Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Another sunny day ...

27th March 2012, by Chris Gill

The view from the terrace of the new restaurant Flocon is not in the very top league, but it's not at all bad

Another day, another sunrise, another blue sky. The meteo forecast for the week posted in the tourist office pretends there is to be some variation in the weather by occasionally replacing “soleil” with “beaux temps”. They can’t fool me.

I spent today in Serre-Chevalier, a half-hour drive from yesterday’s Montgenèvre, and an hour from my lodgings for the next two nights in Les Deux-Alpes. Essentially, the picture is unchanged: slushy snow on any piste that gets more than a touch of sun, hard but usually grippy snow on high shady pistes, cover on the open runs complete, the occasionally sunny black closed – eg Isolée, from the area’s central high-point of l’Eychauda (not actually the high-point of the area overall).

A notable difference is that both sides of the Serre-Che valley are brown, pistes apart. You can see from yesterday’s blog that higher, famously snowy Montgenèvre has snow over much of its north-facing side.

If I’m honest, I found today’s skiing rather harder work. Not sure why this is, but I think it’s because the slopes here, although certainly quiet by any normal standard, aren’t quite as people-free as those I spent much of yesterday on. More people means more moguls – noticeably, on blues as well as reds. Dealing with bumps as well as snow like very wet concrete is that bit more taxing. Or is it that I’m paying the price for my week’s layoff, and getting second-day fatigue syndrome?

I started today in the central sector of Villeneuve, and limited my day to exploration of that and the western sector above Le Monêtier, skipping the easterly Chantemerle and Briançon sectors. The choice was easy, given that we had heard of a new and rather promising restaurant above Le Monêtier. Somebody has to check these places out, so off I went.

We’re already in the rather vague situation of having three restaurants in our Editors’ Choice section of the Serre-Che chapter. We must hope that we get some critical reader reports on one or two of them, otherwise we might now have four including the new Flocon. My magret de canard revisité was excellent.

I’m posting this from Les Deux-Alpes, and will be skiing here tomorrow. Another day, another sunrise, another blue sky. Right now dinner in the excellent little Côte Brune hotel calls.

Back to all blogs