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The Skiing
The skiing is excellent and with being in the Southern Alps Briancon reckons on 300 days of sunshine per year. The snow tends to arrive in 'big dumps' and with the piste up to glacier height and extensive snow cannons in reserve it has a good snow record.
A ski video from one of our sons to set your pulse racing :- Extreme Ski
Serre Chevalier claims to be the second biggest ski resort in France - I'm not sure if this is still true but it has 250km of ski piste with a good mix of black, red, blue and green runs (115 runs, 66 lifts, skiing to 2830 meters). Nursery slopes can be accessed directly from the Prorel ski lift next to the flat. For some serious adrenaline try 'The Wall' at Bachus - off piste, very steep and not for the fainthearted.
Piste map :-
The Ecole Ski Francais has an office in the same building as the apartment next to where you purchase your lift passes. The ski school meets next to the Prorel lift. To use the Prorel lift to access the rest of the resort apart from the runs on the Prorel mountain you need to be able to ski blue runs. If you are not able to ski a blue run then you will have to travel to the next village (Chantemerle) by car or free ski bus (the stop is directly outside the apartment). Many of the ski schools meet at Chantemerle as an easy access point to the whole system.
 
If you buy the Grande Serre Che lift pass you can also ski at Mont Genevre (15 minutes away by car) which gives access to the mostly Italian 'Milky Way' which claims to be the biggest linked ski area in the world (The '3 Valleys also makes this claim so someone is fibbing !!). 140 ski slopes and 400km of piste - it should be enough to keep the most hardened ski addict interested. You can ski across the border to Italy within a couple of minutes and visit Sestriere the site of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The lift prices are very reasonable compared to similar large and high resorts. Serre Chevalier prides itself on being 'family friendly' - a 6 day family pass 2 adults & 2 children (age 6 - 17) is 613 Euro 2008/9 season.
http://www.serre-chevalier.com/Winter-2008-09-prices
For ski hire there are plenty of local shops but Francis Sports is directly below the apartment and he speaks good English. He has offered a 10% discount (just say you are at the Oddy family apartment) and has a good range of skis, boots helmets etc.
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The Skiing
