FRANCE A LA CARTE, the ingenious French agents who create these packages, have long ago realised that customers are far better off booking their own flights: it's cheaper, quicker and there's much more variety on offer than through an agent. And, in the case of the Pyrenees, most of the UK and Irish low-cost and mainstream airlines fly into the region.
The idea is to leave on the Friday - after lunch - and fly down to one of the seven airports serving the Pyrenees. FRANCE A LA CARTE have a hire car waiting at the airport for the 90 minute drive up to the resort. Result: skiers are sitting in the hotel bar in front of a log fire sipping a vin chaud ... and it's not even apéritif time! They probably have time to stroll over to the ski hire shop to fit up for equipment before dinner.
The entire Saturday and Sunday are devoted to skiing (the ski pass is delivered to the hotel). But this is not alpine skiing by any means: the runs are shorter but technically more demanding as the valleys tend to be steeper and the pistes less wide. There's a lot more sunshine than in the Alps and the views from on top are often spectacular. But the over-whelming benefit of skiing in the Pyrenees is the lack of queues at the lifts: these are not resorts for the mass market but family-oriented ski resorts catering for local people, students and a smattering of UK, Irish and Spanish visitors.
Monday morning and skiers are back at the airport for a last café crème before winging it back to work: with a bit of luck no one will have noticed their absence. These three night breaks are, of course, also available during the week for those who have to work at the weekends.
The hotels used by FRANCE A LA CARTE are quality 3* establishments with comfortable rooms and good restaurants. Some even have indoor pools and gym facilities. As most of the Pyrenean resorts also double as spas, skiers often get entry to the local thermal baths as part of the package: nothing better than relaxing in blood-hot thermal waters after a hard day on the slopes.
The best resorts in the Pyrenees - and those where the 3 night offer pertains - are St Lary in the central Pyrenees, Font Romeu and Les Angles in the Eastern Pyrenees. FRANCE A LA CARTE no longer offer Andorra because of its immense access difficulties (more than 3 hours from an airport) and cheap'n'nasty infrastructure. They do, however, have some upmarket packages on the Spanish side at Baqueira (where the King of Spain skies), Boï Taull and La Molina.
So before the credit crunch bites too hard, think France and think Pyrenees.
HOW TO GET THERE: Ryanair fly into Biarritz, Pau, Lourdes, Carcassonne, Perpignan and Girona from Stansted, Liverpool, Dublin and E Midlands. EasyJet fly to Toulouse from Gatwick. Jet2.com have a service to Toulouse from Leeds and Belfast. Flybe operate a Southampton to Toulouse and Perpignan. BA fly to Toulouse from Heathrow.
FRANCE A LA CARTE: registered French travel agent based in Toulouse.
site: www.francealacarte.com
email: info@francealacarte.com
phone: +33 561 120 794
