La Plagne

Free, and worth knowing

Sixteen free beginner lifts. The tourist office puts it plainly: sixteen ski lifts for beginners are free to use with no pass at all, which is a week of practice for a family with a beginner in it without buying anything. Six of the beginner areas they serve are named. The learning zones at Les Coches and at Montchavin, Plan Bois above them, and at Montalbert the Gentil area and the Piste des lutins, a fun run built for small children.

Four free sledging areas. One on the snow front at Belle Plagne at 2,050 m, which the tourist office describes as gentle enough for the very youngest to slide down safely, one at Plagne Centre, one at Plagne Villages, and one at Le Bois in Champagny-le-Haut. The Champagny one is groomed and pisted and sits beside the cross country start, so it is the one you walk to rather than drive to.

The free shuttles, and the lifts that run until half eleven. Every sector runs its own free shuttle and none of them want a ticket. Inside the altitude resort three cable links do the same job, the Telebus and the Belle Plagne gondola from nine in the morning until half past eleven at night and the Telemetro from eight, which means somebody who is not skiing can move between the altitude villages after dinner without a car.

Thirty three snowshoe routes, and Champagny's ten. Thirty three marked itineraries across the villages, all free, and the maps carry published distances, times and ascents, which is rarer than it should be. Champagny is the best served of them, with around thirty kilometres of combined footpath and snowshoe route and ten itineraries on one map.

The walks from the altitude villages. Five marked routes off the high villages, all free. La Clairiere de Cavard is two kilometres and an hour and a half from Plagne 1800, and Le Dou du Praz from Plagne Centre can be walked at anything from two to six and a half kilometres depending on how much of it you take on. The long two are Les Frasses from Plagne Bellecote, twelve kilometres and four hours there and back, and Les Mairiers, ten kilometres and three and a half hours, which starts at the top of the bobsleigh run and is reached on the shuttle.

Over forty kilometres on foot at Montalbert. Montalbert publishes more than forty kilometres of nordic walking and snowshoe routes and charges for none of them. Ten are named, from an hour and a half on the flat along the Chemin de la Biodiversite to two hours and three hundred metres of climb through the Bois des Fornettes. The Chemin du Patrimoine is the one to send somebody on who wants to know what the place was before the lifts arrived.

Le Plateau de Plan Bois, and the gondola that is free on foot. Two kilometres and an hour on the plateau above Montchavin and Les Coches, and the walking itself costs nothing. What makes it worth the note is that the Les Coches gondola carries pedestrians for free, so somebody who is not skiing has a way up the hill and back that costs nothing at all.

Free with the pass you already hold. Four things on the mountain cost nothing extra once somebody has a ski pass. The Funslope at Plagne Bellecote, which is billed as the longest fun ride in Europe. Buffalo Park, Buffalo Kids and the Indiens zone at Plagne Centre, all built for children. The Riders Nation snowpark, and a timed slalom course you can set a number against, both at La Plagne Altitude.

What the villages hand out for nothing. Montalbert is the generous one. Board games and books to borrow, film screenings, a free visit to the Mini Ferme du Forperet, children's workshops free on Tuesdays through the school holidays, and free taster sessions on the alternative sliding gear on Monday evenings between five and seven. The tourist office there also runs wifi, luggage storage, a picnic room and lost property, none of which it charges for.

The free events, and last season's shape. The one worth knowing about is the Paradiski Comedy Club, which puts stand up comedians inside the Vanoise Express cabins and runs across a fortnight in February. Around it sits a season of free things. Christmas across all the villages, the Nuit du Pompon Rouge on New Year's Eve with fireworks, the Sainte-Agathe festival at Montchavin, a Winter Family Race series through February, and torchlit evenings at Montalbert.

A few of the rest

The Olympic bobsleigh track. The only Olympic bobsleigh track in France, built for 1992 and still run as a working track. Fifteen hundred metres, nineteen bends and a maximum gradient of fourteen and a half per cent, dropping through the trees at La Roche just below Plagne 1800. It is the only one in the country, so a guest who wants it has to come here for it. Over 50 euros.

Colorado Luge, and Snooc on the same track. A kilometre and a half of purpose built sledge run dropping from the top of the Colorado chairlift at Plagne Centre, and at twelve euros a run it is the cheapest paid thrill on this mountain. Helmets are compulsory and handed to you, and you buy on the spot rather than booking ahead. The same track takes the Snooc, which is half sledge and half ski and needs no training at all to ride. Under 20 euros.

The trio of zip lines at Belle Plagne. Three giant zip lines run one after another from the Base Aventure at Belle Plagne at 2,050 m, and this is the one aerial thing at La Plagne that genuinely operates in winter. Thirty euros a head, from twelve years old, and the operator asks for somebody who does regular sport rather than somebody straight off the sofa. 20 to 50 euros.