If you are not totally
enchanted by Villard de Lans on your first
visit, then you may
well be made of wood.The place is a magic village. Clean, small, colourful and full of character, it is one of the Alps’ special settings that should be visited at least once. Ski vacations are often about more than skiing, and if discover here. Treat the adequate selection of skiing here as a bonus, and you won’t be sorry.
Look for great food and great atmosphere and you’ll be downright delighted.
Villard
de Lans, Correncon and Vercors have, between them, 120 km of skiable
slopes which are serviced by 37 lifts are all skiable using the same ski
pass.
How
to get there
Villard
de Lans is in France’s Dauphine region and is skiable form 1050 m to
2170 m. It is easy enough
to reach by car as it is a mere 32 kms from Grenoble and 175 from Geneva, and if you can’t find those perhaps you should not be
venturing up a mountain
anyway. The nearest
airports are Geneva and Lyon. In
terms of putting heads on pillows, Villard de Lans is not small time. It is, in fact, with 20,000 tourist beds, one of the top ten
French resorts. There is,
in the resort, every type of accommodation from luxury to farmhouse, so
most budgets will be satisfied. There
is lots of skiing in Villard, more than 100 km of prepared trails and
the most modern of lifts, including a new six person cable car. The skiing , which is never all that difficult is never the less
variable and should please most vacationing punters.
For
those of you who prefer gliding and kicking, there is also a very big
Nordic area in Villard and the ski school caters for that sport too.
In fact there is a Nordic ski center which has a waxing and
changing room. The
beginners in your group will find their areas right on the edge of town,
whilst those skiers who are more experienced will use the lifts just
above Les Glovettes and from there go to the Pass of the Two Sisters
(no, I don’t know how it got its name).
Most of the skiing here and around here should be skiable to all
but the very rank beginner.
The
more difficult bits are on the way down to Correncon.
If you think that the city fathers in this area are not serious
about moving this resort into the big time, just have a listen to this. They have installed no fewer than 83 (count’em 83)
artificial snow guns to ensure good conditions all the way sown to the
village well into April. Until
this time there was a problem on the lower slopes due to the very
favourable temperatures the area normally enjoys.
Use the guns at night and ‘poof’ the problem is gone.
Night life is not what you should come to Villard de Lans for; it
its, for the most part reasonably quiet, although you wont have any
trouble getting yourself a good French meal.
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