One of the largest ski areas in the world, La 'Belle' Plagne is indeed a beautiful concept; not just a single resort but TEN traditional villages and purpose built high altitude centres stretching out over 6 valleys, covering more than 300 square kilometres and serviced by more than 100 swift and modern lifts. For the recreational skier that means a great deal of variety and fun.

La Plagne's adventure started in 1960. Over the next 20 years six new high altitude centres were developed and four traditional farming villages in the surrounding area were incorporated into an efficient network of modern lifts that now link 210 kms of marked runs from the Bellecotte Glacier at 3250m to the wooded tracks of Montchavin at 1250m. If you want endless skiing with new vistas and different routes each day of your holiday, La Plagne is definitely one of the finest choices available.

During a single day's touring it is just possible to visit all 10 resorts - but you'll have to ski like the wind and avoid the temptation of relaxing in one of the numerous bars and cafes that have been purposefully designed to charm you. Better to take a week or two cruising around the area in style. Many of the centres are even designed to allow a gentle ski down the high street. Whilst those on skis window shop, demonstrate their style and parade their fashions, others relax in crowded music bars watching a late afternoon promenade as colourful and interesting as in any Mediterranean city.

But what about Chez Jay you'll be asking……..which resort have we chosen for our chalet?

Montchavin

High altitude purpose built resorts may be fun to visit and ski through but not so charming to actually stay in. They can be very cold and impersonal 'apres ski'. So we have chosen the romantic village of Montchavin (1250m) for our chalet which also allows really serious skiers the rare opportunity of a fantastic 15km run with a vertical descent of 2000m as a climax to their day on the slopes.

Perched on a mountain ledge with spectacular views of Mont Blanc, Montchavin is considered by many as the most beautiful ski village in the domain if not in France. Still possessing some traditional working farm houses, this 14th. century hamlet has been sensitively enlarged with a spectacular award winning development in the style of medieval fortifications. The result is a truly charming resort with fashionable shops, bars and restaurants in a fully pedestrianised environment that is so different from the traffic noise and fumes that plague other prestige resorts like Val D'Isere and Meribel today.

And Montchavin has other significant advantages as a place to stay. Being the closest domain resort to Bourg St Maurice and Les Arcs, it allows visitors a quick and easy transfer between them. So those guests wishing to visit a town or ski in another domain will have no trouble getting there.

And there's more. Being so close to Bourg, Montchavin has attracted a lively music scene with a brand new purpose built venue, OXYGENE, offering the very latest sounds and the most up to date atmosphere of any night club in the ski world. It may be a village but in the winter season you'd never believe it.

But please don't think we've forgotten the true charm of staying in a mountain chalet...... Montchavin does not press it's lively charms as heavily as say Val D'Isere or Meribel. Well lit paths wind their way through forested slopes above the village where a group of individually designed luxury chalets peer out across the vast expanse of pine forests to the snow clad mountains beyond. The majesty and sheer beauty of our location cannot be surpassed in any other major ski resort in the world; the view is truly awe inspiring……and for us that was reason enough to base our lives here.