THE TOP 50: According to L'Equipe

L'Equipe magazine published its league table of the Top 50 resorts in France on 24 November.  Scroll through the pictures of the Top 25 resorts to see the full classement.

In a way it's not that controversial, as it covers just about all the resorts, although a number of the smaller ones, like Géradmer in the Vosges, have found it useful for their PR efforts.

Ste-Foy (in the background) doesn't make the Top 50
Villaroger (foreground) is part of 9th-placed Les Arcs

Once the scores on quite a wide range of criteria are added up, the winner is.....
La Plagne.  

It only seems to fall down on two things: cross-country skiing and fancy restaurants.

And it beats local rival Les Arcs for having a halfpipe, facilities for families, sports facilities and having "villages de charme".

The other resorts in the top ten are Val d'Isere, Chamonix, Les Menuires, Megeve, Méribel, Tignes, Val Thorens and Les Arcs.

So, no surprises there, but it seems slightly odd to see Flaine at No 26, La Rosiere at No 30 and Valmorel at No 44.

Of course these league tables are most certainly an art rather than a science.  For example, Alpes magazine places Serre Chevalier as No 1 in its "well-being and relaxation" league table and Alpe d'Huez as No 1 for "Le Grand Ski" and "Extreme Glisse".

LE TOURNOI DES 6 STATIONS: Allez La Plagne!

Updated 16 January 2013

This winter sees a new competition coming to the Alps - snow rugby.  Enter Le Tournoi des 6 Stations, which will take place during the rest period of the annual Six Nations tournament.  Official website here, and the latest news, including captains of the teams, here.

Rugby is no stranger to the area.  Tignes regularly hosts beach rugby competitions during the summer, and it is a favourite training camp for Stade Francais.

But this new competition, brainchild of @yanndelaige, will take place in the middle of winter, and indeed right in the middle of the French school holidays.  It is a "new, fresh and original" concept, says Yann.  A melange of slalom and rugby sevens is promised, and stars of rugby (including Marc & Thomas Lievremont, Serge Betson) and the ski slopes (Luc Alphand, Antoine Deneriaz) have signed up.  Orangina and Peugeot have signed up too:

Press Conference in Paris, November 2012

The event takes place between 26 Feb and 3 March, with the final chapter taking place at La Clusaz apparently.  The other participating resorts are La Plagne, Les Menuires, Courchevel, Valmorel and Chamonix.

One of the aims is to initiate people into rugby.  Of the "Top 14", only Stade Francais and Racing Metro are located outside its southern heartlands, so presumably the idea is that the sport has quite a lot of untapped potential.

There's more background here in the official video of the press conference, which include a heroic photo shoot in front of the Arc de Triomphe.

What is worth a look is the official trailer, which shows you what playing rugby sevens with crampons is really like....

Alongside the website, you can follow developments Le Tournoi's Facebook Page.

FRENCH SKI RESORT LEAGUE TABLES (1): "Le Grand Ski"

A couple of seasons ago, Alpes magazine ran a special issue called "La Palmares des Stations".   This ranked the different resorts under a series of categories.

The first is "Le Grand Ski" - ie an Ofsted-style league table aimed at those for whom the skiing is everything.

The magazine devised a complex scoring system which included:

- Height of top lift
- Vertical descent
- Range of pistes (see below)
- No of pistes
- Access to big ski area
- Events, competitions, etc
- Price of lift pass
- Price of accommodation

Perhaps the most interesting stat is the one on range of pistes.  They calculated the % of reds and blacks as a % of all pistes.  The higher the %, the greater the score - I've set this in brackets below.

Anyway, the winner is.....Alpe d'Huez, which got maximum scores on both height of top lift, vertical drop and number of pistes, as well as on price of accommodation (Serre Chevalier, Le Corbier, Chamrousse and Villard-de-Lans all did well here, too.  Courchevel, and indeed the Trois Vallees generally, did not.

Here is the full ranking (% red/black pistes):

1.  Alpe d'Huez (44)
2.  Les Arcs (48)
3.  La Plagne (33)
4.  Val Thorens (52)
5.  Vars (45)
6.  Chamonix (49)
7.  Serre-Che (50)
8.  Val d'Isere (44)*
9.  Tignes (47)
10. Les Menuires (51)
11. Meribel (43)
12. La Clusaz (37)
13. Chamrousse (48)
14. Avoriaz (43)
15. Courchevel (36)
16. Montgenevre (58)
17. Le Corbier (25)
18. Allos 1800 (51)
19. Villard-de-Lans (51)
20. Chatel (45)
21. Isola 2000 (26)

* Clearly, this assumes that all piste gradings are the same, which of course they aren't - cf the savage "blue runs" around Val d'Isere....