Gill - thanks

Thank you, you did a grand job. Some of your best bits....!




Gill Honey was Finlays Les Coches / La Plagne resort manager for this winter season (o8/09) and did a really good job, keeping everything running smoothly for us in Les Coches plus doing the daily weather forecast and posting on this blog!

Gill is currently in Val d'Isere having a bit of a holiday, seeing what it is like to be a Finlays customer (yes, some our chalets are still up and running). It is tipping it down with snow in Val today so she could be skiing powder!

As for her summer activities a trip to Egypt is planned but after that ....?
She has said of her winter "I did really enjoy the season, I met some lovely people, made some great friends and had some unforgettable times." So ...we hope she may be persuaded to return for another season!

Good luck with whatever is next Gill, all the best from all the Finlays UK team.

End of the Season

All our Les Coches / La Plagne ski chalets are now closed and the ski season is over ;-(
It has been a really great one with a good covering of snow from very early on in the season. The first snowfall in Montchavin was way back on the 26th November 2008! Which really set the winter off to a good start. From then on it seemed that we had regular falls of snow throughout the season and then to surprise us even more snow as we were shutting up the chalets!

It is always sad when the season is over and it does seem to rush past. A BIG thank you to all Finlays Les Coches staff, hope you had a good season - certainly looked as if you did from Gill's blog postings......







Perhaps we'll see some of you back for another one? Have a good summer wherever you are and what ever you do. If you want to keep us informed drop us an e-mail and we'll post your antics on the blog!

We're already looking forward to and taking bookings for next season! Check out current availability.

Ooooh, its snowing again .....

Well, can you believe it ? its snowing again and snowing BIG time.

Sadly, this picture hasn't captured the size of the snowflakes that were falling today - but they really were just m a s s i v e !! certainly bigger than anything I have ever seen before .....

With such big flakes it didn't take long before they started to settle and everything turned white again !! I snapped these pics outside the office about 10:30am this morning.

In the village the snow lasted a couple of hours then disappeared, however, at the top of the mountain it dropped an amazing 15cms - not bad for the end of the season, eh?

First BBQ of the season.....!

Frank & Tessa from Holland who run the chalet next to Chalet Chamois were the first of the seasonaires in Les Coches to organise an end of season party this year. Their last guests departed yesterday so before they started cleaning their chalet they decided it was time to celebrate a great season and to party big time!!.
Conveniently today was our day off, so we weren't cooking dinner for the 28 guests we have staying in the resort this week, therefore were able to totally join in the fun.
The weather was fantastic this afternoon so for the most part we were able to relax outdoors, enjoy the fresh air and the fabulous views from their chalet.
Frank sparked up the barbie at about 7:30pm and as usual the guys did the 'manly' thing and took control of the BBQing!! - they did however, serve up a mountain of delicious food, so there were no complaints from us girlies at all !!
As the sun went down it started to get rather chilly, so with the guys still huddled around the barbie, we headed indoors to continue the party...... a very late but fabulous night was had by all !!!

Frank & Tessa - bedankt voor een geweldig seizoen en uit alle op Finlays - hebben goede zomer!

What a difference ...... !

The picture on the left was taken on 24th March, 2009 when I reported it was howling a gale and dumping snow like there was no tomorrow. The picture on the right was taken this morning - just over 2 weeks later - bright sunshine, blue skies and not a snowflake in sight ...... what a difference, eh? there's no doubt about it - Spring has definitely arrived in Paradiski.

The 'Lost' Valley ...... but we found it !!!

Yesterday on our day off we took a trip to Val d'Isere. Having been told they'd recently had a dump of about a metre of new snow we figured it was well worth the hour's drive, particularly as the conditions in Paradiski were getting a little slushly.

The weather was beautiful when we arrived in Val and the snow was in fab condition. We spent the morning pootling around Solaise, then headed off to Tignes for a lunch rendezvous with Emily, Emma and Paul from the Finlays Val crew. We lunched on the sunny terrace at La Place, in Tignes (bottom of the 'Almes' drag lift), stuffing ourselves with massive baguettes, chips and salad (a real bargain at 6€'s !!).
As tempting as it was to stay on that sunny terrace, drink beer and 'chill' all afternoon, we did actually manage to drag our full bellies off to ski and board again !!

We headed slowly towards Val Claret guided by Natalie's friend Evie, who had been chalet hosting in Tignes for a couple of seasons, so knew the area really well. As you can see from the picture above, I (the lone skier!) was somewhat outnumbered by boarders today, so our circuitous route to Val Claret took us via many many jumps and snow parks!!

Heading back towards Val we caught the chairlift up to the Col de Fresse and skied down a very long green run called 'Borsat' which runs into another green run aptly named 'Verte' and headed towards the Tommeuses chairlift.

We'd been talking about La Vallée Perdue - the 'lost' valley at lunchtime with the other Finlays guys, so, having heard great reports about it, we thought we should try and find it.
Its really not easy to find unless you know where you're going, but fortunately Evie had skied it before so knew the way.

The 'lost' (or 'hidden') valley is an undulating, narrow canyon that winds its way around all kinds of obstacles including sections of natural tunnel, where you need pretty good limbo skills to fit under some of the rocks!

Yesterday the snow was so deep in parts we had to lie down and crawl through - commando style! It's definitely worth a visit - its really FUN skiing and a great sightseeing experience.

In need of beer after our little adventure, we caught the La Daille bubble back up to La Folie Douce for some après ski.

La Folie Douce - lively après-ski !!

On leaving the La Daille bubble we were welcomed by live music 'pumping' from the roof of the Folie Douce, and as you can see, the huge outdoor seating area was packed full of après-skiers dancing in the sun.

It was about 4:15pm when we got there and I have to say we noticed several people looking like they'd been there far too long already!! The party was in full swing though and people had even taken to the tables to strut their stuff - seeing the state of some of them, I'm totally amazed they didn't fall off !!

The girl in the pic on the left, sporting pink fluorescent thermals perfectly accessorised with a chunky black belt (amazing forward planning - don't you think!) had a whole posse of admirers, however, kept turning away potential dance partners in favour of dancing alone!!

Liquid refreshments, were extortionately expensive, but for sheer entertainment value - it was worth every penny we spent, and gave us tons to gossip about on the way home !!

5pm: Party over - the huge speakers fell silent, tables were cleared, chairs stacked up, floors swept and by 5:10pm the whole place was deserted - until 2pm tomorrow, when of course it'll all start again!

Cheers: from the Finlays Les Coches girlies

Spring is here.....

Its official - Spring has arrived in Paradiski... !

I suppose with the very warm temperatures we've had in the last few days, its not surprising that the snow has been disappearing rapidly from these meadows just below Les Coches. However, it wasn't until today whilst on a slow walk up the hill from Montchavin that I was suddenly very aware that everything was starting to turn from that dull (ish) winter brown colour to a very spring-like green.

I sat down by the tree in this pic to take in the view, then suddenly noticed all the spring flowers that had started popping through. There were primroses, crocuses & snowdrops - it was a beautiful sight - Spring is here......

P.S. just in case you happen to be one of our guests arriving on Saturday - don't worry there's still plenty of snow left higher up!!

A beautiful afternoon......

The weather has been fabulous all week, so after a trip to Bourg this morning I was ready to head into the mountains and enjoy some of this glorious weather.
On my travels I spotted some of our guests at the top of the L'Arpette lift coming up from Plagne Bellecote so I headed off back down in the direction of La Plagne with them for a quick blast. I thought this view from the St Jacques piste (blue) was stunning - the mountain is called Mont St Jacques and is located just above Plagne Bellecote.
After a quick photo stop we headed down to the Colosses lift, then, from the top skied right over to Plagne Centre.
It wasn't just the slopes that were busy today, the sky was too !! The parapenters appeared to be out in force, peppering the sky with their brightly coloured chutes - I'm guessing there must have been some good 'thermals' about as they soared higher and higher and then swooped back down again - it was an amazing sight.