SnowBugs Private Nanny Service has a new Mum!

SnowBugs, the private nanny service based in La Tania and also serving the neighbouring resorts of Courchevel and Meribel has announced that their new “Mummy” will be Tayla-Elise Rogers one of the existing employees who lives in La Tania with her partner Tom.

SnowBugs founder Nadine has moved to Cornwall now and has been working closely with Tayla to ensure a smooth transition to maintain their excellent reputation and high standards of child care.

Nadine said “Tayla worked as a SnowBugs nanny last year and showed a degree of dedication & passion for the job which was far beyond the call of duty. Tayla has presented herself as the most keen & passionate out of all potential candidates & I am honoured to be passing SnowBugs into her capable hands”.

Full details of the anouncement are here: www.snowbugs.co.uk/about-nanny-changes

To book the SnowBugs child care services for Winter 2014 call +44 (0)7908 748 262 or +33 (0)616 973 601 or visit their website at: www.SnowBugs.co.uk

You can email Tayla at info@SnowBugs.co.uk

The New Official 2014 Courchevel Valley Piste Map

Now includes the new La Tania Bouc Blanc Chair Lift and has the top of the Bouc Blanc drag, the Praz Juget drag and the Cretes & Col de la Loze old chairs removed. The bottom section of the Bouc Blanc drag now renamed to Stade.

Larger image at:
www.latania.co.uk/skiing/maps/2014/PisteMapCourch2014.jpg

The PDF is at:
www.latania.co.uk/skiing/maps/2014/PisteMapCourch2014.pdf

The 10 New Courchevel Lifts by 2019 marked on the official piste map

They haven’t removed the Praz Juget, Cretes, top of Bouc Blanc and the Col de la Loze lifts of this map yet (they’ve already gone). Bouc Blanc chair ready for Dec 2013 and work well underway on the Foret chair from Le Praz. Aguile du Fruit should be ready for Dec 2014.

Interestingly the chair from La Tania is now marked as a TSD (hi-speed detachable) rather than a TSF (fixed, slow chair) which was on the original plans we saw: http://www.latania.co.uk/…/lifts/pistemapnewlifts.html

First real snow on the webcams for the start of Winter 2014

The Webcams around The 3 Valleys over around 1700m showing some fresh snow this morning – 17 September 2013. The Bouc Blanc Restaurant Terrace just above La Tania showed covered in snow and quite a bit more higher up.
Webcam credits to Courchevel Chalets, Chalet des Pierres, S3V, Setam, The Bouc Blanc, La Folie Douce and The Tourist Offices.
And from Val Thorens Tourist Office… And finally from Saulire summit above Courchevel 1850 when the weather cleared

And all the pylons are in

 

Just need some cable and some chairs. Fergus Grant, Ski Deep. La Tania, Courchevel. 0033 (0)660 999 749 ferg@skideep.net

The Bouc Blanc chair lift.

The work advances apace on the new chair lift. Fergus Grant, Ski Deep. La Tania, Courchevel. 0033 (0)660 999 749 ferg@skideep.net

New flight routes to Chambery plus Grenoble, Lyon & Geneva for Winter 2014

While there has been some consolidation of routes and less frequency on some flight schedules to The Alps there are a few new routes.

Just announced by Le Dauphin (although they did report this back in March too) is the return of the Paris – Chambery route after an absence of 11 years. Transavia, the LCC set up by Air France and KLM plan further expansion at Paris Orly increasing their fleet by up to 30 planes over the next few years while Air France plan to lose at least 10 aircraft. From 19 December until 30 March Transavia will fly the Orly – Chambery route on Thursday and Sunday evenings. Seems The 3 Valleys and Chambery airport are helping to finance and promote this route. Chambery is also now under 3 hours from Paris on the latest TGV trains.

While Chambery Airport can be a great route to La Tania with transfers possible in an hour – it is subject to early closure in bad weather & fog (TUI pay Lyon Airport a large retainer to be on standby if they need to divert their flights on a Saturday for example) and it can be overloaded on peak Saturdays.

As well as all the Charter Flights including all the TUI flights for Thomson, Crystal, Flexiski, First Choice and Ski Bound amongst others, there are now flights from:

Jet2 (Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle & Edinburgh).
Flybe (Southampton, Exeter, Birmingham, East Midlands & Bristol).
BA (London City).
Transavia Holland (Rotterdam & Amsterdam).
Blue Island (Jersey).

New routes for Winter 2014 to the Alps are:

easyJet: Manchester to Lyon.
Flybe: Bristol to Chambery, Inverness to Geneva, Southampton to Grenoble and Birmingham to Lyon.
Darwin Airline: Cambridge to Geneva.

Ryanair now have a 16:25 Wednesday flight from Stansted to Grenoble service (back at 19:30) – they also fly Sat/Sun so opens up long weekend options plus easyJet fly to Grenoble, Lyon & Geneva from Stansted.

Also remember Monarch are once again flying to Grenoble from Birmingham, Leeds & Manchester.

All the routes, all the flights at:
www.latania.co.uk/resort/Flying.htm

New Saulire Cable Car Paint Job & Refurb – Nice…

“Free” 3 Valleys Lift Passes with London Ski Show Tickets

The 3 Valleys are taking part in the “free lift tickets” promotion when purchasing tickets for the London Ski & Snowboard Show on-line in advance. The London Ski and Snowboard Show is being held at Earls Court 2 from 30 October to 3rd November 2013. (The 3 Valleys are not taking part in this promotion at the Manchester Show 25-27 October 2013 at Event City).

Only 1 per person admitted in to the show and collected in person from the 3 Valleys stand no J21. That seems reasonable but it’s not really a free pass – you get 6 days for the price of 4 which is still a decent enough saving and is valid all season long – no blackout dates as far as we can see – so you pay €217 instead of €277 a saving of €60.

Also bare in mind that a family pass of 2 Adults with 2 or more kids (kids are under 18 on a family pass but become Adults when they are 13 on a normal single pass) pay €221,60 per person and there are discounts for 3 passes bought at the same time (€262) and now 2 passes (€267). A Courchevel Valley pass only is €234 for a 6-day pass (all Adult Winter 2013/2014 main season prices).

All the 2014 prices here at: www.latania.co.uk/skiing/passes.htm

No good for those who have purchased ski packs from tour ops in advance, or those getting Season, Workers or Liberty passes (or early / late season) but it will benefit some – discounts are hard to find due to the cartel like restrictions on the sale of passes. A full price ticket for the London Ski Show is £18 + £1.99 booking fee + £1.25 postage (or print yourself for free). See you there on the Saturday for the La Tania reunion as always…