First of all I need to find some accomodation. I’ve looked on the Mairie’s website and Cham74 and ChamSocial. Any other places I should be looking?
Also thinking about cars – How long term can you get away with having a british registered car in France? I know plenty of seasonnaires do it, but does this cause potential problems?
Also I’ll need some locals knowledge of the trails, so it would be good to meet some of you lot for a bike ride!
Physically, the notices at the back of the mairie on Friday mornings I think it is. The good stuff goes quickly. Best to be there.
Be discrete about the car and you’ll be OK.
It’s nigh on impossible to earn a living wage in tourism.
Great beer in MBC, best time is early before it gets crowded. Never go on a “Gary Bingham and the Crevassholes” night. Trust me.
I never did much bike riding in Cham, it’s all a bit body-armour-lift-assisted-rocks-and-and-drops for me, I’m more a single track & forests guy. There’s an OK XC loop around the valley floor but it gets a bit dull after a while. A few nidges of ST in the woods north of the PGHM helipad. In all honesty I think’s it’s over-rated for riding, the terrain is just too severe, but the local tour ops are sure to disagree. But there’s masses of sport climbing for summers and the skiing is fantastic. In a good year you can climb from Feb to November and ski from November to May. Awesome.
I think a group of free-riders ride out of Le Vert at Les Gaillands quite often.
Fill your Camelbak from the spring on the Les Peccles back road, down towards the Gaillands climbing wall. Best ever.
You can ride your road bike up to the Col des Montets, down to Vallorcine, that’s about it. Stay off the roads July & August, death traps for a cyclist.
Cham’s something of a bubble, you’re insulated from the rest of humanity, in a box with closed ends and an open lid. It can be claustrophobic, it can be fantastic. I always think it’s a bit “Space 1999” – pinged off into the galaxy on your own. I ‘spose you’d have to be over 40 to get that reference!
Cham Sud is cheap for a reason. Lock your gear securely.
It wore out for us after 6 years but we had a cracking time.
Rock it. I’m envious of you getting to discover it all over again.