The French Alps

Holiday Ratings
Recommended days	7
Budget	£
Difficulty	Easy

Why The French Alps

The French Alps have stunning scenery and are useful base for exploring the region. The fact that accommodation was free, courtesy of friends, and we’d never visited the area before also helped. Travel was easy, flying to Geneva and picking up a hire car for the drive to our base for the week.

This was meant to be a visit with the four of us but Freya gave birth to eight puppies a week before so Deb had to stay home and dog sit.

Montrigon

We stayed in a ski chalet in Montrigon, a small village on the funicular route to Les Alps ski resort. We’d visited in summer so skiing wasn’t an option and we were just there to relax and explore.

The village was tiny and I’m not sure we actually saw any other people but the town of Bourg St Maurice was only a few minutes drive away and had plenty of shops and cafes.

Annecy

Our first excursion, chosen by the girls, was Annecy. It was a 2 hour drive to get there and I missed the car park so did a circuit of the town’s bike lanes, one way streets and pavements until we found it again. As an extra achievement I managed to do reversing without crashing this time!

Annecy is a beautifully photogenic old town. We wandered around the Jardin d’Europe and then took a pedalo out on the lake. A certain evil person then steered the pedalo through one of the water fountains when the kids weren’t expecting it – mwahahaha!

After that we had a lovely lunch and then – Boyd’s recommendation – a Segway tour. What brilliant fun – not a good way to see the town but a damned good experience. Followed that with some much needed ice cream and then listened to Ricky Gervais on the way back – a lovely day out

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Les Arcs

The next day the weather was pretty dismal, low cloud and drizzle, so we headed up the windy mountain road to Les Arcs. This was a very pretty drive, despite the cloud and we stopped a couple of times for pictures.

The resort itself was obviously aimed more at skiers but we wandered around, had a coffee and browsed a bit before heading back.

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Fort de la Platte

Well we drove to Fort de la Platte because it was the start of the 5 lake walk and the girls said they’d like to do a walk! It was only 8k from our house so shouldn’t take long …… An hour later we emerged from the dust cloud caused by our poor little hire car labouring up the gravel track and abandoned it at the side of the road, the car park being full.

We then watched some people try and push a van past us up the last hill and others having to reverse down or just abandon their cars anywhere. Stunning views and accompanied by the constant ringing of cow bells. I have no idea why there is a fort here, the pass at the base of the valley is miles away but it is very photogenic.

After all that the girls saw the sign which said the closest lake was over an hour away so they decided against the walk after all! The fort is actually a nineteenth century blockhouse to guard the pass against Italy I think.

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Geneva

It was a sadly anti climatic visit to Geneva. I’d heard great things and was expecting a beautiful city – I have to say that I think Bristol is nicer. The city was strewn with litter, smelly and generally unimpressive. It may have been we were just too hot and tired to appreciate it but it was a bit of a let down.

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Conclusion

Another fantastic break and the French Alps have stunning scenery and are a useful base for exploring the region. It was nice with the girls and the Segway tour and pedalo trip will be abiding memories, as will the drive up to the fort! Thank you for the accommodation Christine!