play, rest and work in la tania

Situated between its bigger neighbours of Meribel and Courchevel, La Tania shares the huge ski area of the Three Valleys.
Often called a "small family resort", don't let that put you off - La Tania rocks!

The resort is now 16 years old and although it has expanded rapidly in the last few years it's still small enough for everyone to know everyone else (and what/who they're doing).

Many people come back season after season (or stay forever!), lifetime friendships are forged. There’s a strong saisonnaire community spirit with reunions at the London Metro Show every year and an end of season Charity Day raising money for Cancer charities in France and the UK. The Charity Day was a saisonnaires idea eight years ago – with the idea of putting something back after experiencing the magic of the mountains - over 100,000 euros have now been raised.


Piste Map | Website | CdS

Play
Bars and Clubs
Off-piste
Moguls
Speed
Snowparks
Events

Rest

Away Days
Shopping
Internet Cafés
Eating Out
Mountain Restos
McDo

Work
Shopping
Transfer Day
Après-ski
Living

CdS
Search
Join

Links
SkiHolidayExtras

 

 


Bars and Clubs

La Tania:
The social life of La Tania revolves around Pub Le Ski Lodge, with draught Heinekin, Amstel, Murphys and the evil Mutzig. All the latest alcopops and even Bulmer Pear Cider for 2009. Decent locals prices and big party nights make this a place you'll spend a lot of time in. Be there on a Tuesday for the biggest night of the week (a lot of chalet staff have the day off on Wednesdays) when the best bands perform to a rowdy crowd of workers. The Feeling (aka Super Fly) lived and played in La Tania in 2000. There’s Happy Hour from 4-6pm every day with live Après ski music at least twice a week, good value bar food and all the live sports events on TV too.

The Hotel Telemark up the hill among the chalets has occasional live music, free WiFi and draught Stella. New for 2009 are pizzas for eat-in or takeaway.

Le Farcon (was Pub L'Arbatt) is now a restaurant only (and a Michelin star one at that).

Hotel Montana has a normally quiet bar - escape space when you need it.

La Taiga (referred to as The Tiger) has a small bar where you might just not get spotted if out on a date but usually packed on a Sunday night with live music from Bring Your Sisters for the 2009 season.

Chrome Bar was new last year (with Le Farcon bar area closing) is just off the piste and has occasional live music.

Further afield:
Trips to Dicks T-Bar night club in Meribel (make sure as a Saisonnaire you don't pay to get in) at 1am (they're open 'til 4) are quite popular - not so the getting back however, it's easy to get stranded. This can be preceded with a quick Meribel pub crawl taking in Jacks, The Tav, The Pub , Barometer and FiftyFifty. The Lodge Du Village in Meribel Village (from the same team as The Ski Lodge) means an almost compulsory stop on the way to/from Meribel.

The Jump in Courchevel 1850 is a popular spot with La Tania workers – though not cheap any more, as are La Boulette 1650 (taking over from Le Bubble Bar perhaps?), Chanrossa in 1550 and Darbellos in 1300 (Le Praz). TCs Bar and Le Brasero in Tignes, Le Lavachet are other haunts as former La Tania locals opened their bars there. We also have a large affinity with Brewskis in St Martin de Bellville, tales of naked jacuzzis, toffee vodka and end of season parties from 10 years ago abound. Sadly open evenings only in 2009 – it was a great place to take punters for lunch.

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Off-piste
Usual warnings apply - Shovel, probe, transceiver (and know how to use them - especially how to use a grid search with the analogue types). Ski or board with someone who knows what they're doing and remember that simply going down marginal areas one at a time and waiting for that person to move to a safe area will save lives, only 1 person gets buried and the rest can search… Don’t be afraid to ask the Pisteurs / Ski Patrol advice – generally they’re very helpful.

Plumbers Crack above Col De La Loze is one of the more famous off piste runs. The Courchevel Freeride competition used to be held here down the large couloir accessed by walking up the ridge on the right - takes from 30 minutes to an hour to walk up. Avalanches frequently.

There are three routes down the Col De Loze to the right of the Lanches chair (see Moguls below) accessed by walking across the ridge at the top. These are known locally as Gasex 1, 2 & 3. The Gasex machines are the large pipes that stick out of the mountain blasting out compressed gas to set off controlled avalanches. There were originally only three - suppose we could have a run called Gasex 16 now…. Again this can be unsafe and you must traverse right above the tree line to return to the piste. There is a route through the trees to the Folyeres piste but this can sometimes be tricky depending on snow cover and has narrow gaps between the trees – can be “fun” on a snowboard.

There are numerous options from the top of the Col De La Loze into the Meribel Valley (Three Valley pass needed). Keep away from going directly under the Rocher De La Loze chair though - it ends in almost a cliff – although it has been skied.

Finally (we're not giving all our secret spots away) the runs through the trees around the blue Arolles piste can be fantastic after a heavy fall - although the trees tend to stop avalanches this can still be dangerous, as anyone who has fallen in to a tree hole will tell you.

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Moguls
Often found under the four-man Dou Des Lanches chair lift directly above La Tania - not a marked run but quite heavily skied and hence the bumps. The top part is fairly steep and can be tricky in poor conditions.

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Speed
Get the first gondola up and when you're told the four-man chair isn't opening straight away belt down Folyeres in a straight line (but only if you've got first tracks). This is a roller coaster of a ride - watch the humps… and don't go for it at the end of the day when it's full of beginners. Alternatively try Saulire first thing when it's been perfectly groomed. A group of us managed 97km/h down it early one morning, timed via GPS - so wide a run it didn't actually feel that fast.

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Snowparks
Our local one is Courchevel above 1850 next to Plantrey chair and there’s plenty of rails there now too. The top of Chenus and below Pralong have boarder / skier cross tracks, some interesting bumps under Biollay too.

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Events
The Ski Lodge always has a Mardi Gras (Pancake “Fat Tuesday” to us) party, Shorts n Shades, Toss the Boss, Pirates Night and a big St Patrick's night, plus big closing nights and end of season bbqs too. Tuesdays (Chalet girls day off the next day - get it?) are always a big night with live music, Monday has shot night and the chance to win a snowboard. With the other bars in La Tania there’s usually live music somewhere every night of the week now.

On piste The Courchevel Free Ride is a real spectacle - take some beers and watch some incredible skiing at the top of Col De La Loze – this hasn’t happened since 2007 however – but we hear something is going to replace it...

La Tania was host to the first Natives Workers Challenge. This fun race and party afterwards was a great success and is now a much bigger event over the hill in the big city (also known as Méribel).

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Away Days
Tignes - because of TC's Bar and Le Brasero, see above. Shopping trips to Annecy and trips to Brewskis in St Martin de Belleville are always popular. Also to Champagny, only 25 minutes away with access to La Plagne (free for a day with a Three Valley pass) and now Les Arcs with the new cable car – the Paradiski ski area.

Trips to La Taj Mahal Curry House in Annecy are now a thing of the past with Extreme Cuisine’s Delivery Curry Service to La Tania – it’s the real deal too.
The nearest top league soccer is Lyon & St. Etienne, members of the SSSC occasionally visit - that's the Sad Saturday Soccer Club who watch the scores come in on TV in the Ski Lodge every Saturday afternoon. Trips to Milan and Turin to watch Champions League and UEFA Cup action of English clubs have also been made in the past.

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Shopping
For ski & board essentials Ski Higher in La Tania (also in Le Praz, 1850 and Les Allues) are very worker friendly and do good deals to locals. Discounted ski and board servicing too.

All the essentials are in La Tania – supermarket, newsagent, post office, tabac, bakery, tourist office and cash point, but for other stuff try Courchevel & Meribel, they have a lot more variety.

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Internet Cafés
The Tourist Office and Ski Lodge have pay as you go terminals and WiFi – the Tourist Office WiFi is available across a large area of the resort. Free WiFi at the Telemark Hotel too.

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Eating Out
The Ski Lodge is excellent value for money with big, big helpings of burgers, ribs, chilli, tandoori chicken and pasta dishes. They'll do a group of you a hot rock with as much salad, chips and wine as you can manage for a decent price.

Le Farcon is the most upmarket and boasts a Michelin star. Very French, very expensive - garlic ice cream anyone?

Hotel Telemark has an excellent Bistro menu and new for 2009 are pizzas.

La Taiga has a modern take on some Savoyarde specialities along with the traditional Fondues, Raclettes and Hot Rocks.

The other restaurants in resort La Ferme, Les Chantarelles and Les Marmottons all offer Savoyard and traditional French fayre – including tartiflette, fondues, crepes etc.

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Mountain Restos
Mostly expensive. Better to ski to Le Jump in 1850, Le Rond Point in Meribel or Brewskis in St Martin for a reasonably priced sandwich/burger/pie and beer. Le Sou Coupe, Roc Tania, Chenus and Le Bouc Blanc above & around La Tania tend to be quite a bit cheaper than those on the Courchevel & Meribel sides of the ski area. The Ski Lodge terrace on a sunny day is a great place to guide (escort!) punters to for lunch.

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McDonalds
En route to Tignes: At Bourg St Maurice - almost exactly half way around 40 minutes from La Tania.
En route to Geneva: In Albertville at junction 30, again around 40 minutes on the turn off to Annecy and also about 8km south of Annecy near the lake. There is a further one on the Bourg en Brasse road near a big Decathlon and Intersport - well worth a look for cheap gear.
En route to Chambery: You'll pass the 2 in Albertville and there's one in Chambery too.
En route to Lyon: As Chambery above - plus there's one between the airport turn off and the Lyon ring road Autoroute. There's a big retail park here with an IKEA (often 30% cheaper than the UK).
En route to St Etienne (for yer mates who come out with Ryan Air for a fiver)
As Lyon above plus the one at the entrance to the airport - there's nothing much at all inside the terminal building.
Finally, I can just remember there's a drive thru' on the way to Chamonix when you pass through Megeve…

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Shopping
Hyper Champion (still referred to as Provencia by the veterans) in Moutiers is the place for chalet shopping - 20 minutes away on a good run. Check out the exotic foods of the world section - Marmite, McVities Biscuits, Sharwoods Curry Sauce, Heinz Baked Beans, Walkers Crisps etc!

The Sherpa Supermarket in resort is there for emergencies and is not too expensive considering it's up the mountain.

The Sausage Shop can be a chalet host's best friend sometimes – takeaway Roast Chickens, Roast Potatoes, Tartiflette, Home Made Lasagne, Cauliflower Gratin plus Pizzas and Bacon Sandwiches too!

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Transfer Day

Mostly Geneva 130km (between two hours and six) - free internet access to while away those hours of delays though. Traffic queues form around Annecy and in towards Moutiers at peak times. There’s a new road for 2009 direct to Annecy from the Swiss border which should alleviate the queues at Cruseilles – could knock half an hour off peak time transfers from Geneva.

Then Lyon 190km (motorway all the way and can be done in under two hours but again this can easily more than double with delays, traffic and snow).

Chambery 90km (just over an hour usually). Small airport with less delays generally though can be completely fog bound while Geneva and Lyon remain open.

St Ettienne is not used nowadays but Grenoble is becoming quite busy and around 2 hours on a good run.

Whatever the airport, all traffic comes through Moutiers at the bottom of the valley as does all the transfer traffic (and self-drive traffic) for Courchevel, Meribel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Val d'isere and Tignes - the Gendarmes have a queuing system along the motorway to prevent Moutiers becoming grid locked so expect huge delays on Saturdays in February and holiday times.

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Après-ski / Excursions
Any particular après-ski classics that the punters love?
Tim, the Proprietor of The Ski Lodge plays the French and English National Anthems on his hunting horn at lunch on the terrace and yes - the punters love it.

Trips to VT (a bus back so you ski the area all day) or Champagny (for La Plagne and the Olympic Bob) are often arranged. Tandem parapenting is available directly above La Tania and Husky sledding which is great fun takes place just up the road.

For a cheap, fun night out try the sledge run between 1850 and 1550 (take the gondola back up until 8pm). A great laugh and pretty fast and scary in places! Rent a decent sledge (with brakes!) for only 3.5 euros at one of the ski shops.

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Living
Is there a better part of town to live/to avoid? La Tania’s a small place, there are now some new chalets high up in the trees - a long walk to the pub (and even longer one back) but we’re still talking less than 15 minutes max.

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Links
www.latania.co.uk of course! For all the local news, gossip, snow reports and What’s On?
If you're looking for accom, then check out the Hotel Telemark.

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MyNatives
Search
If you’re thinking of doing a season in La Tania then why not search through the MyNatives to see who else has worked there and what advice they may be able to offer.

Join
Anyone can join MyNatives, where you join in the chat in the chatroom, post pictures in the gallery and blog your heart out about what you're up to.

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[Last updated January 2009. Thanks to Toffa for putting this Guide together]