Behold... Is That A Shower In Your Salle De Bains Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me? (Quartier des Bergers apartments)

Member Name: Wease

Product:	Quartier des Bergers apartments
Date:	04/04/02 (2789 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slope-side situation, swimming pool, sauna, gym, bar, pool table, log fire, tv facilities, breakfast, size of ski locker, non-boggy receptionists, SHOWER!!!!!

Disadvantages: Paper-thin walls, walk to centre de ville, lack of lockers by swimming pool/sauna, pool table prices, circular staircase going down to ski locker, sheet rental (what is it with Pierre Et Vacances and their concerns about sheet theft...

Oh, yes indeed it is! You see, hopefully you’ll know that a shower is a must for me anywhere I stay or go (maybe Sainsbury’s is the one exception... but I’ll make a point to mention it in their next customer satisfaction survey) and that was what was missing at L’Ours Blanc apartments over the other side of Alpe d’Huez town. Breaking the Scott family tradition this year we shipped over to Quartier Des Bergers apartments just for a bit of a laugh really, but were more than pleasantly surprised!

Quartier Des Bergers is the second (newest and slightly smaller) Pierre Et Vacances owned apartment block in Alpe d’Huez. It’s ideally situated in the Les Bergers end of the resort within easy reach of the slopes and some shops (ideal for those with young children or just those of us who aren’t too keen on a Edmund Hillary style trek to the slopes at the start and end of each day. The ski holiday brochures advertise it as “Ski In/Ski Out” which in reality means “Cross the road, clamber up a small slope and your 20 metres from “Les Marmottes” bubble lift and about 100m from the ski school meeting point”. Well I’m not fussy so I was more than satisfied with that!

As well as having the slope-side advantage over L’Ours Blanc the apartments in general are also much nicer. The reception area in the main part of the building boasts a real log fire, large seating area, bar serving food, and a pool table (2 euros a game = nearly £1.20... but shamefully that’s the price everywhere in the resort). You can also book breakfast at the bar if you don’t have the energy to cook for yourself in the mornings. The advantages I REALLY love though (apart from having showers in the bathroom) is the fact that Quartier Des Bergers has a small gym, swimming pool and two saunas!!! And yes, they’re available to all guests absolutely free!

The gym, pool and saunas a
re all situated in the basement, except that the apartments are built into a slight slope so that at the front they’re below ground but at the back there are some wonderful sliding doors which take you outside. The gym is small but has a rower, running machine, cycling machine, ski machine (how appropriate) and a couple of weight benches. The swimming pool is actually outdoors – but heated – and isn’t too big, probably 10m x 15m (if that), I was planning maybe to do a few miles in it (missed a whole week of triathlon training at college you see), but often there were small kids about so proper swimming was nigh on impossible, however, it was nice just to have a soak. I liked the fact that you didn’t have to scurry round outdoors, through the snow and launch yourself in (as I once did many years ago on a school ski holiday... only to find the swimming pool wasn’t heated!). Instead there is a corridor which leads from the changing rooms and gradually slopes down until it meets the edge of the swimming pool, then there are some flaps (sort of like the ones on the shoots at luggage reclaim at the airport which prevent you from peering through and catching a glimpse of the luggage handlers sat on the suitcases ‘avin a faaaag), you walk through the flaps and hey presto your stood in the swimming pool! The sauna had to be my favourite feature though – perfect for relaxing in when after a hard day on the slopes. There are 2 saunas each with room for about 10 people in, but my brother and I seemed to be the only users when we stayed there. The only annoying thing is that there are no lockers and from our apartment we had to walk downstairs, go out of the side door, run round to and the through reception and down the stairs (we don’t take lifts because we aren’t lazy!) and into the changing room (unisex), it’s not something you want to do in a swimsuit whilst clutching a towel round you is it? So when we got th
ere we just had to leave our clothes and shoes on the side and hope that no one would nick them.

Onto the rooms themselves. There are 136 apartments overall and all are available to rent (whereas some at L’Ours Blanc are (or were in our case) privately owned). There are 2 different rooms available: 4 person or 6 person.

The rooms for 4 people consist of a lounge/dining area with kitchenette. The settee fold out into a single bed and another bed slides out from underneath. The kitchenette includes a sink, fridge, 4 hotplates, crockery, cutlery (which we found hidden in a small bedside cabinet), dishwasher and a microwave/cooker thingy mahjig. I was very impressed with the little extras in the kitchen such as a bottle opener and salad spinner! There is also a large table for food preparation/dining/illegal card games etc. Also in the apartment is a small cabin room. Ours had bunkbeds, but some have a double bed. You can ask for your preference when booking in at reception. There is a separate toilet and bathroom. The bathroom has a bath with shower (yey), two basins and a hair dryer.

The rooms for 6 are much the same but with an additional bedroom (sadly not the two storey fun of L’Ours Blanc).

Each room has it’s own balcony, looking onto the resort at the front and at the back over to Auris En Oisans (and the Alpauris chairlift which means you can have v. good fun wolf-whistling at people on it and then hiding behind the wall of the balcony while they try and find their alleged admirer MWHAHAHAHAHAHA).

The rooms were very clean and there was a strong cleaning presence throughout the week (often bumped into the cleaner woman in the corridor), however, this did leave the lift smelling rather strongly of lemon clean stuff.

One strong annoyance with the rooms was the paper-thin walls! Although the walls between rooms were very thick (never heard a peep out of our neighbours and they had two balling b
abies!) the interior walls left a lot to be desired – take note any randy couples*. (Apologies to those of you who emailed complaining... the *marked comment was in no way issued with the intention of
excluding group sex and mutual masturbation.)

Back to the rooms... Holiday brochures claim that each room has it’s own TV, the actual case, however, is that should you so wish you can rent a TV with your room. This will enable you to watch satellite channels such as MTV and movie channels. I think the fee is around £5 per day.

As in L’Ours Blanc you have to put a deposit down for your bloomin’ sheets (although there is a launderette available in the basement so you could bring your own and wash them?). The deposit is 160 Euros, which is approx. £100.

Apartments can be reached by two different entrances (three if you go into reception, nip down to the ski locker and then nip out of the ski locker through the other door and up into the next apartment building... four if you clamber up the walls like Spiderman (ski boots could make it a tad awkward) and swing across the balconies to your door... but let’s not get silly here children) the main being through reception and the second being through a side door which takes people staying at the left building directly to the lift and stairs (saves a long walk through mazing corridors).

There is a ski locker in the basement, however it is situated at the bottom of a rather treacherous circular stone staircase – not too much fun in ski boots. The locker had ample room for skis and shelves for boots and poles which was nice.

As for prices (both types of room have similar pricing) they start off as low as £255 (slightly more expensive than L'Ours Blanc) and that's right at the end of the season and the first full week of January (notoriously cheaper as most people are back at work), they hover around £325 for most of the season and hit hi
ghs of £549/£579 at February half term. Not bad when you consider everything on offer!

One problem with staying in Les Bergers is the 800metre walk to the main town (slightly less to the sport centre and slightly more to Old Town). Ok, this trek only needs to be made maybe a few times a week (such as when you want to sample the tartiflette/steak entricote/pizza/raclette/fondue/spaghetti bolognese (that’s all you’ll find on offer in any restaurant) somewhere new, but it’s still quite annoying.

Les Bergers itself does have a small covered shopping arcade which boasts a lot of the resort chain sport shops (Nevada Sports, Intersport, Henri Sport, Skiset) as well as some nice gift shops and a lovely cafe selling the nicest Tarte Poire you ever will taste! There are several other cafes and bars at the bottom of the slopes (Rifnel, Poussins, Marmottes, Canyon). Please avoid Le Jazz (tres cheezy), however, I can strongly recommend the Lowenbrau. Lovely bar and restaurant and three things you simple must try: Choccochino – hot chocolate with whipped cream (yum yum), Chocolat Verte – hot chocolate served with a shot of chartreuse verte (not that nice, in fact you need the hot chocolate to get rid of the yucky taste, but it’s a local delicacy so show some cultural appreciation and drink a few!) and finally Pyjamas – strawberry, chocolate and vanilla ice cream, cream and creme brulee (a must have due to the novelty name, however, it is quite yummy too!). Also one must chuckle at their desert menu e.g. Le Mysterie (which then goes on to give a full description of the pudding!!).

Dead opposite Quartier des Bergers is the Tiger Cafe. A favourite with British visitors, it boasts a beer night on Thursday and Sunday and allows you to buy a 2.5 litre glass (yes I know!!!!) of beer for as little as 8 Euros! There’s also a small games arcade with 8 pool tables there. Next door to this is Le Farmer – lovely
food but rather expensive.

Cheers go to: - Slope-side situation, swimming pool, sauna, gym, bar, pool table, log fire, tv facilities, breakfast, size of ski locker, non-boggy receptionists, SHOWER!!!!!

Jeers go to: - Paper-thin walls, walk to centre de ville, lack of lockers by swimming pool/sauna, pool table prices, circular staircase going down to ski locker, sheet rental (what is it with Pierre Et Vacances and their concerns about sheet theft... yeh well I grew out of that y’know tsk!)

www.pierreetvacances.com

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