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About the holidays:

The FarmHouse     The Food     Other Activities     Getting Here    Insurance

"The trip was nothing short of superb... There can be no better place!" - Andy McCandlish in MBR

BikeVillage holidays are a bit different. For starters, we only take small groups. Each week we talk to our guests to see what they want to ride (singletrack, singletrack or singletrack being the main options) and how much/ how fast they want to ride it. Then the trail leaders draw straws and off we go - everyone riding exactly what they want at the pace they want. Have a peek at the singletrack page for more exciting ride-rant.

We've basically found what we think is the best technical singletrack mountain biking anywhere in the world. Around this abundant resource we have spent the last decade creating a mountainbiking holiday with a uniquely friendly and informal atmosphere. Maybe that's why last year over two thirds of our guests had been out with us before or were being brought along by someone who had, in some cases returning to us for the twelth time in nine years!

With BikeVillage you come to stay at our own French farmhouse by Les Arcs, not just a rented ski chalet, so you really can make yourselves at home. You'll be enjoying home-cooked and often home-grown food. If you want to learn how to nail switchbacks, tweek your gears or even build stud partition walls (grrr!) we'll happily give you some pointers. What's certain is that by the time you go home you'll have a totally new concept of what makes a truly great mountain bike trail and, luckily, some good new riding friends to help ease you through the post-holiday UK riding blues!
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Landry and the Farmhouse

'BikeVillage Towers' is a lovely 280 year-old farmhouse in a village called Landry in the French Alps, nestled in-between the ski mountains of Les Arcs and La Plagne. Landry is a traditional Savoie village, complete with a beautiful baroque church, a couple of (in one case comedy) local bars, a friendly local restaurant and a wide selection of toothless octogenarians chasing all sorts of farm animals around the streets with walking sticks. We're still not sure why they do that. Being at the bottom of the valley is something you will come to appreciate - it's always downhill at the end of the day's mountain biking! Bourg St Maurice is just a pootle along the bikepath if you ever fancy a slightly more cosmopolitan drinking/eating environment, as is the swimming lake, a top spot to swim, eat, sunbathe and people/mountain watch after a ride.

Sitting on the edge of Landry, with our garden backing onto the singletrack-packed forests below Les Arcs, the farmhouse is a very nice place indeed. It really does have everything, from the basement with full workshop, bike storage and now a new compressor for tubeless time saving to the large open plan lounge with comfy chairs and an open fire for night-time loafing.

There are plenty of bathrooms and the bedrooms are all clean and comfortable, enabling us to cater for single travellers, groups and couples alike. Outside you'll find our lovely (and huge) back garden stretching from the patio, past the ping pong table, to the lawn and out to the shade of the fruit trees and the veggie patch. We get a stunning view of the sunset over the mountain peaks each evening so pull up a deck chair and a cold beer and enjoy...

The farmhouse is much more homely than your average chalet and when we get in from riding you'll have the run of the place. You could pour a cup of tea, eat some home baked cake and fettle bikes on the patio in the archetypal post-ride "did you see that bit where my back wheel kicked out and then this badger appeared out of nowhere..." fashion or perhaps slink off with a book and lie in the hammock, under the shade of the cherry tree enjoying a late afternoon alpen-glow kind of moment.
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The Food

One of the best things about mountainbiking is the appetite it gives you! Here at BikeVillage the emphasis is firmly on using local and home-grown ingredients to create delicious meals tasty enough to have led many guests to request a BV cook book. If Sam ever picks up a long-term injury then it might just happen... Our fruit and veg comes from the market in Bourg St Maurice and our meat comes from the local village butchers, sourced from their own farm about 1km from the BV farmhouse. It's about as 'organic' as rural France can get without knowing what the word means!

A typical day's scoffing at BV might look something like this:

Wake up to the smell of warm, fresh bread baked in the BV kitchen. Roll downstairs and chomp as much cereal, porridge (go on, it makes you strong!) and fresh fruit as you can. Then move onto a boiled egg and soldiers followed by some still steaming bread and home-made jam. Wash the whole lot down with plenty of fresh coffee or tea and some early moring banter as you start to get excited about the day's riding...

As if by magic, your lunch is waiting for you to pop into your pack. Today it might be goats cheese, ham and quince + chilli jelly in a flute, which is a bigger version of a baguette. There'll also be a banana and/or some cereal bars, along with the stash of fig rolls, choccy biccies and madeleine cakes that one of us always carries. We'll stop twice for lunch, partly 'cos we love eating in beautiful alpine meadows and also so that our legs don't feel too heavy when we have to get moving again!

When we get back from riding we'll pop the kettle on and you can tuck into a mug of tea or coffee and some home-made cake or flapjack or whatever has tickled our fancy that day.

By the time you've showered and had a drink and a post-ride natter in the garden, dinner will probably be on the go. Tonight it might be roasted feta and wild mushroom stuffed chicken breast wrapped in parma ham served up on ratatouille made with courgettes from the garden and quinoa, a 'miracle grain' from South America that tastes bloody good and happens to be mightily healthy to boot. The veggies in the group would see the chook replaced by one of our favourites – roasted stuffed aubergines a la Bonifaccienne - a great recipe we picked up on our honeymoon in Corsica. A bit of rocket, lettuce and pine nut salad in a walnut oil and garlic vinaigrette and we're almost there...

...All that remains is the wine! Sam used to work in a nearby wine shop during the winters and is pretty into the grapey stuff. We still get our wine from his old boss and the inside knowledge shows – it's a Vaucluse that we drink which is essentially a Cotes du Rhone, light enough to quaff every night but with a complexity and depth of flavour that would put a lot of new world wines to shame. We're not exactly shy with it either so get stuck in!

Luckily pud goes into a diffent space to all other food (Sam calls it the 'cheesecake stomach') so there's always room for some! It could be an oaty crumble made with apples and plums from the garden and served with a simple dollop of cream or maybe Lyndsey's slightly famous dark chocolate mousse – it has been known for guests to check this is on the menu before re-booking!

All that remains is a tea or coffee to finish things off whilst you sit back and look at the stars over the moonlit mountains.
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Rest Day Activities:

The holidays start on a Saturday, and by Wednesday your legs will need a little rest from the mountain biking, we promise (Tuesday's ride is usually a whopper!). If you do have legs of iron then you are, of course, more than welcome to ride. If you are of mortal constitution, however, you might want to indulge in a bit of extra-curricular fun. All of these activities are available locally every day of the week so if you're being dragged out by a slightly more bike-crazed friend/partner then you can mix and match riding with other jaunts as you fancy.

Massage those woes away:
Mountainbiking on singletrack every single day can leave you feeling a mite stiff. That's where Anna from Massage Me comes in. A bit of a master in deep tissue sports massage, Anna strikes the perfect balance between pain and, well, less pain (should that be 'relaxation'? ;-) Anyhow, she'll certainly leave you feeling limber for the next singletrack sortie. She usually pops down to the farmhouse on a wednesday morning and sets up her table in the garden, under the cherry tree. We get special BV rates of €30 for half an hour (long enough to work your legs over), €40 for 45 mins (back and shoulders too) and €50 for an hour, which gives her time to do some nice relaxing stuff at the end. Anna can also pop down any other day after the ride is finished so let us know if you're feeling sore!

Sploshing Around:
Bourg St Maurice hosted the world kayaking championships in 2002 and the World Cup kayaking final in 2004 and is a bit of a white water mecca. Whilst the world championship rapids may be a bit much for you, you could try a spot of whitewater rafting on the same Isere river which runs, conveniently enough, only a couple of minutes walk from the farmhouse. €45ish for half a day of sploshing around and jumping off bridges it really is a great laugh. Whitewater swimming is the same idea but without a raft, just some knee pads in your wetsuit and a death wish. Whitewater drowning is cheaper still and dispenses with luxuries such as wet suit, buoyancy aid and conscious thought...

A little bit more relaxing is the picturesque swimming lake, just 5 minutes down the bike path. This is the perfect spot for some still water swimming or just sunbathing and beer drinking on its banks!

Fly like a bird!:
Quite a few people have tried (and loved) paragliding, taking off from the mountain slopes above the house and floating around on the thermals over the valley. Make sure your insurance cover includes it, as it is a couple of groups higher than mountainbiking. At around €80 it is a really amazing experience, you could even attempt a sneaky landing in the Bikevillage back garden if the instructor isn't concentrating!

For those who don't want to get quite so airborne, there are plenty of options. Sam's favourite is the ridiculously good fun Parcours course, which features 200m tree to tree zip lines, rope swings onto cargo nets and even a snowboard ride on cables between trees. It's basically heaven for anyone who ever liked climbing trees as a kid, or as an adult...

Hiking is a bit less scary and still a lot of fun, be it a romantic wander through the wildflowers of the alpine meadows or a stomp up to the Lac de Plagne, via the fantastic ice cream at La Porte du Rosuel and a few beautiful waterfalls and glaciers.

Road Rash:
The road riding in the Tarentaise Valley is so stunning that we offer dedicated road cycling trips . You could just have a dabble on your day off however. Two Tour de France stages passed us in 2002, another in 2005, one more in 2007 and then in 2009 Bourg had a stage start AND a stage finish! Every single route out of the valley has been used in a previous Tour, which means you can ride the same climbs, albeit a smidge slower than Lance and Co.
So if the names Col de la Madelaine, Col d'Iseran and Courmet de Roseland make your sphincter pucker, just wait untill you've ridden them, it only gets worse! So borrow some of our slicks and go hurt yourself!

Just Loaf!
Why not grab a massage in the morning, mooch down the bikepath to the swimming lake for lunch , a sun-bathe and a bit of a swim and maybe pedal into Bourg for a few beers at a cafe as you watch the world go by...

Getting Here:

Landry lies in the Isere valley, between the ski resorts of La Plagne and Les Arcs, about 15 miles south (as the lesser-spotted alpine crow flies) of Mont Blanc. The 1992 winter Olympics at Albertville have left behind a fantastic transport network, so Landry is a cinch to get to whichever way you choose to travel.

Flying: Geneva airport is close by and is very cheap and easy to fly to thanks to Sleazyjet. Tickets are cheaper the further in advance you book, so the particularly well organised can find return flights for as little as £32.50, rising to around £100-150 nearer the time (Easyjet, tel 0870 6000 000). All of the usual airlines also fly there, so have a look at Expedia (0870 050 0806) for a quick comparison of fares as sometimes the traditional carriers are actually cheaper once you get closer to the time.

Just make sure you arrive at Geneva on a Saturday before about 4pm local time and that your return flight departs after 12.30 and we'll pick you up and drop you off in the Bikevillage minibus. If you fly outside these times then pickups can be arranged but will cost an extra €35 per person each way (min 3 pers/€105) as we have to get someone else to do it, something to remember before you save 50p booking the 5.30 a.m. departure!

As for your trusty steed, a bike bag or box is best. Bags are a good investment if you'll do a few holidays over the coming years whereas cardboard boxes can always be blagged for free from bike shops - just ask nicely. See the FAQs page for tips on bike packing. Once you land at Geneva, the trollies take €2 coins or (don't tell them we told you) good old 2p coins, which you're probably more likely to have jingling around in your pockets.

Driving: More and more guests are now driving out to us in the summer. If there are a couple of people to split the driving it really can be a good way to avoid the stress of the airport. Landry/Les Arcs is a steady 10 hours from the channel ports and this is a good way to travel if there is a convenient group of you. Autoroute tolls will be about €50 each way and fuel is a little cheaper than at home. We usually find the cheapest ferries (and the best fry-ups!) can be found at Norfolkline.

If driving from Calais or thereabouts, just aim for Dijon, Lyon, Chambery, Albertville, Moutiers, Aime and then Landry. It's easy! Once you get to the village, give us a bell and we'll guide you in. For those with GPS type action going on, we're at N45 34.167' E006 44.349' altitude 790m.

Train: With the new Kings Cross Eurostar terminal up and running, it's never been easier to get the train here. Just book a Eurostar service to Paris and then the TGV to Bourg St Maurice. The train actually stops at Landry, about 2 mins from the BV farmhouse! Train is by far the most relaxing way to travel. The only complication is switching between stations in Paris (Gare du Nord to Gare du Lyon) but if the metro with a bike scares you then it's only a €15 cab ride. If you are interested in this option then visit RailEurope.
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Insurance: Us mountain bikers do like to crash from time to time. As such, Insurance is vital, along with your EHIC (new E111) card. Just make sure the policy covers you for mountainbiking in the Alps and that you bring out both your policy details and your EHIC card with you – they're no use at home on the kitchen worksurface! Two decent companies to try are Dog Tag insurance (they give you dog tags, yay!) and SportsCover Direct. If you want to insure your bike then it's probably best done under your house insurance or via British Cycling or CTC membership deals.

e-mail us on info@bikevillage.co.uk or call/fax us on 0033 615 719 932