Apres Ski in Flaine

Flaine firmly concentrates on families and adults learning to ski including a significant proportion of novices. While less experience on snow is no limiting factor for apres ski, the fact that there are so many families and first-time skiers and boarders means there are relatively few partygoers old enough, or fit enough, to push the limits late into the night.

Apres Ski Bars in Flaine

Flaine apres-ski and nightlife are severely limited. La Cascades at the foot of the pistes and the Brit hangout Le White Pub are about as lively as it gets after skiing. Later on, the Flying Dutchman gets going and their outdoor BBQ go down well.

Much has been made of Le Perdrix Noire and although it has decent food and good beers it is hardly a raucous night out.

Flaine does have a nightclub in the Galerie Marchande Forum. It is open late and you can dance in it, but that’s as good as it gets.

Restaurants in Flaine

Flaine has so many residential apartments and so few hotels that it is a wonder there are not more restaurants in the resort. Flaine is a dining desert, which is why the half-decent restaurants do so well. The resort is crying out for a top-class place to eat

Most of the restaurants in Flaine have been mentioned in our mountain restaurants section, but at night three more restaurants in the village claim to be the best. To be fair, all are good value and prepare good food but none of them are world-beaters.

Chalet La Cascade

Chalet La Cascade is about as cosy and intimate as Flaine can get. The restaurant is located at the foot of the pistes, it has a roaring log fire and if you want to book it you can be transported there and back by skidoo. The menu is small, but selective and although you can get fondue all over the Alps, it is pretty good here boasting three cheeses and also comes with sausages.

Chalet La Cascade
Tel: +33 4 50 90 87 66
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.lacascade-flaine.fr

La Perdrix Noir

The Perdrix is run by an English couple. If you didn’t know you could probably tell from the interior decoration and the beers on tap. The restaurant suffers for being placed in Flaine Foret shopping arcade but appearances can be deceptive though, as the food is very French and very good. The chef has a good fish and seafood supplier but for us the spit-roasted half a duckling was the best thing we ate in resort. The set menus are very reasonably priced, also. Tel: +33 4 50 90 81 81

La Perdrix Noire
Galerie Marchande
Tel: +33 4 50 90 81 81
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.Laperdrixnoire.com

La Ferme du Sartot

The most marvellous part of eating in La Ferme du Sartot is that it is the polar opposite of what Flaine stands for. Rustic and small, the restaurant must be booked in advance purely because in a delightfully unplanned way there simply is no menu. You call up and discuss with the chef what you would like to eat, and probably more importantly what he can get, and then turn up to his little chalet replete with open log fire. We’d say the food at Le Perdrix just shades it, but the setting and experience at La Ferme du Sartot is infinitely superior. Tel: +33 6 75 28 95 00

La Ferme du Sartot
Le Cret des Neiges
Tel: +33 6 75 28 95 00
Web: www.sartot-flaine.info

The Village of Flaine

Flaine is divided into three inter-connected villages that boast good facilities for self-catering but little else. The selection of shops in Flaine is poor and the clothes and equipment shops stock only what is necessary, rather than providing a good selection.

The main village of Flaine is divided into three levels, each of which is connected by walkways and modernist land lifts. Flaine Foret is the highest at 1,700m, Flaine Forum, which is the main heartbeat of the whole resort, is at 1,650m and Flaine Front de Neige is at 1,500m. There are also two outlying suburbs which are mini-resorts – Hameau de Flaine and Flaine Montsoleil – which are built in a much more attractive style, if, like most people, you are not a fan of post-modernist architecture.

Flaine Forum is a completely pedestrianised zone, while Flaine Foret and Flaine Front de Neige are relatively traffic-free. Flaine Montsoleil is situated at 1,750m and is easily walkable from Flaine Foret. It also has its lifts and pistes. Le Hameau de Flaine, which includes Le Refuge du Golf, is at 1800m. It is 1km from the main resort, but there is a good bus service. In normal snow conditions, you can reach it on skis, via unofficial tracks.

Other Activities in Flaine

For those who do not want to ski there is plenty to do in Flaine, provided it is on snow, but opportunities for other non-snow activities such as shopping, wellness and culture are at best very limited and in some cases practically non-existent.

There are a lot of extra-curricular activities in Flaine and children who do not take to skiing are well served. Alongside the list of activities below, there is also a cinema (T +33 4 50 90 43 12) with two screenings per day and bowling alley (T +33 4 50 34 04 72) with six lanes in Flaine Foret shopping centre, a natural ice rink (Tel: +33 4 50 90 89 31) and a cultural centre (Tel: +33 4 50 90 41 73) that houses a library, exhibitions of contemporary artists and world-class Classical concerts. There are 7km of prepared marked trails in Flaine for unaccompanied or guided walks and snowshoeing and the ski schools below provide equipment as well as guides.