 Poster: A snowHead
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First post here so please bear with me:) (I have been enjoying the forums for a long time though!).
I have been fortunate to ski in great resorts recently: mostly Verbier, and Val d'Isere. So I always felt it was going to be hard to enjoy something else. But we wanted a change this year.
I used to go to Les Menuires as a kid (I grew up in France before moving to England) and I remember loving it.
I was concerned to go back since I read a couple of mixed comments here. But we decided to take the plunge and we booked in Meribel for a week. We just came back and I felt like I had to share our experience: we had a blast.
1. We love staying in more typical villages rather than purpose built resorts. It turns out, there's a bunch of those in the Meribel valley. We stayed in a small village called Le Raffort just below Meribel center. It's incredibly pretty: not a single building. Just old barns and chalets, even a typical "lavoir". And it's connected via ski lift to the main village. I don't know of any other places in France that gives you this feeling of being in an authentic Savoyard village, while being connected to a massive ski playground.
2. Due to personal constraints, we had to go during the "worst week" (right in the middle of the local school holidays). I read here and there it can be really tricky. I don't know if we were incredibly lucky, but we never struggled with queues. Sure, in the morning you would sometimes have to queue for 10 min at the bottom. But as soon as you were in the mountains - we never queued (and we did not even try to avoid queues!).
3. The diversity of the ski area is just incredible. I have never seen anything like that. And maybe it's the fact we were in Meribel, that is "right in the middle" and therefore you can go anywhere quickly. But we would one day ski in the forest in Meribel (highly, highly recommend a stop at the St Bernard:) ) or Courchevel. The next day we would go for incredible glacier views in Mont Vallon and ski > 3000m in Val Thorens. And there was a beginner kid with us some days: the beginners area in Meribel is fantastic (I think they call it the Altiport). In the trees, plenty of sun. Fun activities. We all enjoyed it actually!
4. Snow this year has been a concern obviously. But we had excellent ski the entire week! Of course we avoided the south facing, lower parts. But even when you avoid those and stay above 2000m, there are more runs than we could do in an entire week.
The other thing that struck me is the freeride potential. I am more of a freeride person and les 3 Vallees is not as known for that as say Verbier. Honest: I don't know why. There is SO much to do in Les 3 Vallees! And since it's less known for that, in both Meribel and Courchevel we managed to find places with barely any tracks, 3 weeks after the last snow (and we did not have to walk much). And again: the fact you can ride in the forest, or on glaciers, all during the same day - to me that's unique.
Last thing: as I said we stayed in a small village below the main resort. Every single time when we skied back (it's at 1350m, in the trees) we saw deers. We could not believe our eyes, but it happened every time!
So... maybe it's because it brought back memories and I wanted it to be awesome. Or we just got incredibly lucky. But for us this has been our best ski holidays to date  . Magical. Highly, highly recommend.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@PJ Maza, Plus 1 from me.. 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I too have a love-relationship with Meribel valley. I don't go there every year but every few years the call to go back is too strong and it never disappoints. 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Great first post
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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There is a reason 3V remains the iconic French ski resort. However good other places are.
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Excellent. Have been to the 3Vs many times but never down in La Raffort. What's the village like re: restaurants etc.? And how is the piste down to the village (possibly the only one in the 3Vs I've never skied!); reasonable snow cover?
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| Dyrlac wrote: |
| Excellent. Have been to the 3Vs many times but never down in La Raffort. What's the village like re: restaurants etc.? And how is the piste down to the village (possibly the only one in the 3Vs I've never skied!); reasonable snow cover? |
Coincidentally, we had never skied down to Le Raffort in many visits to the 3Vs but eventually did so in January this year. It was a lovely, blue, tree-lined run, though a little icy, with the odd stone, when we did it.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| PJ Maza wrote: |
| I don't know of any other places in France that gives you this feeling of being in an authentic Savoyard village, while being connected to a massive ski playground. |
If you like that sort of thing, check out Peisey, it's a proper village - you'll even find houses with a basement full of cows - and connected to Plan Peisey and the rest of the Paradiski by a little bucket lift.
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We love the Le Raffort run-it's often our "go to" destination on a fresh snowy morning coming over from St Martin, preceded by skiing off the sides of Choucas/Gypaete, then, if we're lucky, up the Olympic chair to the top of Roc de Fer, first (or nearly first) tracks down Le Face (the black) /off the side and head left down the red piste Daguet through the trees to link up to the Raffort blue.
The blue has no snow cannons on it, so it can get a bit sketchy early season (and probably is closed at the moment given the lack of snow since mid Jan). However, it is in the trees and is on the east facing side of the mountain.
We've had lunch at Le Martagon restaurant in Le Raffort a couple of times-it's on the other side of the car park from the lift at the bottom. My recollection is that the food is typically Savoyard, but of a really good standard.
@PJ Maza, another location to stay that feels more authentic is the St Martin side of the mountain. St M itself still has some unconverted rustic old farm buildings-though the village has had quite a building and renovation boom in recent years. The satellite villages of St Marcel, Villarabout, Beranger and Le Chatelard are very pretty. Those who say that the 3V is just too commercial and only offers "industrial" type skiing just need to explore a bit more..
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'd add Morillon and Samoens to the list of "village-y" places to consider
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I like the Raffort run and have skied it in January and March. I've also skied all the way to Les Allues in March.
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| Dyrlac wrote: |
| Excellent. Have been to the 3Vs many times but never down in La Raffort. What's the village like re: restaurants etc.? And how is the piste down to the village (possibly the only one in the 3Vs I've never skied!); reasonable snow cover? |
Been loads of times and only recall the Raffort run open once (March last year)
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Quote: |
The other thing that struck me is the freeride potential. I am more of a freeride person and les 3 Vallees is not as known for that as say Verbier. Honest: I don't know why. There is SO much to do in Les 3 Vallees! And since it's less known for that, in both Meribel and Courchevel we managed to find places with barely any tracks, 3 weeks after the last snow (and we did not have to walk much). And again: the fact you can ride in the forest, or on glaciers, all during the same day - to me that's unique.
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I worked a season in Courchevel many years ago. A Swiss ski instructor said the same thing then - "there are all the famous serious off piste resorts but L3V is the best off piste playgound in the world". He was drawing a distinction between "serious" and "playground" but I think it's a good description. He didn't say "freeride" because it was long enough ago that no one had coined the phrase!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Great report - and lovely to know you enjoyed Le Raffort.
I'm staying there very soon, and although I know the 3V very well have not stayed in Meribel for a very long time, so now looking forward to it even more - thank you!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I would also commend La Terrasse du Village, we ate there a couple of nights last week and it was excellent with good food at fair prices and excellent service.
I guess last week was 5 or 6 weeks into no significant snowfall, and the 3 Valleys pisteurs must be praised in keeping the pistes in good fettle, especially on the Courchevel side.
My main critique would be that many of the mountain restaurants that we have previously used are now probably 30 euros for a main (tagliatelle carbonara or spaghetti), with few affordable (Plat de Jour) alternatives, this came as a bit of a shock following a recent trip to Austria where I was eating a couple of courses of better quality food for 20 euros.
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