We had a wonderful 10 day stay with Mum, Dad, Kelly, Ben, Theo and Bea where we had a week of high 30s temperatures where just about all we could do was laze by the pool enjoying the view over the Mediterranean followed by a storm and a 10 degree drop in temp which made everything much more pleasant.
Sarah and I were determined to keep our hiking fitness up so were getting up early to enjoy walks along the coastline watching the sunrise. It’s a beautiful spot that Mum and Dad have down in France and was lovely to spend some time there with them after so long.
I would say that we left refreshed and ready to go but there was a bit of sickness going through the family and unfortunately it was with sniffling noses that we packed up the van and headed north towards the Alps.
This wasn’t the first time we had done this trip as about 7 years ago we headed off on the same route towards the Alps in search of somewhere we might want to spend a bit of time in. This time we had picked another two destinations to have a look at and the first was Bourg Saint Maurice.
Bourg is a small town at about 800m above sea level in the valley below the Paradiski resort. It is also a gateway for a number of other fairly large resorts and as such has a lot of the larger shops and main facilities. When we drove in we were both in awe once again in the beauty of the mountain ranges surrounding the town and while the town of Bourg serves as a hub for access to other resorts it actually was quite charming.
We found a lovely campsite a short stroll into town that wasn’t too busy so we were able to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. It was quite wonderful sitting back outside the camper gazing up at the mountains rising up above us.
Even though we were a little knackered we strolled into town both with smiles as we gazed around soaking in the place. I should note that we stopped for a burger and chips which while on the face of it wouldn’t seem very French at all except that you are asked how you would like your burger cooked and then when it arrives, rare, you really appreciate how tasty a homemade burger patty really is. Delicious.
Sarah was definitely struggling with a bit of a heavy cold so we decided not to push it too much but still wanted to explore the area a little so ended up taking the van for drives up to the resorts of Les Arcs which sit above Bourg St Maurice. (Usually they are accessed by a funicular but our arrival coincided with the funicular’s last day of opening…typical). Still we enjoyed the drive up the windy roads and then sat back and enjoyed the views around the alps.
Up the mountain in the summer some of the lifts still run to enable hiking and mountain biking at altitude. We were keen to have a go but unfortunately we were falling somewhat short in terms of safety equipment and suitable bikes. While we could have rented I thought it would be way more fun to do it together so decided to wait until another time when we can have a proper go. Instead I went on rides up and down the valley on some beautiful paths running right alongside the river Isère. while Sarah recovered.
I think last time when we were on our way to the alps we were thinking about spending a winter there as we both love France and the mountains so much. So after enjoying Bourg so much and knowing how good the skiing was around it we decided to have a look at accommodation options for the next year.
Now in France nothing is necessarily that easy. But we decided to give it a go. We began by walking around town stopping at the estate agents with a varying degree of success. To be fair demand is high for cheap units in the alps so we weren’t imagining that the agents would be falling over themselves to serve us but out of four places only one actually even bothered to take our details!! The rest just told us to contact them in a years time and sort it out then…probably serves us right for trying to plan something!!
The most interesting thing we found was that small units cost almost the same to rent for the whole year as they would for the three months of the peak season. We also realised that it was going to be a little harder to use estate agents to rent a property than I thought it would be. Maybe that’s why Airbnb (who they all told me was ruining the rental system in the alps) is so popular.
Anyway not to be put off by the early setbacks we made some inroads and ended up with some options and were starting to feel very excited about being able to spend some time in the Alps in the future. T