Valloire

...poor. The year we skied Valloire (2007) it was c**p.

Which is a shame because it really isn't Valloire's fault. Indeed, the residents of Valloire, whose livelihood largely depends on those three or four months each year when their village gets invaded by thousands of visitors, have more to lose than anyone by Global Warming. We can go anywhere to get our skiing fix. They're stuck.

And that's a shame really because Valloire ...
...not the right word. Valloire is more of a small town than a village. Valloire and its sister community, Valmenier are, like St Sorlin which we visited a couple of years ago, not located in the most popular ski areas in France. Valloire is located south of the Maurienne Valley in the Tarentaise Region. It is reached by travelling up the valley, past St Jean de Maurienne where you turn off to reach St Sorlin, until you reach St Michel de Maurienne. ... more

We may not be skiing in Europe for much longer. No, this isn't because of our stay in Valloire. It's because for many years recently we really haven't had a ski holiday that we could honestly say was totally enjoyable. The reason may be Climate Change. All I know is the weather has been poor. The year we skied Valloire (2007) it was c**p.

Which is a shame because it really isn't Valloire's fault. Indeed, the residents of Valloire, whose livelihood largely depends on those three or four months each year when their village gets invaded by thousands of visitors, have more to lose than anyone by Global Warming. We can go anywhere to get our skiing fix. They're stuck.

And that's a shame really because Valloire is quite a nice little village. Indeed, village is probably not the right word. Valloire is more of a small town than a village. Valloire and its sister community, Valmenier are, like St Sorlin which we visited a couple of years ago, not located in the most popular ski areas in France. Valloire is located south of the Maurienne Valley in the Tarentaise Region. It is reached by travelling up the valley, past St Jean de Maurienne where you turn off to reach St Sorlin, until you reach St Michel de Maurienne. Here you turn right (assuming you are coming from the general direction of Chambery or Lyon) and climb up into the mountains on a typical narrow zig-zag road.

Valloire is set on the valley floor at the junction of three valleys. The development has now started to exceed the boundaries of the valley walls with new apartment blocks creeping up the slopes overlooking the village. Whether or not this will prove to be a good investment in years to come remains to be seen. On this occasion this was where we were staying, in one of the apartment blocks of Les Chalet de la Vallee d'Or.

Getting there
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Once again we were travelling with Crystal. We seem to take most of our skiing holidays with Crystal and in general we have been happy with the level of service that they provide. We don't demand a lot when we are on holiday, just to be available when we need them.

Our flight was from Gatwick to Chambery, leaving Gatwick at the usual unearthly hour that seems to be the norm for package holidays. I suppose I should be used to it by now but getting up in the middle of the night is still a shock to the system, especially the older we get. We left the car with Tudor Rose as usual. Once again, this is a parking service that we always use. I have written a review of them.

The flight was with Excel, which is a new airline to me. Nothing to complain about I admit. They are very much the same as all of the charter airlines that are used by tour operators such as Crystal; no better, no worse than average.

Chambery, however, never seems to improve. Every year I say "Never again" and each time I forget to listen to myself.

The transfer took about 2 hours and started with a three-quarters empty coach as far as St Jean de Maurienne, where those destined for St Sorlin left us as the only remaining passengers all the way to Valloire. Quite a taxi!

Valloire
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...is a village of mixtures, part small windy streets, part wide open boulevards. The village is triangular, filling the valley floor, with a large river flowing along one side and carrying away the melt waters of the snow. Smaller streams run through the village as well.

You will arrive at the village from St Michel de Maurienne at the roundabout that is located at the middle of the base of the triangle. At this point you will either make your way to one of the hotels in the village or more probably, as we did, up the hill behind you to one of the apartments built on the hillside overlooking the village. You may also possible travel through the village and on up the valley beyond the village to one of the smaller communities.

Most of the services though, wherever you may be staying, are located in the village itself. Here you find all of the bars, restaurants, supermarkets, ski shops, banks and so on, so a good transport system is essential. Fortunately Valloire has a reasonably good bus system that serves the various communities and circles the village centre. Most are normal size single deck buses but the two exceptions are the service that travels up to the new apartments on the hillside and a little road train that runs around the village centre. The services are free to all ski pass holders though never once did I see anyone checking to make sure you had one!

The service that serves the new apartments is only a small bus for about 25 people, most standing. If there are a lot of people waiting at the roundabout to travel up the hill the bus will simply shuttle up and down rather than also do its trip around the village centre. This does mean that the only reliable way of getting back to the apartments is to wait at the roundabout.

The biggest drawback with the bus service is that it ends very early in the evening, mostly before 8.00pm. After that you either walk or hire a taxi or, if you are staying, as we were, in Les Chalet de la Vallee d'Or apartments you can wait for their shuttle minibus than runs up and down the hill until late in the evening. Fortunately the village isn't very big so walking won't be a problem in most circumstances, unless the weather is really bad.

Shopping
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As you would expect, with the sort of numbers of visitors that the village welcomes the number of shops is extensive. Mostly these are ski and gift and souvenir shops but there are also a goodly number of provisions shops, many concentrating on the local specialities like the cheeses. Strangely though, there are only two supermarkets, a small Casino beside the church and a 8 à huit (8 until eight) at the top of the main street (Avenue de la Vallée d'Or) which, defying its name closes between 12.30 and 15.00 and in the evening at 19.30! The latter is the bigger of the two.

Once a week there is also an open air market around the church and in the square by its side. The stalls mostly sell local produce such as cheese, various processed meats, wines and, of course, ski clothing at knock-down prices.

The Skiing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But of course, you're not here to shop; you're here to ski!

Valloire is paired with its neighbour, Valmenier, in the next valley. Valmenier appears to be a much smaller community. Indeed, Valmenier consists of two villages 1500 and 1800, to denote their altitudes plus Gros Crey between them. I say "appears" because I cannot testify from my own eyes since due to the poor weather we never got as far as the Valmenier valley.

A one week lift pass will cost you €137.50 (2007) and if you order it through Crystal (assuming you are holidaying with them), not only will you not need to provide a photo but the Crystal doesn't add on any charges for the service.

Ascending to the slopes above the village from the centre can be achieved but only two lifts. The first and most popular is the Crêt de la Brive gondola. This is undoubtedly the most modern lift in the entire area. Seating up to eight people it rises at high speed from a very well managed starting point near the roundabout at the entrance to the village. Although significant queues form here at the start of the day you don't wait for long due to the speed with which the queue managers get everyone into the gondolas. This will take you up to the Crey du Quart ridge. The only gondola management system its equal that I have seen is in Soldeu in Andorra.

The other alternative is the six seater Setaz gondola that will take you up onto the Setaz des Pres ridge. This isn't as fast as the Crêt de la Brive gondola but nevertheless will get you to the pistes without too much delay. In both cases you take further lifts to get you up as high as you can go.

The biggest problem though is that, apart from the two gondolas and the fast six seat ski lift, TSD Brive 2, all of the other infrastructure is old, slow and limited in capacity. Mostly they consist of two, three or four seat lifts and many drag lifts. All of the lifts are of the old constant speed type so you have to be prepared for a slow journey to your next adrenalin rush. As you will gather from this, the queues are always longest for the fast lifts because of their popularity but also for all the rest due to the slowness of access and of the speed upwards.

The slopes are spread across three ridges and valleys. The pistes are extensive and cover the full range of severities. There's something for every experience level so you should never run out of opportunities to try something new during a normal one week holiday. We never did cover all of the pistes that were open (there were several that never opened at all due to inadequate snow cover) even discounting the Valmenier slopes.

There are snow cannons on many pistes that can make up for lack of snow but certainly not all. More critically though, many of the pistes which form important connections and the runs back down to the village are not covered. The red Edelweiss run never opened the entire time we were there and the blue Lutins run, which is the only piste that comes near our apartment, deteriorated to such an extent that it was unusable for most of the week.

The only alternative is to come back down by the Crêt de la Brive gondola or else descend on the red Campanule run to the bottom of the Setaz gondola. If you do and then decide to head back to your apartment then, unless you are staying in the village centre you face a long hike. In ski boots this is something of an ordeal. Even if you are heading just for the nearest bus stop, the trek from Setaz is still quite long and at the end of the day everyone else has the same idea in mind!

Our favourite run covers a large circuit that goes out as far as it is possible to go in the Valloire ski area and takes about an hour. It starts at the top of the Cret de la Brive gondola and from there you ski over to the TSD Brive 2 six seat fast lift to the top of Le Crey du Quart. From here you go straight on on Crocus to pick up Selles, both Blue runs.

OK, so Blue sounds pretty tame and true, this isn't particularly challenging. However, if the weather is a little misty, as it was when we first attempted it, it can be confusing. My wife went off the right-hand edge taking a corner too sharply and ended up in 5 metres of soft snow. It took her 20 minutes to get back onto the piste so, you have been warned. The secret is that the blue marker poles are all on the left so keep close to them to avoid coming a cropper.

Down here is a very welcome rest at Les Meregers for a Vin Chaud or a Chocolat Chaud. You will know it by the large lump of rock sticking out of the decking in front of the restaurant. On good days the view from here up the valley is superb.

Having enjoyed a break, when the snow is great you can take a shortcut down the Red Meregers run but it wasn't open at any time during our stay. Instead you continue on on the Blue Selles run as far as you can go until you take a 180 back on yourself and return down the valley close to the valley bottom.

You arrive at the foot of two lifts, the four seat Montissot that takes you back close to where you started or the Cornafond drag lift that takes you up onto the Setaz ridge. If you take the latter then you have the full range of skiing there to enjoy, including trips down and back to the hamlets of Les Verneys and Moulin Benjamin and I recommend you do.

The alternative is to carry on past both lifts on what is categorised as the Green Myosotis run. Although officially Green it is in fact more of a Blue but soon in any case joins with the Red Campanule that takes you on an exhilarating ride all the way down to the Setaz gondola station. Although Red, it isn't unduly difficult but is great fun.

Here it's probably time for another break and you can take one at the restaurant on the left of the piste, just before the gondola and most do but I recommend that you pass beside the gondola and cross the road to La Taverne de Valloire just beyond. We had lunch here twice and thoroughly enjoyed both experiences. They do a local version of a pizza which is rectangular and on a very thin and crispy base. Very nice and just enough for a lunch break without bloating you out before your afternoon skiing session. A typical lunch will cost around 15 Euros for a main course, dessert plus wine or beer.

Eating Out
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Of course, if you are in an apartment as we were, you have the choice of making your own meals in the evening or, as we prefer, exploring the various restaurants that Valloire has to offer. OK, it's probably more expensive that way but definitely more enjoyable being waited on and not having to do the washing up afterwards.

La Grolle - You might mistake La Grolle for just a your run-of-the-mill typical French bar but in fact it is somewhat more than that. If you wander up Rue des Grandes Alpes from the roundabout, past the church on your left and the Tourist Office on the right you will get to a small shopping mall (Galerie Eden) on the left and right on the front between the two entrances is La Grolle.

We stopped there for a beer when out shopping on our arrival on the Saturday and noticed a menu that suggested that they might be worth a more prolonged visit. We booked for that evening. We decided to try one of their fondues, this one with Morrell mushrooms as the main subject of the dish. However, we started with a shared plate of various cold meats and this made an excellent entrée.

With desserts and bottle of Jongieux Pinot Noire the total came to 66 Euros (£44) for the two of us. The Jongieux impressed us so much we looked out for it elsewhere. I have to say that I have generally been singularly unimpressed by the local Savoie wines. I find them thin and overpriced but the wines from the domain of Jongieux bucks the trend.

Asile des Fondues - Asile des Fondues, as its name suggest, specialises in typical regional fondues, so we had the "Hot Rock"; never one to be bound by tradition! This restaurant can be found almost opposite La Grolle and occupies what is quite clearly a very old property. The internal walls are mostly bare stone and the ceilings have exposed wooden beams; all very attractive.

The meats that came with the Hot Rock were excellent and, to be honest, more than we could eat. There was wafer thin steak that needed only seconds to cook, veal, turkey, chicken and pork. All were delicious and cooked beautifully. With a bottle of Gamay, a couple of Kir aperitifs and desserts, the total came to 81 Euros (£54).

L'Escale - This small restaurant is close to the roundabout, on the left of the road. Their menu looked interesting and so we thought we would give them a try. They have various local specialities and we decided to try one that sounded appetising. However, I had mistranslated the description and what arrived was very much not what we were expecting! Diot de Valloire sounded like a sort of sausage based "Coq au Vin". Sausage it was, a very large one. The filling was quite clearly composed of just about everything under the sun, meat and vegetables, all boiled in the sausage skin.

I treated it like a Haggis (which I love) and sliced open the skin to eat just the contents. Surprisingly I actually found it really quite enjoyable although I wouldn't want to enquire to closely as to of what it was composed. My wife was less impressed but I think she was wondering a bit too much about just what she might be eating!

With desserts, Kirs (again) and a bottle of Fitou the bill came to 64 Euros (£43).

Chez Fred - We never did meet Fred but our waiter, Jean Marc, was first class. Chez Fred was definitely the very best restaurant we tried, so good in fact that we went there twice. You can find Chez Fred on the main street in the village, Avenue de la Vallée d'Or. It's on the right as you walk up in the direction of the "8 to 8". It doesn't look too impressive from the outside due to the covered outside deck, which looks like the sort of awning you find attached to the side of a caravan! The reason is that Chez Fred is very popular and the extension is required to provide the capacity needed.

On our first visit we decided on meat. I had their speciality kidney dish whilst my wife had an Peppered Entrecote Steak. There was so many kidneys on my plate I was totally unable to finish it despite being just about the best I have ever tasted. My wife declared her steak done to perfection (Blue). With aperitifs, desserts and a bottle of Pinot Noir the meal was the most expensive of our stay at 97 Euros (£66) but worth every penny.

On our second visit we decided on fish and once again it was superb. We had Féra, which is a freshwater fish from Lac d'Annecy. On this occasion we accompanied it with a Sancerre and together with the usual aperitifs and desserts, this time the bill came to 85 Euros (£56).

Conclusions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Overall we had a disappointing time in Valloire this year but this was mostly because of the poor weather. When it wasn't dumping tons of snow on the slopes it was pouring with rain, washing it all away again. Still, that's the luck of the draw I suppose. Not Valloire's fault.

However, even if the weather had been perfect we still would have found Valloire less than satisfying, this because of the lack of investment in modern equipment on the slopes; inadequate snow cannon coverage for when the weather was less than ideal and especially covering critical connecting pistes. More especially disappointing was the mostly antiquated lift systems. Really only the main gondola (Crêt de la Brive), the Setaz gondola and TSD Brive 2 could be said to be worthy of a modern ski resort. All the rest should have been replaced years ago.

Would we go back again? I doubt it, not until I hear that there have been some substantial improvements. There is too much competition from resorts that have got their act together. 

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