Nightlife Previews and reviews in Val d'Isere

It’s been one hell of a musical week! With the après music sessions taking place every day, it’s surprising our lives haven’t become a singing only musical!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012, the year that will apparently, according to the Mayan calendar and certain Hollywood films, see the end of the world. One thing for sure is that for most of us the holidays are over and although that may seem like the end of the world, life goes on.

This week brings the return of the much-anticipated X Games to our neighbours in Tignes and, with Olympic winner Shaun White making an appearance this year, there’s an exciting buzz around.

Just like Bob Marley sang, here in Val d’Isere the sun is shining and weather is sweet. Unlike Bob though, this doesn’t make you want to get on your dancing feet but rather grab a chair in the sun and kick back and relax.

It’s been a lovely week weather-wise with clear blue skies everyday and although it’s a bit cold, if you wrap up warm you don’t feel it. The pistes are great and it’s clouded over today in preparation for the snow that’s forecast for these next few days. Life is good here in Val d’Isere.

For a week early in the season, it hasn’t been looking like it. Heavy snow falls aside, Val has been looking suspiciously like Santa’s workshop courtesy of the Criterium de la Premiere Neige preparations. The media trucks have been moving around town, from the bottom of the Bellevard’s Face over to the OK in la Daille. As we speak, pisteurs and members of the Club des Sports operations team are setting up gates, scraping snow, and placing their blow up sponsorship emblems just so.

This week was Valentine’s Day and just happened to be my day off too. I made the most of it by going out for dinner with my partner. By the time we were both ready to go it was getting quite late, as in 10pm late! So we decided to head down to the Taverne d’Alsace, located beneath the Billabong Café and Hotel Kandahar, on the opposite side of the roundabout from the bus station.

When it comes to partying Val d’Isere is one of the jewels of the French Alps. With Apres ski table dancing in ski boots and nightclubs aplenty, finding the best clubs can sometimes be a bit of a struggle.

It’s been lovely weather so far this week. It’s warmed up a lot and even though the slopes are busy with the half term holidays, there’s still plenty of snow and the pistes are great.

The first week of the season can only mean one thing for Après-Ski and nightlife around Val d’Isère - life is good when you’re here early! This week we saw the opening nights of some of our favorite places to eat, drink, and party and with everyone celebrating opening weekend and the confirmation of the Criterium, Val d’Isere was rocking....

Everybody loves supporting a good cause and everybody loves it even more when it involvesenjoying the sunshine. Last Thursday we had just that opportunity as the annual Step Up for Africa event returned to Val d’Isere for the fourth time in a row.

It’s been a busy week for me this week. I’ve had friends visiting and what with going on the hill, going out and working, I’m barely keeping my eyes open. Luckily, on my day off I got a lie in before heading up the hill and then in the evening we headed out for a meal.

Last Tuesday was my day off and I have to admit I didn’t make it up the mountain due to a terrible hangover, no sympathy please, it was all my own doing!

Maybe we needed a week for our New Year’s resolutions to kick in or maybe it was the fantastic -24 degree weather we’ve been having this week, but either way, we’ve been behaving. Or at the very least, we’ve been working on it, reminding ourselves that our little Euros could be spent on something other than apres-ski! Needless to say, we could be trying harder to stay in control…