La Plagne

The Tarantaise Valley, in the Savoy Alps of France, follows the River Isère downstream in a northwesterly direction from the Col de Isèran through the villages of Val d'Isère and Tignes to Bourg St.Maurice where it turns southwest and continues through Aime and on to Moutiers and Albertville.

At Bourg St Maurice you can leave the valley floor to the south and climb up to Les Arcs. La Rosiere lies to the northeast and there the road continues up over the Petit St Bernard Pass to the Italian resort of La Tuille. At Moutiers there is a fork in the road and to the south you find Les Trois Valleès Ski Area of Courcheval, Meribel and Val Thorens.

In the middle of all this, some 15km to the south of Aime, at an altitude of between 1250 and 2100metres, lies the amalgamation of ten villages and purpose built ski stations that make up La Plagne.

Put into perspective, it takes about one hour to drive between Moutiers and Val D'Isère and all the other ski resorts of the Tarataise Valley are no more than about twenty five minutes drive from the valley floor.

La Plagne is easy to find.

From Chambery follow the Autoroute towards Grenoble. and take the exit marked 'Tarentaise' and Albertville. You will pass through Albertville and Moutiers and continue up the valley road on the Expessway.

Once you get to AIME bear off the Expressway and follow the main road through the village. At the end of the village you pass under the Expressway and over the River Isère (You have been following the River Isère since Montmellian.)

You now start to climb out of the valley towards Macot . There is a turning to the right just before the village of Macot if you are going to Montalbert or a turning left for Les Coches and Montchavin at the end of the village. For the High Altitude stations continue climbing past the Bob Sleigh course and Plagne Lauze (1800). If you are going to need to use snow chains it will most likely be after the Bob Sleigh course. You bear right at the wide junction at the top of Plagne Lauze and you are nearly there. As you enter the village of La Plagne (Centre) you pass the Peugeot Garage on your left and the Gendarmerie, which is a wooden chalet on the corner of the road that you need to take up to Plagne Villages. Turn left there and continue to climb. You will pass the Telebus station, the Hotel France and Plagne Soleil before the final left hand hairpin bend at the start of the Village. (Les Soldanelles is the first building that comes into view as you come into the village). If you want Aime La Plagne, you continue past the Gendarmerie and the commercial centre and you will see Aime above and to your right.

There is a tourist information office on the edge of the Commercial Centre car park (to your left as you enter the car park).

Plagne Centre

The administrative centre of the ski area is at Plagne Centre. The main bus station, the post office, the medical centre, the church, a cinema, a swimming pool and a host of bars, restaurants, boutiques and food stores are all to be found at Plagne Centre. Apartment blocks and hotels have grown up around the central complex so there is something of a mixture of architecture.

Radiating out from the centre are a network of roads, cablecars and chairlifts that will take you to all the satelite ski stations of La Plagne.

There is a large underground car park and out side parking in the square to the north side of the main shopping complex. Here, on Saturday mornings, you will find a market of local goods and produce.

On the south side of the shopping complex is another square at the hub of the pistes with skilifts radiating out in all directions:-

To Aime La Plagne (west) and on to Montalbert,

To le Verdons (southwest) and on to Champagny,

To la Grande Rochette (south) and on to Champagny or to the Bellecôte glacier via Roche de Mio,

To Plagne Villages and Belle Plagne(southeast) and on to Bellecôte (east) then either up to the Bellecôte glacier(southeast) or continue (east) over to le Coche or Monchevin.

To Plagne Bellecôte (east) then either up to the glacier(southeast) or continue (east) over to Le Coche or Montchavin.

Plagne Villages

Just above Plagne Centre towards the top of the tree line lies Plagne Villages. This is a early modern development where the planners wanted to get away from the high rise blocks and present a more traditional look. The buildings have no more than 6 storeys and are clad in local pine. The terrain is such that the apartments follow the line of the road up hill with car parking and pistes to front of the buildings and pistes behind. New new chalets and apartments across the road this two few years has increased the accomadation dramatically effectively filling the void between the Village and Plagne Soliel

The whole village is 'ski in ski out' throughout the season and at 2100m is very snow sure.

The village has a small commercial centre with a supermarket, ski equipment shop (sales and rental) Ski School (ESF), two restaurants and a 'Tabac'.

There is a cablecar, The 'Telebus', that links the village with Plagne Centre, and the 'Navette', which is a regular bus service, that links Plagne Villages to, Plagne Soleil & Plagne Centre.

Plagne Soleil

Plagne Soleil is the most recent development in La Plagne, just across a small valley from Plagne Villages. It is a small self contained complex with shops, ski school and one of the best bars in the La Plagne, The Lincoln.

The Lincoln is a Bar/Restaurant and 'Aparthotel' with a south.facing sun terrace just to the side of the piste overlooking an easy button lift and with a view across the valley towards Plagne Villages and beyond to the peaks of La Grande Rochette, Verdon and Mt Jovet. The view is breath taking, the food and drinks are very good and not extortionately priced. It is an ideal place to break for lunch or to relax at the end of a hard days skiing.

The Aparthotel rooms are in the Plagne Soleil complex, overlooking either the square or the piste. They are fully fitted apartments in their own right so, in the very unlikely event that you can eat anything else after the meals provided in the Lincoln, you can fix yourself a snack. The rooms are cleaned daily and beds made for you. Meals are provided in the Lincoln's restaurant area and are of a very high standard

The 'Navette' bus service links Plagne Soleil with Plagne Centre and Plagne Villages

Belle Plagne I am still working on this section but if you want to know more try one of the links

Belle Plagne

BELLE PLAGNE - La Plagne Circuit

Bellecôte I am still working on this section but if you want to know more try one of the links

Plagne Bellecóte

Plagnebelle_resort

Aime La Plagne

Aime La Plagne is a large block of apartments with its own commercial centre and self contained facilities that lies just above Plagne centre to the northwest. Close by you will also find the Club Med building. The skiing tends to be crowded in this area and with the south east facing runs back to Plagne Centre it gets hard going at times. There are however some of the more challenging runs of the back of Aime towards Montalbert and some really good off piste skiing. The blue runs to Montalbert are mostly roads/tracks that are in some places narrow but not generally steep.

Montalbert I am still working on this section but if you want to know more try one of the links

Chalets in Montalbert

Plagne Lauze (1800)

Plagne 1800 (Lauze) - I'm sure I've seen it on sign posts both ways - is only a short distance from the centre down the road and you get 'Ski in Ski out' for most of the season. The lifts out of 1800 go up to Aime La Plagne and then you can ski out towards Montalbert or down to the centre for links out to the other satelites . There tends to be a bit of a bottle neck at the lifts out in the morning when I last was there but I'm not sure this may have been eased by a new high speed lift since then.

A lot of the tour operators run Chalets here, including Silver Ski, Ski Beat and Crystal they are all very good.

Toms Bar at Plagne 1800 - I haven't been there for a few years but it was English run and very lively. The crowds seem to appear after about 10pm as the disco started and the happy hour ended (so the drinks became more expensive) and the bar stays open late. So its the place to go for the 'Late Apres Ski'.

Les Coches & Montchavin I am still working on this section but if you want to know more try one of the links

Les Coches

Champagny I am still working on this section but if you want to know more try one of the links

Champagny

LA PLAGNE - CHAMPAGNY EN VANOISE - ski france

European Property Management

I first met Tim Squires in the Lincoln at Plagne Soleil back in 1992. At that time we were unhappy with the agents we were using to market and look after our studio apartment and Tim offered to take it over for us together with, I think it was, five other apartments he was looking after at that time.

In the three years we had used the old agents we had barely broken even with the maintainance and letting costs with them letting it out for only 5 or 6 weeks out of 16 in the season. - The first year Tim took it on he had 11 weeks occupied by paying customers.

Tim started his company, European Property Management, that year and his business has developed into a thriving enterprise managing some twenty or more properties in La Plagne.

European Property Management can be contacted on UK telephone number 01763 849229 or View his web site using this link

visitor no.