Avoriaz 2008
In 2008, we started looking for cheap flights to Europe at Half Term, but there were none to be found, so we decided to book an appartment in Avoriaz direct through the tourist information office and drive through the night, as we had on our last visit there in 2002 (remarkably, Avoriaz is now the place we've holiday most often, having been here in 1998, too).
We got a one bedroomed appartment in the Alpage 2 complex in the Crozats part of the resort, which is only a few minutes walk from the centre of the traffic free resort (It was close enough, for example, to wander down for croissants for breakfast, despite early starts for Ski School.)
As well as booking the appartment, I also arranged ski hire for the kids (via Skiset) and ski school for them both (the ESF, as Ryan was keen to get his one-star badge) over the internet.
We set off from home at 7:30PM on Friday night and took a 10:35PM Channel Tunnel train crossing, arriving in France at almost exactly midnight local time.
The roads were significantly busier than the last time we'd driven, but that hadn't been half term and, although most vehicles passing us were UK registered 4WDs, there were no hold ups to speak off.
Splitting the driving between Mandy and I, we arrived at the autoroute exit to the Portes De Soleil at around 7AM and were in Avoriaz's large open car park area at almost exactly 8AM, a 12 hour drive from door to door.
The final drive up to the resort was thankfully snow free and rewarded us by finishing by breaking through the grey overhead cloud as we reached Avoriaz and presenting us with bright sunshine, which was to be the general theme for the week's weather.
Getting there so early, we grabbed some breakfast, bought lift passes for everyone, popped into the accommodation rental office to confirm everything was in order and collected the kids skis (remarkably efficient and quick in Superski) and were skiing by 11AM.
We grabbed some very good Burgers (quite affordable too, by mountain standards at 8 Euros) in town for lunch, cruised the blue that goes under a tunnel down towards Morzine to help Ryan regain his ski legs (which he did remarkably quickly considering 2007 was his first time on skis) and then, when called, attempted to get our luggage up to the appartment. Oddly, the taxis don't just run between the Parking area and the village, so you will need to call them and book one (take your mobile!). This done we got our luggage and skis up to the appartment building and I set off for the keys. On my return, the last few items were just arriving on the 4th floor where we stayed.
The appartment was a little disappointing to be honest. It was impressively clean and, with two convertible sofabeds, a double bed in the bed room and a table with 4 chairs, was just about big enough for us for a week, but it did not look as if it had been refurbished since it was built and was looking a bit shabby and long in the tooth. The Bathroom was very disappointing with only a shower attachment on the bath and the water pressure was pathetically weak (although, generally, hot water was plentiful). The view from out window out towards the main ski slopes of Avoriaz itself, though, was undeniably impressive.
Lauren and Ryan were booked into ski school from 9-11AM each day, so we had to start early each day.
Ryan was pleased to find that his entire children's ski school class was made up of other English speaking children, so he made friends and had a great week, in contrast to his first few days the previous year. Lauren was in an Adult class, which was mixed French/English speaking, but she seemed to enjoy herself generally and her instructor and classmates were friendly it seemed.
On the Sunday, Mandy and I just skiied fairly close to Avoriaz to ensure we could get back to pick up the children without problem. After lunch, Ryan and I cruised his blue run down towards Morzine a few times and then went up to the top of the Mossettes lift and took the long blue all the way back to Avoriaz before a headache and general tiredness got the better of him around 3PM.
We ate out at the Les Intarets restaurant on Sunday night, enjoying their excellent pizzas and friendly staff.
On Monday, after the children finished ski school, we just generally skiied around Avoriaz. We went and skiied a new blue run that Ryan had done at ski-school and after lunch in a mountain resort over Super Morzine, Mandy took Ryan for the afternoon whilst Lauren and I skiied the Reds, mainly, around Avoriaz, including a few runs through the Canyon De Pschott and the offpiste slopes running above and back down to it. We finished off with a run down the tight, narrow and mogulled Combette black, one of the most challenging runs in the Portes De Soleil area, but rarely skiied it would seem.
We ate in Monday night and I picked up Croissants for Tuesdsay's breakfast.
After ski school Lauren and I rather ambitiously set off on the Circuit, which takes in the resorts of Avoriaz, Chatel, Morgins, Champoussin, Les Crosets and back to Avoriaz. They usually recommend a day for this, but I reckoned we could do it before 5PM.
The biggest problem was a complete lack of the signs I remembered from the previous two tours of the circuit - There is a blue, red and black route and I only ever saw any signs in Avoriaz and then only heading the opposite way to the route we took.
Things went quite well via Les Lindarets and down to Chatel, where we hopped on a bus to the next village. Walking across the road to the familiar cable car, I then got very confused as the piste map didn't show the runs we found ourselves on and we finally spotted a chair lift going down to Morgins. As the conditions were quite slushy in Super Chatel (the area above Chatel) we took the lift and then realised that we were probably always on the right route anyway.
We took the gondola up and then followed a number of rather bland runs (and one or two more exciting ones) across Champoussin before finally stopping for a late lunch at around 3PM in Les Crosets. After that we decided not to gamble on reaching the lift up the Swiss Wall (which I'd skiied on Monday a couple of times) and short cut back via Mossetttes. We had time for a couple of quick runs back in Avoriaz before the lifts shut.
We ate out at the Fontaines Blanche restaurant, where the food was fine, but our waitress was surly and careless (even to the point of stabbing me with a steak knife as she walked past at one point!)
On Wednesday, I took Lauren over to Morzine, where we enjoyed the blacks and Reds, especially the Myrtilles black which was faultlessly smooth and featured the best snow we saw all week.
We ate in on Wednesday and the kids and I wandered around town afterwards and it even snowed for a while, although it was nothing more than a few flurries and didn't leave much fresh snow on the pistes.
On Thursday, Lauren tackeled the Swiss Wall with ski school and was understandly proud as it's a very steep mogul fields with dire warnings at the top about not tackling it unless you are an 'Expert Skiier'.
I had Ryan in the afternoon and we ended up taking in a Red which made Ryan's week as we took the Crot blue all the way down to Prodains (as Ryan thought he had with ski school), rather than just to the first lift. We skiied a lot, not getting back until around 4:30 and it was evident that Ryan's skiing had improved dramatically over the week. He was keen to pass his 1 star test and we worked hard to get him to master slide slipping, which he just about had over the afternoon.
Our final meal out was in Falaise on Thursday night. We ate some more, very good pizzas at Le Douchka restaurant, where the staff were friendly, too.
Mandy and I skiied some Blacks in Avoriaz on Friday morning, although she refused to take on her nemesis the Combe De Machon.
We met Ryan at ski school where he had successfully passed his test and we had an early celebratory lunch at the Yeti (next to the chalet we'd stayed at on our previous visit) and then collected his badge from the ESF office.
We then all skiied "Ryan's Red" before Lauren and I spent the last few hours of our holiday with 4 runs down the Combe De Machon, which is a deliciously steep bowl (with a evily mogulled gulley at its heart, but lovely open slopes, with great spring snow, even in February, either side). We did both sides twice and fitted in a run down the Canyon de Pschott in between.
Lauren was skiing extremely well, with no nerves or caution on these tricky runs and I can only expect the day pretty soon when she doesn't want to ski with her slow, cautious father any more...
Overall a great holiday, with good weather most days (except on Thursday when cloud descended on the mountain rendering white out conditions high up). Ryan and Lauren both made good progress at ski school and are skiing well for the relative experiences.
Once again, as both our previous visits, the Portes De Soleil area left us highly satisfied with our holiday and I would recommend Avoriaz to anyone looking for a mix of difficulty runs, potentially extensive off piste and door-to-door skiing.
