Globalti
Legendary Member
Just back from a week of glorious hot sunshine in Megeve in the French Alps. We are tanned, happy and relaxed....or we were until we landed at the smelly, gloomy miserable excuse for an airport that is Liverpool John Lennon, got harassed mercilessly by a traffic warden and lost twice on the way home thanks to poor road signs.
But Megeve - what a place! Only an hour from Geneva airport on fantastic Swiss and French autoroutes, high enough to be cool at around 30 degrees by day, surrounded by stunning scenery, with walking, cycling, a really superb municipal swimming pool, luge, the list of activities is endless. The town is carefully managed, spotless, beautifully maintained with specimen trees, shrubs and flowers everywhere and not a pissed-up British lager lout to be seen. Granted you could find cheaper but you'd be trying to sleep at night with open windows and drunken British and Scandinavians rampaging in the street. The hotels and restaurants were worryingly empty but we were assured that this is normal in summer as the resort makes most of its money in winter.
We hired a car and on Tuesday parked up in Notre Dame de Bellecombe on the road to the Col des Saisis where we saw the tour go past in three groups with Cav labouring in group 3 and David Millar embarrassingly far off the back. Also drove to Chamonix and did the Aiguille du Midi cablecar bit, getting off at Plan de L'Aiguille halfway back down and walking the 3 hours along the valley side to the Montenvers cog railway station above the Mer de Glace glacier (how it has shrunk since I first skied down it in 1988) the scenery was out of this world and the walking perfect. One other day we hired MTBs and took the Rochebrune cable car up the mountain where we rode along the crest amid Alpine wild flowers and cows with big donging bells, then blasted down Jeep tracks back to the cable car station where we did the whole thing again. Access to the lifts and cable cars, the swimming pool and the luge plus several other activities is all included in the cost of a 1 week pass you buy for €45. Seems like brilliant value.
Sorry if this reads like a tourist promotion but I have no connection with the town or the owners, I just wanted to tell you what a great time you can have in the Alps in summer. We have skied twice there and we used this trip to identify a French Apart-Hotel a few metres from the slopes where we plan to book for half term next February at around half the cost of booking through a UK tour operator.
But Megeve - what a place! Only an hour from Geneva airport on fantastic Swiss and French autoroutes, high enough to be cool at around 30 degrees by day, surrounded by stunning scenery, with walking, cycling, a really superb municipal swimming pool, luge, the list of activities is endless. The town is carefully managed, spotless, beautifully maintained with specimen trees, shrubs and flowers everywhere and not a pissed-up British lager lout to be seen. Granted you could find cheaper but you'd be trying to sleep at night with open windows and drunken British and Scandinavians rampaging in the street. The hotels and restaurants were worryingly empty but we were assured that this is normal in summer as the resort makes most of its money in winter.
We hired a car and on Tuesday parked up in Notre Dame de Bellecombe on the road to the Col des Saisis where we saw the tour go past in three groups with Cav labouring in group 3 and David Millar embarrassingly far off the back. Also drove to Chamonix and did the Aiguille du Midi cablecar bit, getting off at Plan de L'Aiguille halfway back down and walking the 3 hours along the valley side to the Montenvers cog railway station above the Mer de Glace glacier (how it has shrunk since I first skied down it in 1988) the scenery was out of this world and the walking perfect. One other day we hired MTBs and took the Rochebrune cable car up the mountain where we rode along the crest amid Alpine wild flowers and cows with big donging bells, then blasted down Jeep tracks back to the cable car station where we did the whole thing again. Access to the lifts and cable cars, the swimming pool and the luge plus several other activities is all included in the cost of a 1 week pass you buy for €45. Seems like brilliant value.
Sorry if this reads like a tourist promotion but I have no connection with the town or the owners, I just wanted to tell you what a great time you can have in the Alps in summer. We have skied twice there and we used this trip to identify a French Apart-Hotel a few metres from the slopes where we plan to book for half term next February at around half the cost of booking through a UK tour operator.
