Young local schoolchildren here get three free ski lessons a week–two nordique and one alpine. For those of us who didn’t grow up on skis, it’s not quite as much fun…
nternational Living Postcards– your daily escape
Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006
Villard de Lans, France
Dear International Living Reader,
I’ve collapsed in a heap at a table in the Café de Sports, a bar-cum-betting shop on the main square in Villard de Lans (one of the large ski villages within an hour of Grenoble that I mentioned to you on Monday), a glass of hot chocolate spiked with chartreuse in front of me.
A fiery green liqueur made by French monks, chartreuse apparently contains 130 different herbs. Right now, I’m not sure if it tastes disgusting or delicious–I’ll need to try another to make certain…but all those herbs sound wonderfully medicinal.
Before I go any further, I’d like to point out that my sorry state isn’t in any way due to the chartreuse…
My bones are hurting badly–and I put the blame entirely on a Frenchman called Jean-Louis. I’ve been rolling around in the woods of Bois Barbu with him. (Well, to be honest, I was doing a lot more rolling than Jean-Louis…apart from the time I grabbed hold of him like grim death and we both went clattering to the ground.)
I’m recovering from my first lesson in ski nordique–cross-country skiing. And I’ve not yet got the hang of the basics. Whatever madness possessed me to believe it would be easier than alpine skiing, I don’t know. Fair enough, my previous downhill skiing attempts haven’t exactly been successful…but although I’ve hit trees in Scotland, and tumbled off drag lifts in Austria, it never hurt this much.
Through Villard de Lans’ official French ski school, my hour-long private lesson (which lasted 90 minutes) cost 29 euro ($35). A two-hour group lesson costs 17.50 euro ($21); less expensive, but the classes are conducted in French–for an English-speaking instructor, you need private lessons. Local school kids get free lessons.
A village of 4,000 people in the Rhône-Alpes region, Villard de Lans links into an 80-mile network of cross-country trails. Free ski buses go to Bois Barbu, the nearest entry point onto the circuit. If you prefer alpine skiing, more free buses take you to Le Balcon, the alpine skiing area three miles from the village. Both Bois Barbu and Le Balcon have ski schools.
I stayed at Hotel Le Dauphin; a good choice of restaurants on the doorstep, and handy location–directly across from where the ski shuttles and regular buses to Grenoble depart from (tickets to Grenoble cost approximately $5 each way). Breakfast is basic–bread, croissants, and jam–but the rooms are prettily furnished, and wonderfully warm. In January, doubles cost 64 euro ($76) per night. Contact: Hotel Le Dauphin, 220 ave General de Gaulle, 38250 Villard de Lans; tel. +(33) (0) 4 7695-9525.
Steenie Harvey
Roving Europe Editor, International Living
