Neil Crowley from France writes:
I am a 61 year old Englishman who learnt to ski at the Milton Keynes indoor ski centre in January 2007, had my first skiing on greens and a few disasterous blues at Val d'Isere in April that year before my wife and I moved permanently to France in November, 2007.
We live south of Toulouse, just under an hour and a half from Bonascre by road, and the Ax-les-Thermes ski station has my nearest, cheapest, welcoming and most user-friendly pistes. The ski hire shops are good and understand my improving French and do speak English to other Brits.
The restaurants, both those at Bonascre and the two on the mountain provide good, reasonably priced fare, although Le Chalet de la Hulotte, amongst the trees, may not be as acessible for beginners.
Since my move to France, I have skiied at La Mongie in the Western Pyrenees another family-friendly resort; Pas de la Casa in Andorra and at Vallandry in the French Alps. I have now progressed from blue to red pistes with confidence and love the fact that I can have a relatively cheap day's skiing for around 50 euros, including my lunch.
During the week, apart from Wednesdays, when French schools are closed, the pistes are fairly empty. I benefit for my advancing years, as a 'Senior', getting a 4 euros reduction for my lift pass. Other resorts don't offer such reductions until their 'Senior' clients are post-70 or even 75, which could be pretty meaningless!!!
Facilities for beginners at Ax-les-Thermes are reasonable, but the 'green' Boulevard La Griole is a little narrow, as is the 3 Jasses, which requires a lot of baton use at times. All in all, Bonascre is a good skiing experience for mainly intermediate+ skiers and has been enjoyed by some of my English friends who have been on the pistes for over thirty years.
I am looking forward to a day's skiing at Bonascre later this week, when I will be launching my new boots and helmet down the slopes.
2010-01-05 |
