Great Expectasia: Skiing in France: Les Arcs

Wow are we lucky. Last year in April we met friends' friends whom we loved, and they said they have skied all over Europe and loved Les Arcs. We knew nothing about skiing in Europe, but their judgement seemed worthy of trust, so last May, I booked a package in Les Arcs 1950 (as recommended), including ski equipment, pass and ski school for the boys. EVERYWHERE on the website it said refundable, fully cancelable, etc., so I figured I might as well just book, and we could do more research and cancel if we needed. I super wanted to ski there - especially after I looked into it a bit, but I was just keeping our options open.

Come August, and Matt said he had bad news and he didn't want to ski in Europe. He wanted to go to the Middle East or really anywhere else. I super reluctantly tried to cancel, but when I tried to cancel online, it wouldn't let me. I called, and they said that YES, there was a refundable fare, but that wasn't what I booked. We had the non-cancellable fare. I booked too quickly and didn't pay attention. I felt pretty bad, since Matt didn't want to go, but I (not so secretly) really wanted to go, and I was kinda happy we were stuck with it. Luckily, Matt went skiing with colleagues in Switzerland a few weeks earlier, and he loved it and got excited about this trip in the end.

Last Saturday we flew to Lyon, France (from Luton - first time out of that airport), we got picked up and driven into the mountains. It was raining. It was dark. We could see nothing. 2.5 hours later, we saw lots of snow and we entered a car park. The village we were staying in had a car park underneath and a road next to it, but only skiing and walking in the village itself. At midnight we arrived to our room. Felt like northern Michigan. In the early 90s.

Up at 7, because we had to find our ski pass, find our ski rental and get to ski school by 8:50. Even though we had barely any information with our reservation, we found it all, scrounged whatever snacks we brought on the plane for breakfast, and Koby and Elie went off with their ski school (and somehow we got them placed in the correct levels). Sam wanted to try skiing (go Sam - they had a bad experience in New Hampshire two years ago and had vowed never to ski again), so Sam, Matt and I went to explore. Within a minute, Sam was done and wanted to go back. Matt and I had an amazing time finding our way around the mountain. We could ski back to get the boys, eat lunch at our place and go back out. There were a few trips to the indoor and outdoor pool. There was a LOT of Splendor and Lost Cities (our current two fav board games), there was a lot of ipad, and holy cow there was a lot of skiing. We skied all day for five days and Elie and I had a half day the last day (and Matt had a bit too).

The mountain was so fun to navigate. We literally skied for that many days and there were still many parts of the mountain we didn't get to. It was especially fun when we didn't have a time commitment (like ski school pick up), and we could just go anywhere and end up anywhere and find our way back. Especially when Matt and I were together, so if we got stuck on a harder trail, it was ok. They don't really have green trails, they have blue, which are mostly slow and lovely, though they have some challenging parts. They have red, and they have black. We did no blacks. I loved the blues and reds. Elie did some reds the last few days (well!). Koby was a blue guy. Matt was great on blues and reds. Sam hated it all but tried the first two mornings.

A few days we stopped at a restaurant or cafe on the mountain for lunch or hot chocolate. A small fortune, but such a fun experience. One was even an igloo. The walls were literally made of snow and ice with amazing carvings. The restaurants in the village were eh. We ate out twice - once for pizza and once we had fondue and the kids had burgers, nuggets etc. Otherwise, we visited the Carrefour and got food to prepare at home.

Sam mostly watched tv and texted with friends and read about ten books. They found a friend from cheder in the village and went to visit them at Club Med in our area one day (there was a free shuttle - they went alone!).

The boys passed their levels and really improved. I absolutely loooooooved the skiing. It was a bit crowded, but we survived. Friday we got a beautiful ride back to Lyon and flew back to London (Gatwick - pain to get back from!).

It was a WONDERFUL week. (Ok, many of the photos and videos really look the same, but it's so hard to cut).

Sam skiing!

boys fencing. we got our skis from a locker just to my left, under our hotel room. We skied under that bridge and through the village to get to a lift and off we went.