Skiing in Flaine – Part 2

After reliving my first (and worst) ever snowboarding experience in the previous post, I thought I’d start this post on more of a positive note. Skiing in Flaine was a vast improvement to my first trip to the slopes after all.

I’ve never used video on this blog before, so I’m pretty amateur, but here goes! (Excuse the crazed baby babble at the beginning).

This video is us at the top of the mountain, with views over Mont Blanc, listening to crazy didgeridoo dance music, whilst having lunch. What else?!

Skiing in Flaine from Holly Wood on Vimeo.

Pretty darn awesome! There is no air fresher, no sky more blue, no snow more white than at the top of a mountain after a fresh dump of snow. What an experience.

Flaine, I am told, is a real skiiers resort. There’s a great selection of slopes and runs of varying difficulties and it’s pretty high up the mountain (technical!). It’s not a pretty, wooden, ski chalet type of resort. Instead, the buildings are a snowy grey colour, designed by Eric and Sylvie Boissonas, to blend into the mountainsides. This doesn’t make it any less attractive though and Flaine is home to some monumental artwork too, including a Picasso!

There’s an array of shops, bars and restaurants to enjoy the apres-ski lifestyle that is such a big part of this amazing pass-time. The resort is well designed and accessed, with different types of lifts taking skiiers and boarders up and down the mountainside.

We stayed at the apartment, which is at the base of the beginners slope (perfect for me). I’d decided to give skiing a go this time, instead of boarding, to see if it’d be more suitable and I could literally walk 10 metres out of our apartment door, to the base of the learners slope.

Look at the view from our apartment!

Because I had a 7 month old baby in tow, the week was mainly spent with her, getting her from A to B across the snow to meet everyone after their mornings and afternoons of skiing. I did a couple of private beginners ski lessons (highly recommended!), which were great at building my confidence, but between feeding and naps with the little lady, I didn’t get much skiing in.

All was not lost though, as the weather was glorious, so I enjoyed getting out and about in the snow, window-shopping, lunching and enjoying the occasional vin chaud.

Look at this cool sledge you can hire, to push your bubba around in. Made it a lot easier on the soft fresh snow! Think it was about 100 euros for the week.

As the video at the beginning of the post shows, we spent one lunch time at the very top of the slopes at Flaine, eating and dancing to the most incredible views over Mont Blanc. We took an enclosed cable-car up there (carrying the little lady in her car seat), which meant I didn’t have to worry about skiing anywhere. As soon as I stepped foot off the cable car, the views took my breath away. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

And everyone was having so much fun, laughing, drinking, dancing, eating and skiing. People of all ages and nationalities coming together in the most beautiful of spots. What a joy!

I didn’t get a chance to photograph what I ate, but I can assure you I had the most delicious stone-baked pizza and frites, washed down with a vin chaud for good measure.

I really did fall in love with Flaine, it was hard not to (even if I couldn’t really enjoy the actual skiing part very much).

There’s so much to tell you about, so Part 3 will be about the food!

What I wore: Ralph Lauren Christmas Jumper, Bellfield Parka Jacket, Timberland Boots, New Look Jeggings, Head Band. 

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