La Plagne

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The first time we went to La Plagne (actually Belle Plagne) was in February 1998. We hadn't been skiing for a couple of years, so we were very much looking forward to it.

The drive was easy enough, so we ended up waiting for our apartment to get ready. Luckily it was a nice day and we enjoyed sitting in the sun.

The nice weather lasted for the whole week. The temperatures where that high that even at 3000mtrs it was about 0 Celsius.

Skiing conditions were good, although nearer to La Plagne the snow was icy. We liked the skiing very much. Not too difficult, sometimes rather easy. But certainly relaxed.

Belle Plagne is nice and reminded us a bit of an old Medieval town, with stairs and walls etc. In the center are a couple of nice shops (groceries, meat and cheese and clothing). It's easy to get from Belle Plagne to Plagne Bellecôte. There's a cabin lift to and from. You don't have to ski to get there.

At the end of 1999 we went for the second time. This time for a fortnight. We had a really nice apartment, which had a spectacular view at some of the slopes. This was the first time we had to take our cat Sylvester with us. It was amazing how little trouble he gave during the drive. We were very thankful for that.

Again skiing conditions were good and we had a good time. Although, now that we new the area, we were beginning to wonder if it wasn't too easy after all. Later on (it had been snowing), the chances of going to different places in the area ( Champagny, Montchavin and Les Coches ) grew and made it more fun. You now could take trips through the area, from one lift to the other (instead of staying at one part of the total area). So, although we had a good time we concluded that a fortnight was too long.

If you want you can take a look at some pictures.

We went a third time in February/march 2006. This time to Plagne 1800. I had the day off the Friday before, so we took advantage of that and tried to be ahead of the traffic queues. We had reserved a room at a formule1 hotel at Lyon-S and arrived there early in the evening. The next day early we continued our trip and managed (with help of my GPS) to stay out of the heavy traffic on the last leg between Lyon and Albertville. In that way we arrived at about 10.00 am at Plagne 1800. Much too early to check in, so we went to the ski-hiring shop. Fitted some shoes and sought some nice skis out, after which we had a drink in the sun. The afternoon was then spent with the re-acquaintance of the skiing sport. That took some time. Not getting any younger our stamina left a bit behind and our moves were a bit rusted too. But nevertheless we stayed in one piece.

Sunday and Monday the weather was relatively nice (lots of sun, but some clouds as well) and we had a nice time skiing and enjoying the sun. Plagne 1800 lies on a different side of the mountain and there were some new slopes to explore. Besides that, since some years the resorts of La Plagne and Les Arcs are connected and we planned to go to Les Arcs one of these days, so we tried to figure out how to get there and how long it would take us to get back to our location (because the lifts would close at a certain time) .

Unfortunately Tuesday was very foggy and we stayed in our apartment the whole day. Wednesday and Thursday conditions were a bit better, but the sun had gone and scattered snow showers had taken it's place. Also the wind speed increased and the temperature dropped. But we skied all day until on Thursday the snow showers and the wind were so heavy that visibility dropped considerably and Ilke couldn't even see anymore.

Friday was even worse and we decided to go home. Normally we would have gone by evening, but skiing conditions were that poor that there wouldn't be much fun and this way we again could avoid the heavy traffic. So we did. The driving went smoothly (except for the first part because of the snow. But luckily snow chains weren't really necessary, although many cars had), until we were about halfway and we heard on the traffic info on the radio that conditions between Metz and Luxemburg were so bad that trucks couldn't drive on and were stranded (and the A31 was closed for them now), but also there was a 25km queue. We considered driving to Strasburg, but that was too much of a detour to do if we wanted to get home at a reasonable time, but also there was the question whether conditions there and in Germany would be much better. We decided to book a room at Nancy and stay over for the night. A well made decision as it turned out later. Driving conditions Saturday morning were very reasonable (except for the petrol station at Luxemburg) and we were home early in the afternoon. As we checked out see text that day and Sunday we found out that both in the North-east of France , as well as in Germany lots of cars, trucks and busses were stranded and people had to stay in their cars during the night.

Overall this holiday was nice, though.