France Tales » skiing in the Pyrenees http://francetales.com Connecting expats, wit, and advice direct from Toulouse, France, we play well with others. Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:33:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 2006-2007 okpeery@gmail.com (France Tales) okpeery@gmail.com (France Tales) http://francetales.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg France Tales http://francetales.com 144 144 an expat and an ex-expat share their French adventures France Tales France Tales okpeery@gmail.com no no Go skiing in the Pyrenees at Pas de la Casa http://francetales.com/2009/02/17/go-skiing-in-the-pyrenees-at-pas-de-la-casa/ http://francetales.com/2009/02/17/go-skiing-in-the-pyrenees-at-pas-de-la-casa/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:32:06 +0000 Owen http://francetales.com/2009/02/17/go-skiing-in-the-pyrenees-at-pas-de-la-casa/ Tweet This

Recently I have started to ski again. There are many places to ski that are not that far from Toulouse. I have been twice to Pas de la Casa in Andorra to go to the Granvalira Ski Resort.

El Pas de la Casa is a ski resort (part of the Grandvalira resort) and mountain pass in Andorra next to the border with France. It is located at an elevation of 2408 m, one of the highest points on the European road network.

The ski resort of Pas de la Casa sits below the pass on the side closest to France. Its first ski lift was opened in 1957 and currently it counts 31 lifts, 100 km of pistes and 6.26 km² of skiable terrain. The highest point is 2640 m. It is the highest resort in Andorra, boasts the best snow record, and is the easiest to get to from Barcelona or Toulouse airports.

It attracts a large number of British and Irish winter sports fans, as well as French and Spanish. It is also favored for its southern latitude and duty-free status, READ- go shopping!

The nightlife is particularly youth-oriented, and a prevalence of red pistes perhaps makes the skiing more suited to intermediates than beginners or the most advanced.

We stayed at the Hotel Christiana which offered a demi pension special rate of 65€ per person. That is a little higher than some of the resorts closer to Toulouse, but since it included dinner and breakfast it was not much more expensive. The best part is you are less than block from the entrance to the resort.

I highly recommend visiting Habana Pub if you want to go out at night. Beware though, things don’t get started until well after midnight. It is more like Spain than France. The first time we went we stayed until 3AM, there was a huge storm and it was not sure we could ski the next day so we stayed late. This time we left around 12:30 and it hadn’t gotten started yet, there were people, but they were just arriving. They play a mix of Reggaeton, Latin House, and American club music. Very interesting place. For more ideas on what to do in Pas de la Casa, if you aren’t skiing in the Pyrenees click here.

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