Metroland
Two friends and I went to La Joue du Loup in January 2008 and had a fabulous time, much more relaxing than previous experiences of skiing in France.We stayed in one of the many newly built log cabins a little way from the centre of the village, which we booked directly with the management company. The chalet was cosy, spacious and comfortable for the three of us. Maximum capacity of six would have been a bit tight as two would have been sleeping in the main living room/dining area on the sofa beds (and only one shower).We hired sheets and towels locally and also had a stack of firewood delivered, which more than lasted us the week. We used the swimming pool at the top of the hill once or twice, which was a great way to relax the muscles after a day skiing.We had stocked up on essentials in a Super U just outside Grenoble on the way to the resort, so did not need to rely on the local supermarkets for everything, though they were fine for the few bits and pieces we needed whilst there, and there is a very good baker in the main shopping area. Prices were no more or less than we had expected for a small, remote mountain resort, especially bearing in mind that most of the skiers are local-ish and are not expecting great value facilities on piste.As the other reviewers have said, this is a quiet resort, which is great in that it meant hardly any queues for lifts, relatively uncrowded slopes and a more relaxing atmosphere all round. The downside, as also noted by the others, is that options for eating and drinking out were on the limited side, though we had a couple of excellent meals at "les 3 gourmands disent" (I think that was the name) and a few other places, where the owner was particularly pleased to meet us since he was a lover of all things Welsh and felt that we were a link with the place (not sure if this is a common passion in the Alps....). The bar at the bottom of the Joue du Loup lifts was also an excellent place to have a beer or two at the end of the day, and to watch the ski instructors posing....and to sample "genepi" the local (and extremely sweet) liqueur - we were told "40 spoonfulls of sugar, 40 leaves of the genepi plant and 40 % alcohol" - the bit about the sugar was right at least.Everyone we spoke too was very friendly, though this was helped a lot by the fact that we could all speak reasonable French. The resort was almost exclusively populated by French and Dutch skiers, and we saw four other English people during our entire week.As for the skiing, this is best for intermediates, rather than beginners or those with a taste for adrenaline. There was not a huge variety, though we were unlucky with the weather: it was too warm and rained on a couple of days at the bottom of the slopes, which made the return to the resort, normally a broad, easy green, quite hazardous, with large patches of ice and rock appearing. Not nice, especially for the beginners. The higher slopes are well provided with snow canons though, so there was plenty of skiiable ground most of the time. We also tried cross country on our last day, with a one hour lesson from the local ESF, and thoroughly enjoyed this (though were too hot!). Again, the cross country trails were affected by the warm weather, but later in the season with more snow this would have been excellent.There also seemed to be some walking trails, but these were closed due to the weather (not clear if they were meant to be open in summer or winter).I would defintely consider going back in both winter and summer. It seems an excellent resort for families doing their own thing and for those wanting to relax rather than party non-stop.
vacant_seal
3 friends and myself have just returned from Joue De Loup and found this place a real gem. On arrival we had the usual "where is all the snow?" panic, but found that the runs were well groomed and in good condition. We had a fairly large dump of snow midway through our trip which gave us some pretty amazing powder and "off piste" runs. We found that the slopes were challenging enough for the advanced boarders in our party, and the green runs were ideal for inexperienced skiers/boarders.The town is small with 2 supermarkets, but this is ample as they stock all the essentials and are very reasonably priced. There were 2/3 late night bars, with "Gotcha" being the most visited. "Gotcha" is a Dutch bar, where the clientel are very friendly and like a laugh - the music is a little 80's rock, but they do requests.Restaurants are of a very high standard, and we found the food excellent. Again waiters and bar staff were very welcoming. I would thoroughly recommend going to "la Tania" - really nice food, and well priced. Equally good to have a nice lunch and a couple of beers, as having a meal in the evening.Can't recommend Joue de Loup enough, it really is a lovely little town, fairly quiet, but if you want to enjoy your time on the slopes and have a relaxing apres ski, then you could do a lot worse than going here.The only downside I would say, would be with the company we booked our holiday through - Crystal. They forgot to cater on the flight for vegetarians and on our arrival the driver of our connecting bus had no idea a.) where he was going and b.) where our apartments/rep was. Also our lift pass was supposedly included in the price, and again on arrival we didn't have these presented to us through some pretty bad administration on their part. So we lost about half a day boarding.
