English skiers and snowboarders who have enjoyed the company of a Ski Club or travel company guide in France will need to go elsewhere this winter unless a French court ruling is reversed. But this is France and the canny French authorities rarely pass up an opportunity to undermine the spirit of the Entente Cordiale if it means protecting French jobs – just a shame the French government shows so little disdain for creating them in the first place.
The problem in a nutshell is that the French courts have stipulated that leaders of organised groups must be suitably qualified. What that means for Dad organising a package and taking the little ones for a day on the pistes, or for groups of friends hitting the slopes together, I don’t know, but I do know that all those weeks of training that Ski Club of Great Britain reps get is clearly not of French quality.
Which is a pity, because I often enjoy joining a rep for a day on the slopes and have discovered some useful tips from so doing. And the good news is you can still do it in Switzerland and other Alpine nations. For Switzerland, check out Swiss Winter Sports, where there are bags of insider tips.
It has been a beautiful warm Winter in the Alps for most of the season. Sadly not ideal conditions for skiers and snowboarders. With Spring approaching however, Winter is about to make a come-back.