Dinar Times | Daily Dinar Updates from Dinar Guru on Dinar Chronicles and Dinar Recaps
  • Home
  • Dinar Guru
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Videos
  • USA
  • Dinar News
  • Iraq
  • World
  • Blog
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Dinar Guru
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Videos
  • USA
  • Dinar News
  • Iraq
  • World
  • Blog
No Result
View All Result
Dinar Times | Daily Dinar Updates from Dinar Guru on Dinar Chronicles and Dinar Recaps
No Result
View All Result

Home » Skiing in the French Pyrenees: who needs the Alps?

Skiing in the French Pyrenees: who needs the Alps?

January 16, 2016
in Uncategorized

It wasn’t the usual airport transfer. We bumped along in the back of a friendly stranger’s battered old jeep, the resident cocker spaniel having obligingly moved to sit on his owner’s lap in the front seat. But our shuttle driver had decided that rather than risk climbing further into the mountain blizzard without chains, it was wise to flag down a passing vehicle and charm them into giving us a lift, which this stranger did willingly, ushering our bags and us into the dog’s place with a delighted smile.

“That’s so Pyrenean,” declared our French hosts, after my friend and I were dropped off safely at the bar of Le Bois Joli in Cauterets. It may not happen in Geneva, but then, like so much about skiing in France’s south-west rather than the Alps, it wasn’t just different, but more fun too.

Resorts here usually flag up the multitude of snow machines that help ensure skiing through the season, but any fear that snow might not fall at the lower Pyrenean altitudes was unfounded this season. The opposite was true: there was more snow here than in any other resort in the world by mid-February. So much, in fact, that it caused problems of its own: ski lifts submerged under nearly six metres of the stuff, pistes overflowing faster than the piste-bashers could flatten it, and such persistent snowfall that the avalanche risk could not be managed, leading to closed runs and even closed resorts. We’d glimpse the odd buried snow machine, as redundant as a fan heater in the Sahara.

At Cauterets, the outermost pistes on the mountain bowl were closed, partly for fear of avalanche, but mainly because only the roof of the chairlift station remained visible. The weather deprived us of the view of the renowned national parks on the other side: the Pont d’Espagne – access for snowshoeing or crosscountry skiing among forests and teeming waterfalls – also blocked.

But it would be churlish for any skier to curse the snow. For the willing but inexpert off-piste skiers, like my friend and me, there were rare opportunities here and in nearby La Mongie and St Lary to try skiing through deep, fresh snow – often, in fact, on runs that overwhelmed pisteurs couldn’t groom in the exceptional conditions.

The Pyrenean resorts are quite family-oriented, and the average skier here, mainly from western France, looks less practised than in the Alps – the Winter Olympics it isn’t. But those with the skills could find amazing, virgin snow daily. On one long stunning chairlift ride up the south face of the Tourette peak in St Lary, in a rare morning of clear blue sky, we watched in awe as a skier floated off-piste over the hitherto untouched expanse for hundreds of metres.

Energetic skiers will quickly exhaust the possibilities of Cauterets, but lift passes can be used for other resorts in the region – including the Grand Tourmalet, the area combining La Mongie and Barèges (through the latter was alas inaccessible and evacuated after an avalanche when we visited). St Lary has a few more exhilarating runs, although the region’s most intriguing challenge must be the off-piste descent from the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, north of La Mongie. When weather allows, this mountaintop observatory for stargazers takes a small number of pre-booked guests for the night, to either return by cable car or ski down with a guide.

But if the French Pyrenees can’t usually beat the Alps for skiing, it has the brilliant, bonus feeling of holidaying abroad, something a ski trip doesn’t always manage. If some Alpine resorts can feel a bit like a production line of British visitors, from flights to chalets, with solid English spoken from boot hire to après-ski, this felt like a warmly welcoming, down-to-earth part of France. Cauterets in particular is a gorgeous old spa town, with grand 19th century architecture fit for the visiting bourgeoisie. Thermal baths using the naturally hot spring water are dotted around the resorts, but the Bains du Rocher at Cauterets, in a renovated traditional building, were special; lolling in the steam of the 35C outside pool after nightfall watching huge flakes of snow swirling down on to our faces felt magical.

Not all the buildings are beautiful: La Mongie is one of those purpose-built French ski resorts whose concrete scars the landscape, to the chagrin of the fiercely proud locals in the tourist office, happy to tell how bears and the Occitan language were all but obliterated by Parisian overlords. But the mountains are magnificent: and you can still dine at a cracking traditional hut near the top of the slopes, L’Etape du Berger – owned by yes, a real shepherd, Eric, who breaks off from tending his 2,000 strong flock to spend a long lunchtime entertaining guests and sharing out hunks of lamb with quick expert incisions.

The restaurants in general served great, hearty food: the south-west’s typical duck dishes, and Gascon specialitygarbure, vegetable broth laden with sausage, pork and duck leg. We tried stag and wild boar at Les Trois Couronnes in Cauterets, and more garbure at L’Auberge des Pyrénées in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan (whose proprietors kindly took us in after we were forced down the mountain by the elements). At La Tute in St Lary ordering soup and salad turned out to mean far more food than even a hungry skier could put away.

And as you’d expect, there were big Madiran red wines everywhere to wash meals down with, and all at very decent prices, certainly for ski resorts. The vodka-based bilberry digestifs are maybe more of an acquired taste.Only around 1% of visitors here are British: I’d met one in the queue for the plane, who inquired if I was going skiing: he’d been coming this way for years, had loved the welcome from the locals, and was baffled why more people didn’t go there. Then he stopped, as if he’d let out more than he wanted to tell. The 6.20am flight from Stansted to small, fuss-free Lourdes airport meant that with a one-hour transfer (even by stranger’s jeep) we were skiing that same morning. I don’t know why more people don’t go either.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Tags: MountainSkiingSnowTravel
ShareTweetShareSendShare

Related Posts

Iraqi Dinar Rates/49ers Global Reset Warning/FBI Agent
Uncategorized

Iraqi Dinar Rates/49ers Global Reset Warning/FBI Agent

January 23, 2023
TNT
Uncategorized

TNT

January 22, 2023
MarkZ
Uncategorized

MarkZ

January 12, 2023

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Dinar Gurus

Bondlady’s Corner

Bondlady’s Corner

January 28, 2023

Sandy Ingram

Sandy Ingram

January 28, 2023

Henig

Henig

January 28, 2023

KTFA

KTFA

January 28, 2023

MarkZ

MarkZ  

January 28, 2023

Kaperoni

Kaperoni 

January 28, 2023

Read More

Iraq / USA

THE CONTRAST COULDN’T BE MORE OBVIOUS!

THE CONTRAST COULDN’T BE MORE OBVIOUS!

July 5, 2022

[IMPORTANT] This is what’s going to happen next… | Robert Kiyosaki & George Gammon

[IMPORTANT] This is what’s going to happen next… | Robert Kiyosaki & George Gammon

July 5, 2022

ALERT! A New Monetary System is Close..Just NOT THE WAY YOU THINK!! (Bix Weir)

ALERT! A New Monetary System is Close..Just NOT THE WAY YOU THINK!! (Bix Weir)

July 5, 2022

Scam Alert! Ukraine Demands $750 Billion…For ‘Reconstruction’!

Scam Alert! Ukraine Demands $750 Billion…For ‘Reconstruction’!

July 5, 2022

Read More

Blog

KTFA

KTFA

August 6, 2022

A new financial system aka the quantum financial system QFS

January 30, 2021

Iraqi Dinar News 12/27/20

December 27, 2020

A very happy Merry Christmas from Dinar Times Team

December 25, 2020

Read More

Videos

“Everyone Will Be Wiped Out In 30 Days” | Ray Dalio’s Last WARNING
Videos

“Everyone Will Be Wiped Out In 30 Days” | Ray Dalio’s Last WARNING

January 28, 2023
Upside Breakout CONFIRMED! How High Will The Market Go? | Lance Roberts & Adam Taggart
Videos

Upside Breakout CONFIRMED! How High Will The Market Go? | Lance Roberts & Adam Taggart

January 28, 2023
Biden continues to implode. Weekend news with MarkZ 01/28/2023
Videos

Biden continues to implode. Weekend news with MarkZ 01/28/2023

January 28, 2023
Iraqi Dinar Guru News Highlights (1/28/23)
Videos

Iraqi Dinar Guru News Highlights (1/28/23)

January 28, 2023
GOP VICTORY OVER BIDEN’S CLASSIFIED DOCS! RINO SWAMP WINS. DANGEROUS SPOILED KIDS. WORST SINCE 1932!
Videos

GOP VICTORY OVER BIDEN’S CLASSIFIED DOCS! RINO SWAMP WINS. DANGEROUS SPOILED KIDS. WORST SINCE 1932!

January 28, 2023
[IMPORTANT] “It Begins…” (Dave Ramsey)
Videos

[IMPORTANT] “It Begins…” (Dave Ramsey)

January 28, 2023
Read More

Cryptocurrency

THIS JANUARY IS THE 2ND BEST ON RECORD. EXPECT THIS IN 2023.

THIS JANUARY IS THE 2ND BEST ON RECORD. EXPECT THIS IN 2023.

January 27, 2023

Short Sellers Getting CRUSHED On Tesla! New Amazon And Polygon Parternship Coming Soon!?

Short Sellers Getting CRUSHED On Tesla! New Amazon And Polygon Parternship Coming Soon!?

January 27, 2023

The Big Crypto Pump! 🔥GET READY NOW🔥

The Big Crypto Pump! 🔥GET READY NOW🔥

January 26, 2023

Ethereum: 2023 ETH Predictions & Risks!

Ethereum: 2023 ETH Predictions & Risks!

January 26, 2023

Read More

Dinar

The 2022 Budget Will Not Go Ahead Without Returning The Price Of The Dollar

The 2022 Budget Will Not Go Ahead Without Returning The Price Of The Dollar

July 5, 2022

Iraqi Dinar/US Dollar auction results for Wednesday 7-6-2022 executed today 7-5-2022

Iraqi Dinar/US Dollar auction results for Wednesday 7-6-2022 executed today 7-5-2022

July 5, 2022

Iraq Achieves A Financial Surplus Of More Than 15 Billion Dollars In The First 5 Months Of 2022

Iraq Achieves A Financial Surplus Of More Than 15 Billion Dollars In The First 5 Months Of 2022

July 5, 2022

Barham Salih discusses with Lindsey Graham the recovery of Iraq’s smuggled money

Barham Salih discusses with Lindsey Graham the recovery of Iraq’s smuggled money

July 5, 2022

Read More

Dinar Times is an exclusive website concerning Iraqi Dinar Revaluation, serves with the Iraqi Dinar RV related latest updates which are based on Dinar Guru opinions and reckonings. Along with it we also incorporate the valuable perspectives of our Iraqi Dinar Gurus & Investors in the form of latest Dinar Recaps, Dinar Chronicles and Dinar Intel. Dinar Times also extensively covers USA, Iraq & Global, up to the minute happenings.

LINKS

  • Home
  • Dinar Guru
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • Dinar News
  • USA
  • Iraq
  • World

BROWSE MORE

DinarDetectives.com

DinarTube.com

Dinar Detectives Forum

NEWS FEED ON

Dinar Times is an exclusive website concerning Iraqi Dinar Revaluation, serves with the Iraqi Dinar RV related latest updates which are based on Dinar Guru opinions and reckonings. Along with it we also incorporate the valuable perspectives of our Iraqi Dinar Gurus & Investors in the form of latest Dinar Recaps, Dinar Chronicles and Dinar Intel. Dinar Times also extensively covers USA, Iraq & Global, up to the minute happenings.

LINKS

BROWSE MORE

DinarDetectives.com

DinarTube.com

NEWS FEED ON

Dinar Times ©. All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Dinar Guru
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Videos
  • USA
  • Dinar News
  • Iraq
  • World
  • Blog

© 2021


Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/dinardetectives/dinartimes.com/wp-content/plugins/jnews-jsonld/class.jnews-jsonld.php on line 262

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/dinardetectives/dinartimes.com/wp-content/plugins/jnews-jsonld/class.jnews-jsonld.php on line 263

Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/dinardetectives/dinartimes.com/wp-content/plugins/jnews-jsonld/class.jnews-jsonld.php on line 264