How Long Can We Last in Les Saisies

20/03/2025

With warmer days looming we were ready to start our journey north to the Aosta Valley where the ski resorts are high. On the way we thought we’d stop at one more French ski area. We looked at some options, hoping to try somewhere new, but new places were either too low or too far out of our way. We didn’t want to dive into the long valleys leading to La Plagne or the Three Valleys.

In the end we decided to return to Les Saisies. It’s a resort we’ve been too many times before. We know it well, it’s got an aire with electricity that’s ski-in, ski-out and an amazing bakery. It’s on the way to the Mont Blanc tunnel via just a small detour, so good enough for our itinerary.

Camping-Car Park Takeover

But the aire has now been taken over by Camping Car Parks (CCP) and although I have nothing against them – they provide some great overnight stopovers – the price is now €30 a night, rather steep for France. Also, when we looked at the app, we had to buy the ‘privilege pack’ to book the aire. It wasn’t really clear whether we could just turn up without booking (subsequent research says yes, you can generate a code for immediate access).  Anyhow we were slightly miffed at the price so decided that we wouldn’t stay there but would try the other aire.

The other aire is much closer to town, opposite the swimming pool and is almost ski-in ski-out. The downside of this aire is that there is no electricity, but it’s also €9 per night so very much a bargain compared to the CCP operated Tetras aire. Rumour has it that CCP are going to take over this aire too, so I’m expecting the price to increase accordingly. Will it be the last time we visit Les Saisies?

Snow and Fog

The route to Les Saisies is a bit wriggly from Albertville onwards. There aren’t too many switchbacks, but instead it follows the winding path of a river. It reminded us of North Devon A roads; slightly narrow, very twisty and requiring great concentration. As we ascended the last stretch the snow started falling. This – of course – filled us with great optimism for some good skiing ahead. The resulting fog was not so welcome, we scrabbled to find the fog lights as we made our way gingerly through the pea-souper. Luckily the fog thinned as we approached the resort, driving through the main street to the aire. This low cloud and fog was a constant afternoon feature during our time at Les Saisies.

Off Grid Living

We arrived at the aire to find it pretty jam packed with vans. This is a very French resort and, as expected, the majority of the motorhomes were French with just a couple of foreign visitors in the mix. We slotted into a recently vacated spot and got ourselves settled. We’d filled up at Vaujany so no need to fill at the services (a top up of water here costs €2, we could tell when someone was using the services because people would hover in the area with their water containers, waiting to fill up with any excess water from the service point).

Being off-grid in our old motorhome wouldn’t have fazed us, but our new van is a different matter. We haven’t been off grid for more than two nights and so this was a bit of an experiment. How would we fare? At least the weather was forecast to be mild, so our heating wouldn’t be running constantly, and longer spring days means more sun for the solar panels. Even so we ran our engine each evening for a little while as we started the diesel heater up, just to avoid the battery drain as the heating got up to temperature. These early evenings generated a fug of exhaust fumes as many people switched on their generators, ran their engines, and started up their heaters. Using this method we managed to last for 6 nights, we were really happy with that. Ideally we want a second solar panel and an upgrade to lithium, but at least we know that our summer travels will be unlikely to encounter any power based obstacles.

An evening walk encounter with piste bashers

Les Saisies

We took a stroll around the village, re-acquainting ourselves with the shops, bars and restaurants. Friday evening seemed to be the time to buy cheese. There are two main cooperatives selling local dairy produce and cured meats and both were busy. Beaufort is the local cheese, a hard alpine cheese which is similar to Gruyere, great for melting. It comes in winter and summer varieties which are different enough in flavour to make it worth tasting both types. There is also an ‘Alpage’ variety which is a ‘single herd’ cheese and obviously a lot more expensive.

We frequented the La Choco bakery more times than was good for us, treating ourselves to some delicious patisserie (although I have to say the bread was no better than the Carrefour next door).

On the Sunday a market sold local produce, including live pygmy goats – I was very disappointed we couldn’t fit one in the van.

Skiing Les Saisies

We enjoyed three ski days in Les Saisies. We had fresh snow on our first day and then more snow fell the following evening. Despite the snowfall the slopes did get quite chopped up and slushy by the middle of the afternoon. I finally got my skis re-serviced and repaired after the deep scratches I’d gained in Montgenevre. It definitely made a difference with a spring wax designed to shed the water and help me ‘slide’.

We normally visit Les Saisies early in any ski trip because it has a lot of gentle blues to warm up the skiing legs and provide confidence, It was interesting to visit later when we were searching out more challenging runs. We found our way to the further reaches of the Espace Diamant; Pras sur Arly, Notre Dame de Bellecombe and Crest Voland. These other villages are all lower than Les Saisies and so we found some very bare areas where slopes were closed and white runs snaked through grassy meadows. The scenic nature of these satellite valleys more than made up for the poor snow conditions.

Our quest for steeper and harder runs led us to the short but precipitous Kamikazi run. As Paul headed off I trailed behind, slower and – I would say – more controlled. As I reached the last crest of the run I saw Paul skidding along on the floor at the bottom of the slope. Getting down to make sure he was ok erased all other concerns from my mind, but he was up and off before I reached him, brushing off his fall as ‘nothing much’.

A Winter Walk in Les Saisies

We ended our time in Les Saisies with a walk on the snowshoe trails of the resort. There is a great network of paths and we joined three trails together to make a circular walk from the aire.

The walk started by heading up over the ski runs and through the woods. This was the most scenic part of the walk, taking a route upwards through the trees up to the top of the Chard du Beurre summit where a number of ski lifts meet and there are panoramic views of Mont Blanc.

The next part of the route was across the snowy plains of the ski resort towards a reservoir and then along the ‘Sentier des Cretes’ which followed the side of a ridge and had a series of mountain huts with information about the history and culture of the area.

One of the huts along the Route des Cretes

We re-traced our steps and stopped at a mountain restaurant for a slightly disappointing lunch (my Tartiflette was overcooked and the cheese stodgy rather than melting and stringy) before returning down to the village. Somewhere in the middle of this walk Paul started feeling the after effects of his fall the day before, obviously it hadn’t been the ‘nothing’ he’d claimed.

When we returned to the van I found that I had lost my trust Lifeventure flask. This was an even bigger disappointment than my poorly re-heated lunch. It must have fallen out of the side pocket of my rucksack when we sat down for lunch. A new flask is needed as I cant possibly go out without an emergency cup of tea in my bag.