The slow upward trek to St. Jean D'Arves

This foto was taken yesterday morning somewhere in the beautiful Rhone Alps region on our way back to the Netherlands.

What a great relief - the grueling 12+ hours drive from the French Alps back to the lowlands is over. We arrived back in the Netherlands last night (Saturday) around 10PM+.
Long distance driving is killing and I am so glad both of us can drive and take turns on the wheel non-stop for at least 3+ hours. As fatigue, stress, and lack of concentration can easily take its toll, guidelines for safety driving highly recommend drivers to stop, rest, and stretch out their muscles after driving for a straight 2 hours. We managed to extend our limit to 3+ hours as making frequent stops would only delay the already long journey. Both ways, we stopped twice, in Luxemburg and between Dijon and Lyon, to refuel, change the wheel command, and grab something warm for the belly (coffee or soup). 

This is the road that splits Saint Jean D’Arves – La Chal and Saint Sorlin D’Arves. The locals often call this point as the fromagerie as there is a cheese dairy farm and shop by the corner. This spot is also where the bus from Saint Sorlin D’Arves stops every quarter, and a bus from Saint Jean D’Arves go by this junction route helaas only once in an hour (well, at least from our experience).

At any rate, I have tried to upload the 2 videos I took during our slow upward trek to St. Jean D’Arves, the village in the Alps where we stayed for our 1 week winter sport holiday but the internet in the Tourism Office was slower than a legion of happy turtles when it comes to uploading 1MB files. So it never happened and it’s just now when I got home that I managed to get this done.

See the videos below:

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We went slow as it was slippery, convoying with the rest of the cars. There is no way you can go up without winter tires or chain. For security, a group of police were down at the valley checking all cars passing through if they are equipped with winter tires or the chain.
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From the valley of Saint Jean de Maurienne we went up the zigzagged Alpine mountains for another 23 kilometers to Saint Jean D’Arves. It was a long slow trek.

Great news is I have so many fotos and videos from this holiday! But the biggest challenge I am faced right now is what and where to begin? So while I am organizing these, for now please enjoy the few impressions we took of the little pretty French village we stayed in.

The village of St. Jean D’Arves - La Chal is about 1,600 meters above sea level facing the Aiguilles D’Arves in the heart of the Alps. Foto taken from the piste.

We rented one of the homely chalets made of wood with snow-capped roofs as seen on the foto. As you can also see from the picture, the chalets are snuggled together giving an exclusive resort ambience and are also nearly situated, circa 50 meters, to the ski lift which makes it so convenient for us winter sport holiday makers. The latter is in fact one of the major reasons why we decided to book here. Our chalet is on the 2nd row from the front. To see a close-up version of this foto, please click HERE.

This is our pretty and serene view from the bedroom balcony. The chalets are identical from each other but some are larger while others are smaller.

St. Jean D’Arves in the Savoie region comprises of a few hamlets distributed within its territorial area in the Alps. The main township is Les Chambons and is the first settlement of St. Jean D’Arves visitors will reach during the upward trek. Further up ahead, less than 3 kilometers is La Chal, the town’s ski resort (where we stayed) and is part of the massive 310-kilometer ski terrain of the famous Les Sybelles.

And this is our view from the living room balcony with thick snow laced on the balcony railings which later on in the day disappeared as we had only fantastic sunny weather in the Alps except for 1 snowy and greyish day.

We found La Chal a village that is principally built from ground up for winter sport holiday makers. The restaurants, cafes, the chalets, the ski shops, and just everything about it seemed to be fairly new, very well planned, and built around the activity of skiing and snowboarding.

This foto is taken around 2PM in the ski piste grounds of St. Jean D’Arves. It is very busy here at 9AM, 11AM, and 1PM when eager ski and snowboard learners wait up for their ski or snowboard instructors. The building on the right is a cinema, and behind, you can see the village trademark, its black horns rising above the snow coated Alps.

For more information about this village, you can visit their website here (there is an English version!): St. Jean D’Arves

Here is a closer foto of St. Jean D’Arves trademark, the black Arves peaks. On some days they look like cat’s ears to me. On another day they seemed like devil’s horns burried under the Alps.

St. Jean D’Arves is indeed a small, hushed, and cozy place, and is actually more to my liking. It is a great winter sport vacation place for families and couples offering snow sporting activities, nature sceneries and tranquility. However, for the young blood or single at heart, it would be best to go elsewhere as there is not much activity to do here during the evenings. But I guess for most winter sport enthusiasts, everyone knows that France is really not the best place to party and enjoy the fun although sometimes widely known as wild après-ski festivities.

More stories, fotos, and videos soon once I have organized them all.

Travel Period: January 2008
Destination: St. Jean D'arves (Savoie - Rhone-Alpes), France