24 Hours: Chamonix — Les Arcs 1800 (Terri and Finn’s European Adventure Day 14)
Before we left Chamonix to drive to Les Arcs 1800, we met our parapente guides from Air Sports Chamonix. We’d purchased our one way gondola tickets as required for the reservation before waiting anxiously at the bottom of the gondola.
The gondola went up this side of the valley. The mountains from Day 13 (Aiguille du Midi) were behind us. We watched all of the paragliders circle the sky and slowly descend into the valley below.
After calling the company to make sure we were in the right place, our guides, Matthieu for me, and Richard for Finn, found us. Due to the winds, the previous folks had taken a bit longer than anticipated which is to be expected with this activity. They are at the mercy of the weather and the winds.
By the way this is another highly recommended Chamonix activity.
On the gondola up, I spoke French (I was getting better) with Matthieu and Richard, explaining our trip and where we were from. We got to talking about helicopters as Matthieu is also a helicopter pilot. Now that was a tough convo on French for me!
After we got suited up, we watched a few others take off before Matthieu and Richard told us that the winds had changed and we needed to watch the others descend to determine if it was safe to fly.
As a helicopter pilot, I totally get this, and while they kept apologizing about the delay, we both told them we completely understood. Safety first.
The view from the ridge was spectacular. We saw the mountain we ascended by cable car across the valley.
The peaks were striking.
I was so excited until we got to the point that it just wasn’t going to happen. Then Finn and I were understanding, but also very disappointed.
But Matthieu was an angel and when he found out we were driving to Les Arcs that afternoon, he made a phone call to his buddy Bruno and reserved some spots in Les Arcs 1600 for the next day. We were so excited.
We made our way back to the gondola and took it back down the hill before saying goodbye to Matthieu and Richard.
We walked back to the car and began the drive to Les Arcs 1800.
The drive was really fun as we made our way out of the Chamonix valley and through the towns of Megeve, Albertville, and Moutiers.
Megeve is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of France. We didn’t know it at the time but it is a well known ski resort created by the Rothschilds as a French alternative to St. Moritz and was the first purpose built ski resort in the Alps.
The scenery was stunning. It was so hard to not stop and take a million pictures.
The roads were often twisty and I once again pretended to be a race car driver. While it was a long driving day (over 3 hours), it was worth it to get to Les Arcs. It felt like we were driving to Tahoe but on a much larger scale.
What we failed to do before we got to the hotel, was refuel. The fuel light went on as we were climbing up the mountain to Les Arcs 1800. It wasn’t until we checked into the hotel that we learned that the closest gas station was 31 kilometers down the hill in the valley. I tried not to panic.
We’d arrived at 6 PM, checked in, got to our room, and went straight out to the balcony. The weather was cooler because we were at 1800 meters.
Les Arcs is a French mega-resort with small villages (I can’t think of a better word) at 1600, 1800, 1950, and 2000 meters called Les Arcs 1600, Les Arcs 1800, Les Arcs 1950, and Les Arcs 2000. There’s one more village called Bourg Saint-Maurice making it a total of five.
When we checked in, the guy at reception said, when I asked him about the closest gas station, that it was in Bourg Saint-Mourice at the bottom of the hill (31 km away), but that it was down hill and not to worry. I was worried.
We called our friend (Paris) Terry to let her know we made it and scheduled our pick up for dinner. She was there with her boyfriend Michele and Terry’s daughter Kriss, who is a year older than Finn. It has been too long and Kriss and Finn didn’t really remember each other.
We squeezed into the car and with Michele behind the wheel, we went to Les Arcs 1600. We got lost despite the GPS (and conflicting directions from Terry and Kriss) on our way to a restaurant for dinner. It was a small restaurant but there was an outdoor space with music and lots of people enjoying the summer mountain vibe and air.
We spent a lot of time staring out at the moutain view from our patio.
We were tired and decided to stay an extra night at the Hotel Mercure Les Arcs 1800 if the room was available. It was. I’d confirmed I could cancel our reservation for one night in Grenoble at another Accor Hotel without any penalties. So we would be three nights in Les Arcs 1800 before driving to Lyon for the last two nights of our trip.
Besides the restaurant which was a little odd, the hotel was nice and I’d stay at this hotel again. The hotel restaurant felt like it was part of a family summer camp.
I made massage appointments at the hotel spa for the following days. We were tired and really needed at least a morning of chill time. But more about that in the Day 15 post: Les Arcs 1800.
Terri Hanson Mead is the multi-award winning author of Piloting Your Life, Managing Partner of Solutions2Projects, LLC, and an advocate for women through all of her platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and this blog. Terri is the mother of two college aged kids, is based in Redwood City, CA and in her spare time, loves to travel, cook, play tennis, and fly helicopters around the San Francisco Bay Area, especially under the Golden Gate Bridge.
