SEPTEMBER NEWS

SKI SEASON
HOTELLERIE de CHARME
FRANCEALACARTE BLOG
RUGBY

SKI SEASON: booking is now well underway for the 2006/7 season. To make things easier we have created a new website dedicated entirely to our ski packages - www.alacarteski.com

We have also done a deal with a top ski equipment provider to give our customers a 20% discount on ski and boot hire - bookable on-line directly from our site! (operational from end-September)

New resorts this year include the italian snowboard centre Bardonecchia and the top alpine resorts Les Deux Alpes and Les Menuires in the 3 Valleys region.

To encourage early booking we are offering 50 euro off bookings for Les Menuires if made before 15th September 2006.

Meanwhile back in the Pyrenees, our back yard, we have developed a stunning SKI N SPA package based on the venerable spa town of Bagnères-de-Bigorre and the largest ski domain of the Pyrenees, La Mongie. These breaks combine excellent skiing on the Tourmalet Pass with relaxation in the thermal waters of Aquensis, the turn-of-the-century spa in Bagnères. Accommodation is in a top 3* hotel equipped with its own sauna and jacuzzi room (unlimited free access) and gourmet restaurant. Shuttle up to the slopes.

HOTELLERIE de CHARME: difficult to translate this expression into english without pulling out the purple prose but the concept is simply a welcoming, comfortable hotel, usually in its own grounds, which offers gourmet food, spa or fitness facilities and some sight or sights of outstanding interest in the vicinity. We have a few of these hotels who work with us and we can create short packages to suit individual tastes.

Here's a few: 3* hotel on the Basque coast near Biarritz which is right on a fine seaside golf course
- Our Quercy hideaway where the chef offers cooking classes and is the base for an epic truffle break from December through to March
- An Abbey-hotel not far from Carcassonne which can be used a base for visiting both Carcassonne and Albi.
- Spa break in Bagnères-de-Bigorre where the chef of our ultra-modern, Starck-designed hotel takes a delight in using regional ingredients in his stunning dishes.

FRANCEALACARTE BLOG: we've started a blog - accessible from the home page of the site - to keep everyone up to date with news and ideas. Sometimes these newsletters will appear, sometimes its just things or places which we've come across (like the churches in the Luchonnais last week)

RUGBY: In the upcoming Heineken Cup campaign Toulouse have drawn Ulster in the opening rounds. So contact us if you fancy a few days in the sunny south + match tickets + hotel accommodation for the weekend 19/20/21 January 2007. Enquire

That's it! Coming soon: non-ski winter activities & Christmas and New Year Gourmet packages

à bientôt

Simon
Sylvie