Winter & Ski Home Ski Resort Reviews Alps Les Arcs

French family skiing par excellence...

The style is still controversial, but even nightfall Arc 1950 Le Village is a colourful place to be.

In the Tarentaise Valley above Bourg Saint-Maurice, and part of the protected Vanoise National Park. Les Arcs is linked by the sensational Vanoise Express cable-car to La Plagne, creating the combination known as Paradiski. Road accesss is straightforward and among the more convenient of the Tantentaise resorts, although expect congestion on Saturday change-over days. The greener (and more relaxing) alternative is to take the train direct to Bourg Saint-Maurice, then transfer up the mountain to Arc 1600 and beyond via the Arc-en-Ciel funicular.

The Transarc gondola is a key link for rapid access to higher terrain from Arc 1800.

Les Arcs has been a firm favourite with a whole generation of French family skiers. The British, too, have taken it to their hearts in increasing numbers, particularly since the liaison with La Plagne opened things up still further. Even without the Paradiski lift-pass, this is a major ski area.

Not surprisingly, the primary focus is the intermediate skier. While the central areas above Arc 1800 and Arc 2000 have quite a concentration of wide, relatively undemanding groomed pistes, heading off among the slightly steeper tree-lined runs around the edges - e.g. Peisey, Vallandry and Villaroger - can be rewarding.

The advanced terrain includes Aiguille Rouge and Grand Col Blacks, plus an exhillarating off-piste route which plunges from the 2935m Grand Col into Planay de Villaroger, in the Tarentaise valley - a vertical drop of almost 1700m. There’s also a heli-skiing service based between Arc 1950 and Arc 2000, accessing terrain across the nearby Italian and Swiss borders.

Arc 2000 is looking a little dated now, but sits in the very heart of the ski action.

Conceived as the model of efficiency for family skiers, the innovative styling of the villages of Arc 1600, Arc 1800 and Arc 2000 was cutting-edge when they were created in 1968, 1974 and 1979 respectively. A return to more traditional Savoyard themes (if not scale) was adopted for Arc 1950, developed between 2003-2008 by the Canadian Intrawest Corporation, whose stake in the development later passed to French leisure giant Pierre et Vacances.

Arc 1600 (or Arc Pierre-Blanche) has the ‘Arc en Ciel’ funicular connection from Bourg St Maurice and the trend-setting spacious apartments. It’s connected to the ski terrain and the other villages by chairlifts and free shuttle buses; naturally, you can ski back.
Arc 1800, largest of the villages, is subdivided into four areas: Charvet, Villards, Charmettoger and Chantel. Not surprisingly, Arc 1800 has a heart-of-the-action feel, focused on the broad (and slightly elevated) front-de-neige area where the ski-schools assemble and from which the lifts depart.
Arc 1950 is fully ski-in/ski-out and is connected with Arc 1800 by a free cabriolet (open gondola) lift. The world-of-its-own personality has its detractors, but the cheerful, upbeat (and upmarket) mood is infectious, and the volume accommodation is in a different league from that in the other villages - and not merely in Les Arcs.
Arc 2000 was developed with serious skiers in mind, offering rapid access to the highest skiing and the best ski quality. To date its treeless, above-it-all setting has made it less popular than its lower-altitude neighbours, but its fortunes might just turn around if climate-change influences skier choice.

Scenic cruising aficionados are well catered for.

Intermediates and families hoping for seemingly-endless Blue-graded cruising will not be disappointed. Those with a desire to get some mileage under their skis while remaining on-piste will likewise find this a good choice. On the other hand, Les Arcs is also a great place in which to learn, and made quite a name for itself with the ‘Ski-Evolutif’ teaching system. The concept starts raw beginners on short, easy-to-handle skis, then progresses via mid-size skis towards the normal length, throughout the course of a week’s lessons. Finally, Les Arcs has quite a buzz to it, with a good range of services designed to cater for most requirements.

Whichever way you look at it, Les Arcs can hardly be called a slave to convention. Conceived as one of a new generation of high-altitude French ski stations, the setting among the alpages above Bourg Saint-Maurice turned out to have been inspired, not least since it also allowed the creation of a funicular for swift tansfers direct to and from Bourg’s TGV terminus. British skiers can now travel overnight direct from London, courtesy of RailEurope’s Ski-Train service.

Resort evolution

Arrive by road, however, and you can see the various phases in the development of Les Arcs, starting with the distinctive sloping apartment facades of Arc 1600. Next come the larger, more assertive lines of Arc 1800, long favoured by tour operators for its visitor capacity, services and ski-schools. The final development was Arc 2000, conceived to provide younger, more committed skiers with rapid access to the highest terrain well above the tree-line. Or so it seemed. After premium Sayoyard developer MGM added some premium accommodation above Arc 1800 a few years ago, the massive Canadian Intrawest Corporation went one better and built a whole new village just below Arc 2000.

Some of the plateau-like terrain accessed by the Transarc Gondola.

Arc 1950 is an excellent, ski-in/ski-out base for exploring the mountain. But the ski domain is just so varied as to offer something, somewhere for just about every type of visitor. There’s no doubt that this is one of the keys to Les Arcs’ remarkable success. Another is continuous heavy investment in lift infrastructure, making getting around a breeze.

Top to bottom

Which brings us to the skiing. Trying to be objective is to miss the point; ask people why they ski here and you’ll realise that everyone has their own favourite places, usually several. And they’re passionate about them. Take the cable car from Arc 2000 to Aiguille Rouge(3226m) and you can start the day in style, on the famous red run which fires you into a wealth of possibilities. If conditions are good you could cruise over to Arc 1800 and continue down through the sheltered forest glades to Peisey for coffee or a vin-chaud. En-route you’ll cover some mileage, get your bearings and, like us, discover a few places to which you’ll want to return.

Views from Aiguille Rouge are pretty spectacular; left is the Grand Col chairlift.

Still feeling more adventurous? Well, take the nearby Vanoise Express cable-car across to La Plagne, and you could do the whole Paradiski experience. On the other hand, from Aiguille Rouge you could take a combination of black and red pistes all the way down to Villaroger (1200m). Or you could get away from it all by heading over to the Grand Col to begin a breathtaking off-piste guided tour high above the Tarentaise valley which will eventually take you to the same destination point. Now take the chair-lift haul back up to Arc 2000 while trying to take in what you’ve just done.

Varied and seemingly-limitless terrain make this a popular choice for families and mixed-ability groups.

Not that those of more modest aspirations are overlooked; Les Arcs knows its main market and provides intermediate skiers with plenty of well-prepared blue-graded cruising, along with safe, reassuring débutant areas. Its wide choice of ski-schools is another factor which has made it one of the most popular of all French ski stations for family skiers.

© Roger Moss