A Weekend in Torgnon

31/03/2025

We drove down to the bottom of the valley and Chatillon for a night to get some washing and shopping done. It’s a regular haunt of ours and I think we need to get a “tessera” (loyalty card) for the Conad store, we spend so much time in there. The weather was warm and sunny, we bought ice-cream and sat outside the van to soak up some sunshine.

For the sake of doing something different we thought we would pop to Torgnon for a couple of days. This is a small ski resort which is on the west side of the Valtournence. We’ve stayed up here before but never for skiing. We drove up on the Friday, reminding ourselves of the roads which felt so strenuous when Bertie had to chug along them but feel a breeze in the new van. A modern engine combined with a narrow van makes us far more nimble on mountain roads.

Torgnon sosta

The sosta at Torgnon is shared with car parking, a vast expanse of grass-crete that is right next to the piste. Payment is by ticket machine or app. There are electric hook up points around the edge which look as though they are coin operated, but the payment system doesn’t work so the power is free. One bollard was lying on the ground, obviously run over at some point.

When we arrived we were the only van there but slowly the sosta began to fill up until we were accompanied by 13 other vans, all Italian and all here for the weekend. Small groups of friends crowded together leaving us slightly isolated; a British island amongst our neighbours. Friday evening arrivals continued until late into the night. Saturday was social night with a lot of very happy people enjoying their evening. Well beyond our bed time they were still going, making the most of their weekend away.

Busy sosta

Skiing Torgnon

We spent a day skiing the area. It’s only small but has enough variety for a day of fun skiing, including the run down to the village of Mongnod which was a white strip of carefully maintained snow amongst the grassy meadows.  At one point we were asked to accompany some children on the lift by an instructor. It was a great opportunity for me to practise some Italian and my nine year old companion got to practise her English. We covered traditional school room subjects, such as our favourite animals (hers were Butterflies and Elephants), the number of brothers or sisters we had (very gratifyingly she was amazed that I had a son who is 29) and what we enjoyed at school. I had great fun and was very pleased she was the chatty sort.

On the piste surrounded by grass

Walks around Torgnon

That evening we walked back down to the village to pick up some bread from the shop. It was a longish walk down the road and we soon realised we should have popped into the village as part of our ski day and got the cable car back up to the ski resort. The shop in town, like many small stores in Italy, had a counter for cheese, cured meats and bread. No self service option. This is lovely when it’s quiet but we had managed to hit the busy time between the closing of the ski area and dinner. We had a long wait just to get some panini. Paul found some Italian cider (sidro) which made him happy although he felt slightly misled when he read the label and realised it was made in France, the only Italian aspect was the apples.

The following day we took a walk around the snowshoe trails of the resort. It was a sunny and warm day and we hoped for some wildlife as we gained some distance from the resort, but sadly not even a squirrel was seen. Paul was achy from a fall the day before so it wasn’t our most successful outing.

By the time we got back to the van the majority of our Italian neighbours were packing up for their return home. We decided to drive back up to Valtournenche for another day’s skiing in Cervinia, but the forecast of strong winds made us change our minds and we retreated to Chatillon again. We were pleased that we’d made the decision. The cable car at Valtournenche didn’t open until after 10am and the link to Cervinia remained closed all day. Instead we enjoyed a lazy day of strolls and biscuit eating. Did you know that one of the traditional Valdostane biscuits is named for the heavy stone tiles used on most of the roofs in this area? These are “tegole”, delicious thin biscuits made with ground hazelnuts and sometimes found coated in chocolate.