available.

ALPe D'eux aire water waste and electriity , but quite a few full time new age travellers and their dogs. ! Awesome road leading to the village part of the tour D france cycle race!!

JENKS

Can somebody PM me how to add pictures to the report ?

I am useless at techno stuff !!

Thanks I. A.

JENKS

arrow2

Jenks, glad you enjoyed the trip. With anything like this you need to try it out, see what works and what does not. L'Alpe D'Huez - been there many times by air and hotel, Aires seem busy, wild camping hard if you cannot get on an Aire. Great fun place though. Plenty of sites down the bottom of the 21 hairpins at Bourg D'Oisans.

Did you ride the "scary chair"? One of the world's great experiences.

Kevin

ruthiebabe

Jenks this is great news - glad that you braved it and enjoyed your trip. Good time of year for a first trip as it won't be too cold (especially not this year!) and of course att easter if there's really no snow you can always walk or just sunbathe...but I'm glad you skied a bit, at leat some of the party.

We went again the week before Easter, mainly la Rosiere, will post some details when I get a minute, I already posted an update on Val d'Isere.

there are more and more of us interested and there should be combined efforts to a factfile soon, Sagedog suggested it and I've offered to assist Cool