Bourg Saint Maurice - Hiking in Les Arcs

I love skiing, but in the absence of snow, Les Arcs is totally set up for hiking (and biking). This includes the use of the ski lifts and gondolas to remove some of the “up” (also for the bikes…downhill only, yes please!), but still affords far-reaching views and stunning mountain scenery. Added bonus, the parking in the summer is free.

There are 4 areas of Les Arcs; 1600, 1800, 1950 and 2000 (referring to their height in meters). They are all between a 25 and 35-minute drive from Bourg Saint Maurice (straight up a good zigzag road). The areas all definitely feel like ski villages; a small street with restaurants, equipment rental shops and a few bars. Basically it’s set up for the masses during ski season, but also great for hiking and biking in the summer. Perhaps not somewhere I would chose to stay for the said “masses” reason. I like a bit of tranquility and fab food. Anyway, onto the walking (which was great).

Les Arcs 1600

We decided to hike up to the mountain we could see from our balcony in Bourg Saint Maurice, Les signal des Têtes. Our starting point was Les Arcs 1600, our end point was 2385 meters, so we had 785 meters of ascent to look forward to. At the start of our walk, the lovely yellow walking signs indicated a walking time of 2 hours. However, on walking for an hour, we came to a sign for the same destination that said….2 hours. Infuriating signs. We persevered.

We wondered through pine forests on what are, in the winter, cross-country ski trails. Then onto open mountain-side and rocky outcrops to the first highlight, Les Deux Têtes (literally translates as The Two Heads – I can see why). The views were amazing, even with the crazy guy walking a wire between the two mountain heads. From there it was a short trip to the top with amazing views of the Alps all around, and even a viewing platform with seating and mountain maps to identify the mountain tops around….The highest, Mont Blanc, was unfortunately in the clouds.

Imagine our surprise when we stopped for lunch and this little chap popped out of a hole a mere 3 feet away. The Alpine Marmot, apparently considered a ground squirrel, but much bigger than the squirrels we’re used to seeing at home. This one was the size of a large cat (I’m not exaggerating).

785 meters up normally means 785 meters down. But this is where being in a ski resort comes into its own. Ski lift? Yes please.

Hike to see Chapelle Notre Dame des Vernattes

This walk was all about reaching the small church perfectly placed in the middle of the mountains. We started in Les Arcs 1800 and although the signs were initially pointing us in all sorts of directions we eventually found our way. The path took us through forest and across mountain-sides, passing alpine cows, high-speed mountain bikers (that downhill only thing) and many a group outing. We noted all the mountain bikers were wearing full body protection as well as full face helmets…perhaps not for us after all (although the bike rental shops were providing all of said “protection” equipment).

The turn-around point of our walk was the small chapelle Notre Dame, stunningly situated amid mountains and amazingly ornate inside considering we were in the middle of nowhere.

Les arcs 1800 - why walk when you can ride?

A day pass to use the ski lifts and gondolas is 20 Euros each. Quite steep in my opinion, but we had decided to go up to 2570 meters to start our walk (also quite steep, pun intended). First stop the Transarc gondola from 1800 all the way up to the 2570 meter mark. That’s 770 meters my little legs didn’t have to do and with great views all the way!

The first thing we saw when we got out of the gondola? A heard of mountain cows all wearing cow bells. The sound was amazing and very reminiscent of an episode of “Heidi”. And these cows are some of the prettiest I’ve ever seen.From the top of the Transarc, our walk undulated between mountains, taking in 6 mountain lakes on pretty easy paths. We found an old mountain lodge en-route that provided a lovely sheltered bench to enjoy our boulangerie filled baguettes and chocolate brownies. French bread heaven once more. The terrain was grass, stone and chalk mountain paths, taking us down to Les Arcs 2000. We considered walking from here back up to the top of the Transarc, but the route looked like rather a dull zig-zag path. What to do? We decided that in order to get the most out of our tickets, we should instead take the ski lift (another 570 meters my legs didn’t have to climb) and from there we took the Transarc back down to the start.All the views without the insane climb. Nice.