The French Journal

On the slopes of La Plagne

There've been surprisingly few articles about skiing in France this year, so -- with the end of January a few days away and spring getting closer -- let's indulge in one from The Guardian (U.K.) about journalist Gwyn Topham's return visit to La Plagne in the French Alps. While I'm not sportif myself, for those who like activity La Plagne has the virtue of being a good place in France to learn how to ski. Its vice, however, is that the town itself is "tragically unpicturesque," although -- once you've picked up enough skill to venture away from the baby runs -- the Alps which surround the vicinity themselves can be stunning.

If you like narrative, the article is a follow-up to a series from 2003 in which Topham detailed his efforts to master the slopes. The recent "return" article is brief, but the earlier sequence will allow you to extend your time in imaginary France.

The Times (London) goes to France (with kids, pétanque, skiing, and sun)

The Times (London) went fou for France this week in its Travel section. I'm tempted to dole out their stories one-by-one -- content is valuable -- and, indeed, I've already served up Porquerolles and andouillettes from their offerings. But to avoid seeming like I'm just an RSS feed, I'll offer a quick recap of the remaining items for you to explore as you wish.

• Kids with a glass of wine. For family vacation types, The Times visits Château Rigaud in St. Emilion, a child-friendly boutique hotel where kids are tended while the adults lounge around and eat late dinners.
• Kids with bullet holes. Another family rents a spa/villa in Corsica, where they are spoiled with pain au chocolat and massages, and titillate themselves by checking out bullet holes made during regional vendettas.
• France versus Switzerland, ski edition. Two sporting types point and counter-point on the merits of Val d'Isère and Verbier in Switzerland, which I hear is a nice country but which isn't France.
• Back to the Golden Isles. Duplicating its efforts, The Times had a second story about the Golden Isles off St. Tropez, which offers more on Porquerolles and adds a leg to the trip with a visit to Port Cros, "... covered almost entirely in pine and holm oak trees...highly regulated. You can’t even smoke there. There are no forms of transport, not even a bicycle."
• Pétanque at the source, or, How I Learned about Boules in Provence and Met Renoir's Descendant.
• A tour round-up. Need suggestions for a thematically organized vacation? Here's a list: new hotels, surfing jaunts, more options for kids, wine tours, cooking classes, etc.

Two different views of skiing in France: Being a drone, and buried alive

Instead of travel articles about winter holidays in French ski country, here are narratives:

• A story in The Telegraph (U.K.) reminds us that vacation spots depend on cheap labor. A reporter goes underground as a "chalet girl" in the Val d'Isère, where she and a small team do household duties (including meals) in exchange of room, board, and unlimited skiing. It's a jolly crew who spend lots of time on their feet. A couple of revelations: more than half of the chalet girls are guys, and -- a lesson that I picked up three decades ago -- only novices and idiots drink Long Island Ice Tea.
• A more dramatic tale comes from The Toronto Globe and Mail, when circumstances lead a family of skiers to a more treacherous route than planned in La Vallée Blanche, and the mother falls into a crevasse and is covered by a slab of snow. All ends well -- I'm giving nothing away since the writer is also the person who fell -- but this is not a story for the claustrophobic.

Cross-country ski touring in France

Autumn is late this year in New England, but in Europe and elsewhere, the longing for time on the ski slopes has begun. I couldn't bring myself to post an article about skiing in October -- knowing that there will be several opportunities to do so in the next few months -- but today I will surrender and point you toward two pieces about week-long (or thereabouts) cross-country skiing tours in France. Apparently, as one does these things, you travel under the guidance of a professional, crashing at the end of the day at a "hut" along the trail. It appears the luxury of the layovers may vary.

First up, from the Toronto Globe and Mail, a gentleman skis from Zermatt, Switzerland, to Chamonix, France. The effects of global warming haunt the trip; places where one might have skied in the past are now mucky. Layovers include lots of carb-loading and the deep sleep caused by a pleasant exhaustion. And, eventually, some great skiing (and even a canceled run due to the threat of an avalanche).

Second, The Telegraph (U.K.) does a ski tour of the Vallée de la Clarée. This time, there are rigorous climbs and rapturous descents; moving from hut to hut is a wonderful way to concentrate on skiing and to get away from the crowds in the resort villages below. "Ski touring, I found, is 95 per cent hiking, followed by a few glorious minutes of off-piste skiing, so I'm sure I will find my way back to the lifts and the cable cars, sooner or later...As for the ski touring - I am hooked. The scenery, the solitude, the camaraderie, the exercise, the sense of achievement - I adored it. If you suspect that you too may be more in love with the mountains than with the ski industry, give it a try, at least once."

France 20, New Zealand 18

Lord knows, I'm not into sports, but yesterday's come from behind victory by the French Bleus over the highly favored New Zealand All-Blacks in the World Rugby Cup semifinals is the kind of event that would hook me into watching the finals. The All-Blacks are a fearsome organization with a history of winning, and thirty minutes into the game France trailed them, 13-0. I'll spare you feeble attempts at sports writing and will not try to recount the action of a game I didn't see. Instead, type "France" into any search engine and go to the news tab: this'll be the first item today, I'll guarantee you. Or click here to go to The Times (London) for a recap. Hooray for my (spiritual) home team!

The World Rugby Cup takes over France

I'm someone who is mindful of sports only when the Boston Red Sox are winning; even then, my interest is moderate. Thus the World Rugby Cup which will dominate life in France for the next six weeks is less than a minor note in my personal symphony. In France, however, blasts of noise about the games are already roaring. For those who want to learn more about the World Rugby Cup and be more in the mainstream than me, I provide:

• A link to an article by Anthony Peregrine, The Guardian (U.K.)'s staff Francophile, which tells how each of the ten host cities intends to mark the events,
• The Wikipedia entry on Rugby, which helps to understand the sport if you're like me and you don't know your "scrums" from your "rucks,"
• The World Rugby Cup Official Site, which has beaucoup d'info, including travel information that may assist buffs and non-buffs alike, and
• A post by my sworn enemy, Charles Bremner of The Times (U.K.), which examines the philosophical and political meanings that France is loading on the championship. Bremner, by the way, continues to ignore me.

As they say...er, what do they say in rugby? "Play ball?" "Game up?" How about "Vive les ballons!"

Tour de France time!

Sports ain't my style, but Francophiles need to know that the Tour de France starts this weekend. For more information, you can try the official Tour site, or maybe the UK Yahoo! site for an interpretation. I'd punt to Sports Illustrated in the U.S., but it's a gaudy place that seems more interested in bathing suits and the women who wear them; the cycling stories are from the wire.

Also, darn it, another book. In From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, you'll get investigative reporter David Walsh's review of the scandals that have tarnished the race over the last couple of years. Although the book is getting a big push, Lance Armstrong has fought its charges that he used performance enhancing drugs, saying that Walsh has sung this tune before only to see Armstrong vindicated.

The Usual Suspects #2: On the biking trails

During our next trip over familiar ground, we're heading out on two wheels, for biking of the rigorous kind.

• For those who want to train like the experts, you can build your stamina on the mountainside trails of Chamonix. This particular article from The Guardian is about a "new cycling all-female boot-camp," where the agony the women feel is muscular and not due to sexual rivalries on the road.
• This next piece is sort of "French" and sort of "not French." Another cycling fanatic, also from The Guardian, decides to travel the first leg of this year's Tour de France, which is actually in the U.K. A quote:

"But then if you do it seriously enough, cycling is a sport that's actually bad for you. The lungs of professional riders can grow so big that they bulge out below the ribs like a beer belly; and with huge quadriceps out of proportion to the hamstrings, back pain is common. Unpleasant enough, but that's just the start. 'There are only two kinds of male cyclist,' ran a newspaper piece last year, 'those who are impotent, and those who will become impotent.' In fact, the life expectancy of a pro cyclist is reportedly 15 years below the norm."

If you have thoughts of working for The Guardian, take note: its writers seem to like pain.

Truc: Tour de France

The big ole bike race for the Yellow Jersey doesn't happen for awhile, and after all the drug allegations one wonders if it'll ever be the same. But if the test results don't matter to you and you want a primer on the Tour de France, (registration req'd), try to get to this overview in Play: The New York Times Sports Magazine, which lists the contenders, the long shots, the also-rans, the Lance-wannabees, the crowd break-down*, the don't miss spots, and les scandales!

* On the French: "They’ve been watching the Tour roll by for over a century and will have bagged the prime viewing spots before the dew dries. They are also the best prepared, with tables, chairs, beach umbrellas, radios, food, wine and cultural superiority."

Biking in Lyon (and someday Paris)

A few months ago, I alluded to a new scheme coming to Paris this summer whereby 20,000 bikes will be stationed around the city for rental. The program is based on one in use in Lyon, and The Guardian sent a reporter there to test it out. Called "Vélo'v" in Lyon, it sounds pretty cool. By using a credit card, you put down a deposit for a rental and pick up a bike. After reaching a destination, you park the bike in the nearest rack (there are 175 locations in Lyon), do whatever it is you want to do, and then get another bike for the next leg of your journey. The charges are low, and -- as the reporter says -- you can see more and probably be less tired than if you walked between sites. He also said that the adoption in Lyon has been extremely successful -- "everyone was at it, from grannies to men in suits." Since I feel like a little bit granny and a little bit man-in-suit, I might even give it a try. The Paris version -- Vélib' -- starts in mid-July.