French Ski School — Local services in Bonneville

I have attended ski school for 6 days from the 03/02/18 to 08/02/18 and I have been very disappointed. I had booked a level 3 class in English.

Day 1

Our ski instructor was Raf, who spoke good English. The ski group I was in had mixed levels. 5 people could ski at level 4 (and off piste) and 2 people could ski at level 3. I felt uncomfortable in the group as I felt I was holding the group back as a level 3 skier and told Raf of this.

Day 2

I was advised by Raf they would split the group as the instructor was spending half the time with level 4 off piste and half with level 3 on piste, which limited the ski tuition.

Day 3

The ski group was not split due to a lack of instructors and this lead to complaints from the group at the end of class.

Day 4

The director of ESF (Patrick) taught the class with limited English and this was okay.

Day 5 and 6

We had new instructor called Farid. He spoke no English and used the three other ladies in the class to translate. Farid failed to check if I had understood instructions and the skiing techniques. He spent a long time talking in French in complicated language about skiing technicque at the tops of slopes where it was very cold. There were few exercises demonstrating the skills.

Overall I feel the tuition was poor as there was a missed opportunity as Raf whose English was good was put with the French speaking group. I wanted to improve my skiing technique and this was difficult due to the language barrier, the number of instructors and the mixed abilities in the groups.

This is a disappointing post to write as it is the 4th time I have visited the resort and I plan to return. ESF has failed on these issues on previous visits for myself...

ESF -Les Contamaines ROCK! My daughter was very nervous to have her first ever ski lessons but the ESF staff were excellent. Prior to booking I had to ring up and speak with the staff who all spoke excellent English, as she made the last minute decision that she wanted to do ski school! All very painless and easy to book. She was the only English speaking child in the whole ski school, the instructors looked after her so well and were all absolutely excellent. Damien in particular! Each day she would start a little apprehensive but this soon vanished with the warm welcome but all the staff with "hello my little English friend" She loved the whole week and seeing her develop and gain more confidence on the snow despite the language barrier was awesome....

En bref: Arnaque totale, manque de bienveillance des professeurs (c’est un euphémisme), et assurance mensongère.

différents profs vus sur les pistes en train de hurler sur les élèves (cest bien connu, cest comme ça qu’on donne envie aux enfants ??!!) L’ESF les contamines a vendu des cours de ski de 15h30 a 17h en sachant pertinemment que le domaine skiable fermait à 16h - mais aucune mention sur le site enfin l’assurance est notée pour une « interruption pendant le séjour pour cause de pb de santé » - ma fille ayant été malade, je leur ai demandé remboursement du cours non consommé, ils m’ont répondu qu’il y avait une condition de « 10jours avant le séjour » non mentionnée au moment de l’achat.

Bref, À...