La Plagne Igloo Review

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all about skiing here in the Paradiski - although the skiing is pretty amazing! Despite this and the fact that they sit slap bang in one of the biggest ski areas in the world, there is so much more to the villages of Les Arcs and La Plagne.

High above the villages of Plagne Villages and Plagne Soleil, off the beaten track and nestled into a sheltered spot with a 360° panoramic view, the Igloo village (run by a French company called Blacksheep) is a really special place to spend an evening.
Visitors to the Igloo village can have dinner here which is of course, a very cheesy affair! Tucking into a delicious cheese fondue, Tarte du Jour for dessert and washing it all down with red wine whilst sitting in a ‘restaurant’ made of ice is quite something! Candlelight makes for an ambient eating area where diners sit and dig into the tasty feast.

You can also choose to stay in an Igloo for the night. There are around five Igloos which sleep different numbers of people from two to six and all are kitted out with a camping mattress, sleeping bag liner, winter sleeping bag and faux fur blankets. It gets down to around 0° inside the Igloo but bearing in mind that it was -13° outside, that's really nothing! Once stripped down to thermal underwear and inside the numerous layers it was really warm in bed although getting out to go to the toilet in the middle of the night was slightly less than cozy! Incidentally, there is a separate eco ‘toilet’ Igloo which is a lot more comfortable and pleasant than I expected, especially if you base the experience on the usual state of most French toilets...

After a few too many glasses of wine with dinner, standing by the fire pit outside, on top of a mountain, and having raucous fun at the dinner table, our group (there were twenty of us) retired to our beds and generally slept pretty well. We were warned as we went to bed that we would be getting woken at around 7.30am in order to take in the sunrise over Mont Blanc and have a bite to eat and a hot drink before heading off for a day’s skiing. Whilst it was difficult to unzip that sleeping bag the following morning, it was amazing to shimmy out of the Igloo and already be standing on top of a mountain!

I would thoroughly recommend the whole experience and staying the night in the Igloo is a must for visitors to the Paradiski. The twenty minute hike to get there is a bit of an adventure and once you're there it is just so unique an experience! Sylvain and Édouard who run the Blacksheep business are also on hand to melt the cheese, top up the carafes of wine and have a good chat to everyone at dinner or around the fire. They are really nice guys, excellent English speakers and really want to make the experience special.

If you'd like to organise a night in the igloo then contact the Blacksheep guys directly.

Special thanks to Rob at The Cool Bus for organising and for giving us lifts up as far as possible!