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La Plagne Food & Drink
| Dining & Going Out in La Plagne |
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La Plagne's nightlife is almost as exhausting as its mountain pursuits! With a range of restaurants, bars and cafes to keep you well fed and watered there is also a plentiful array of opportunties for a bit of après or late-night venues for a spot of clubbing. The countless terraces ensure that you can always find a sunny spot to relax in... |
| Alpine Food & Drink |
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Although not as renowned as the haute cuisine of Paris or the fine bistros of Lyon the Alps do have a number of tasty treats in store for those who like to sample some regional specialities. Meat and cheese feature heavily in Alpine cooking – so it’s just as well there are plenty of mountains where you can work off the extra pounds! ... see "Dining in the Alps" for more |
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last updated 27-Jun-2008 |
| Apres Ski in La Plagne |
Monica’s Bar is a popular choice in Plagne Soleil. Open from 4pm until 2 in the morning, and with happy hour from 5pm til 6pm, there is plenty of time to enjoy the large choice of beers on offer. There is often live music on and around après ski time with a DJ taking over on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and the pub also often shows live sporting events. Gets pretty busy for après.
Le Luna Bar, Place de la Cheminée and up the stairs in Plagne Centre. Something different is always happening in the Luna, there are four rooms in the bar and they all have different themes. This bar is great for après or late night drinks but especially for après as the happy hour starts at 5pm and does not finish until 8pm – plenty of time to take advantage of the cheap drinks! There is an extensive menu with loads of shooters and some good whiskeys.
Spitting Feathers, opposite the ESF office in Plagne Bellcôte. English style décor with themed nights such as curry dinners and Coronation Street TV nights, not everyone’s cup of tea but they are popular with local seasonnaires who miss their home comforts. English owned and staffed. Free mini bus that will pick you up and take you home to and from any one of the high altitude resorts of La Plagne. There is a happy hour and almost all British sports fixtures will be shown.
The Last One Pub in Les Coches is a lively choice for après ski drinks. There are often live bands and music from 5pm until 7pm and the place has a great atmosphere. Expect to pay around €2.70 for half a lager. You can even do a spot of shopping in the attached shop, Freeride Spirit, that sells the latest snowboarding and ski fashions. There is also always a giant screen showing ski/snowboard DVDs or sports matches.
The Dutch Bar or PlanJA.nl as it is otherwise known is a lively après ski bar in Plagne Centre that’s usually full to the brim of crazy Dutch people as the name would suggest. Drinks are averagely priced and the atmosphere is always different.
La Tête Inn in Belle Plagne boasts live music every day from 5pm until 7pm (often going on later into the night) during the winter season. It is a great building dating back to 1830 and inside the décor has been kept very traditionally Alpine which is nice as there are a lot of new, more modern bars popping up in La Plagne. There is a happy hour and the bar is open from 4pm – 2am.
Camp de Base Café is situated at the bottom of the Montchavin bubble in the village of Montchavin itself. This is a very small bar which is popular with the locals. Snacks are served all day as is the green Mont-Blanc beer which is made from the Génépi flower that grows high in the mountains – beware its pretty strong!
La Tourmente in Montalbert is a lovely quaint après ski bar to visit. There is a sunny terrasse where you can enjoy your après drinks or an aperitif. There is also a snooker table and TV for enjoying the sports.
La Terrasse - located in the Aime 2000 shopping mall. If you are not a huge fan of loud music and want sip your drink somewhere a little quieter, try La Terrasse for après ski. It is popular with the locals and is where you will find the Aime ESF instructors after a hard days work. There is a TV that plays (more French than English) football and you can count on the ambience when football matches are being shown.
Click here for La Plagne Bars, Cafes & Clubs
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last updated 27-Jun-2008 |
| Bars & Clubs in La Plagne |
La Mine in Plagne 1800 is a very lively pub that is open until 3am. On the site of the old lead mine, the bar’s decor includes bits and bobs from the old mine such as wagons, rails and tools. This bar is owned by the same family that owns the popular après ski bar La Tête Inn in Belle Plagne and there is the same friendly feel in both establishments. There is often live music and also and extensive shooters menu, hence the reason why this place is often full of holiday makers.
Le Saloon is a lively après ski/discotheque with a very tempting happy hour that runs from 4pm until 9pm and the drinks are buy one, get one free – what more could you ask for a cheap night! The place is open until 4 in the morning with live music normally in the means of a DJ. Le Saloon is located in Belle Plagne but all you need to do is call for your free taxi.
Le Cozy Bar in Plagne Bellecôte is run by Sandra Laoura. She won a bronze medal at the Turin Olympics in the Freestyle Ski and Bumps category. She has grown up in La Plagne therefore this bar is popular with the locals but also attracts a younger ‘holiday’ crowd and La Plagne seasonnaires. The bar is stylishly decorated and the DJ plays good tunes well into the early hours. Like many other late night venues there is a free shuttle bus to the high altitude resorts in La Plagne.
La Timbale is the largest bar in Champagny-en-Vanoise and is located right in the centre of the village opposite the popular après ski bar Pitchoun. La Timbale has a lovely, sunny terrace so is good for après ski but it is best saved for later, especially on a Wednesday when there is always a live band playing and often DJ’s and dancing until late into the night most nights.
Roxor formerly known as Shooters is a popular night club in Les Coches. It is located just on the way out of the square and is an underground club with a dart board, pool table, table football tables and televisions normally showing skiing or snowboarding DVDs. The music is varied and at times very unpredictable but there are DJ nights and there is a good sized dance floor. It can be fun or the place can be dead but if there is a big group of you go there, it is the perfect place to drink the homemade vodka shots! Open til 3am.
Click here for La Plagne Bars, Cafes & Clubs
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last updated 27-Jun-2008 |
| Restaurants in La Plagne |
Much like its architecture La Plagne is quite old fashioned when it comes to variety of restaurants and food on offer. Traditional Savoyard food can be found in abundance and most of it is of good quality however the resort is pretty limited when it comes to international cuisine and 5* dining.
Typical Savoryard restaurants serve well known speciality dishes such as Fondue, Raclette, Tartiflette. Below is an outline of what you can expect if you order these tasty, calorific choices from a menu:
Fondue is a favourite in most Alpine ski resorts. It is traditionally a Swiss dish but the term comes from the French word fondre which means to melt (in the past tense is fondu or melted). Melted cheese (Emmental, Comté and Beaufort often mixed together) is served at the table in a large pot on a burner with either chunks of stale bread or meat that are dipped into the cheese and eaten with a long fork. There is also often a dessert option, where the cheese is substituted with chocolate and fruit is dipped.
Raclette is an alternative tastier cheese dish served with a selection of cold meats, potatoes, green salad and baby gherkins. The Raclette cheese originates from Switzerland but is now made in the Savoie region of France. When it is brought to the table it will likely be a large triangular piece cut from a round that is secured to a heat lamp that will gently melt the cheese. You will scrape the cheese directly onto the plate and eat with the bits and bobs (usually charcuterie meats and potatoes) that come with it. Make sure you are hungry, there is often too much to finish! If you are staying in self-catered accommodation in resort, visit the local butcher or supermarket where Raclette machines are available to rent for the evening.
Tartiflette it must be said, is often vastly overpriced in resort restaurants considering the cost of ingredients and the fact that it is so easy to make, you may find it on the menu for up to €18 in which case go for the Raclette instead. The main ingredient is Reblouchon which is a strong smelling cheese from the Savoie, much better eaten cooked although will often be served on a cheese board in the mountains. The cheese is laid on top of layers of sliced potatoes, lardons which are bacon pieces and onion and is baked in the oven until melted over the dish. There is normally a salad to accompany it. It is a warming, tasty dish on a cold day although be careful how much you eat at lunchtime, you may not be able to ski afterwards!
Other dishes you will find plenty of include La Pierrade where you cook a selection of small pieces of meat yourself on a hot stone and Crozats often served with Diots. Crozats are tiny squares of pasta and Diots are traditional earthy tasting sausages both normally cooked in white wine and are delicious!
If stopping for a big, heavy, normally alcohol fuelled lunch is not your cup of tea then there are plenty of mountain take aways and quick snack stops in the Paradiski area serving the usual paninis, baguettes, soups and pizza slices you might expect. There is also the self service mountain restaurant where you can mix and match your meal to your requirements but this can be a pricier way of lunching. The French are very generous with there ‘Plat du Jour’ dishes, there is always loads of it and it is often good value for money – around €12-€15 euros on the mountain. Prices for snacks and sandwiches vary but you should be able to pick up a panini for example, for under €5 and soft drinks for under €2. Alcohol is normally cheaper than buying soft drinks in France and if there is more than one person drinking it is worth buying Pichets of wine and Vin Chaud that are much, much cheaper than buying by glass, normally around €12 for a litre. Prices are generally nowhere near as high as in nearby resorts such as Courchevel and Val d’Isere.
Click here for La Plagne Restaurants
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last updated 27-Jun-2008 |
| Mountain Restaurants in la Plagne |
There are many great restaurants spread across the La Plagne ski area. In Plagne Centre on the Lovatière piste there is a fun, busy, more touristy restaurant called Mère-Grand that serves snack food and regional specialities at lunch time and in the evening. It is an easy ski to the restaurant but you can just as easily get there on foot too. The menus are well priced, at lunch time you can expect to pay €14.50 for a dish of the day with salad and local cheese or pastries and €10 for the children’s menu.
One of the highest restaurants in the Paradiski area is Le Chalet de la Grande Rochette which is located at the top of the Funiplagne Grande Rochette that runs out of Plagne Centre. As you can imagine, at 2505m the views past Champagny and over the Glaciers de la Vanoise and Courchevel are spectacular. The restaurant offers two types of dining with a snack service that you can eat on the terrace or take away or a traditional ‘sit down’ meal including Savoyard specialities, a mixed grill and Italian dishes too. The beauty of this restaurant is that if you have too much wine you can jump straight back into the Grande Rochette lift and be back down in Plagne Centre without having to negotiate the slopes!
The Colosses restaurant is a small establishment, situated just above Plagne Bellecôte, underneath and next to the chair and drag lift of the same name, and at the bottom of the international mogul run. The restaurant has a small terrace overlooking the Bellecôte bowl and up the valley you can also see Belle Plagne. The food is excellent, the burgers being our personal favourite and it is most importantly very reasonably priced. Get there earlier rather than later to be guaranteed a table on the terrace.
A local favourite has got to be Le Sauget situated at the bottom of the Pierre Blanches lift above Les Coches. Patricia and Gerrard welcome you with two roaring open fires and a big, traditional Savoyard menu plus the Plat du Jour which is always a tasty bet. Le Sauget is also an Auberge with six cosy, traditional rooms. It has a great atmosphere and is very popular with the French and English who keep coming back year after year for the fine atmosphere and fine food (and lots of home made Eau de Vive).
Le Plein Soleil, also in the Montchavin/Les Coches area is another good restaurant but for different reasons. The restaurant serves a small amount of traditional food but also some very random yet tasty dishes from Austria and the Alsace area of France, for example a wide range of sweet and savoury strudels. You must also have one of the famous big mugs of vin chaud or hot chocolate. This restaurant has a great terrace literally on the piste, just around the corner from the learner area at the top of the Plan Bois lift. It is also just off the cross-country track.
Over in the Champagny area, situated between the top of the Borseliers chair and the bottom of the Rossa lift, is a great restaurant and snack bar on the piste with the most amazing seating area in the Alps, called Le Roc des Blanchets. At 2100m, the restaurant has a fabulous big terrace or if you would prefer to relax in deck chairs and eat a shorter, cheaper meal you can choose the snack bar just around the corner.
Click here for La Plagne Mountain Restaurants
Click here for Mountain Restaurants on the Les Arcs side
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last updated 27-Jun-2008 |
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