UKC

Where do you fly to in France and then how do you get from the airport to Ailefroide by public transport? Thanks for any suggestions.

In reply to Tommy Boy:

Last year we flew to Geneva, then had an epic 7 hour train journey via Grenoble to get to Gap (I think...). From there it's a 10 minute drive (hitch or get a taxi) to Ailefroid up the valley.

In reply to James Jackson:
pretty impressive to get from Gap to Ailefroide in 10 minutes !
Depends where you fly to, but you can get to Argentière la Bessé/Ecrins (seems to be trying to change its name) by rail (its on the Valence/Gap link with a spur Grenoble to Gap )followed by bus up to Vallouise & Ailefroide. I think there are also buses from Briançon which would link to buses from Turin or Grenoble. I've never flown, but judging by ski holidays to the area, Turin is the closest airport

In reply to Doug:

That's the jobbie, I knew Gap was in there somewhere... Argentiere la Besse is where you want to head.

This is not good, I get forgetful after drinking 4 pints the night before. I must be getting old!

In reply to Doug:
oops,
"its on the Valence/Gap link with a spur Grenoble to Gap"
should read
"its on the Valence/Briançon line with a spur Grenoble to Gap"

obviously need another coffee

In reply to James Jackson: Geneva's out. Tried that once also with the train, took forever to get to Briançon. Wondering if there's another place you can fly to from the Uk that's closer and better connected. Cheers.

In reply to Doug: Yeah, I've been wondering about Turin, but it would be a bummer to get there and discover there aren't any buses to Briançon in the summer. Anyone know about that?

In reply to Tommy Boy: i think getting from turin to ailefroide is very awkward... you have to get a train to oulx and then a bus to briancon and then a train to argientiere le besse... but the problem is there is only 1 bus a week or something ridiculous like that... oulx to briancon is maybe 45mins so you could hitch...

from ireland anyway i reckon the best way is to fly to paris and then get a nighttrain to argientiere... much more comfortsaable than it sounds... the train leaves paris at about half ten and you get to argientiere by about 8 in the morning, no changes or anything like that... you can even get a bed for an extra tenner... dunno how muxh sense this makes if you are travelling from the uk...

In reply to Tommy Boy: oh... and from memory there are a couple of buses a day going from the train station in argientiere to the campsite in ailfroide... but as someone else said it's only about 10min by taxi..

In reply to Declan:
Its close on 20 km so probably more than 10 minutes by taxi given the nature of the road (narrow & twisty in places).

I thought getting from Turin to Briançon was easy, but thats based on what friends have told me & maybe only true in the ski season.

I've always gone by car or night train from Paris - as said, get on train around 10, arrive just in time for breakfast

In reply to Doug: Yeah, I think it's only in the skiing season, so Turin is probably not a brilliant idea, thanks anyway.

In reply to Declan: Yeah, well, the train from Paris doesn't make much sense if travelling from the UK, sort of defeats the point of budget airlines. Thanks for the idea anyway.

In reply to Tommy Boy: Why not

- hire a car?
- go somewhere with good transport links
- hitch

Ailefroide is well and truely in the middle of knowhere and not really recommended if you haven't got a car to get there, unless you like challenging journeys. I don't know too many spots in the Alps, but there must be millions of places you can go which have very easy transport links?

In reply to Jon Dittman:
plenty of places much harder to get to - train to Argentière, then a bus. Its only a problem because he wants to travel cheap using easyjet or whatever to an airport which doesn't have good connections to Briançon

In reply to Doug: Well obviously, if you have unlimited cash, anywhere is easy to get to, but Ailefroide is just a faffy place to get to without a car. Yes you can do it by train, but you have to change and it takes forever. Compared to Cham, it is a nightmare.

In reply to Tommy Boy:
did it last year from lyon train to argentiere and hicched up to ailefroid spent the night in lyon so had all day to get there. the locals are amazing tho never had a problem hitching

In reply to Doug: Just trying to find out if there's a new cheap and easy way to get there. Last time I was there, in 1985 or 1986, it took forever. Sounds like it's still the same.

In reply to Jon Dittman:

But Ailefroid does have the South Pillar

In reply to Tommy Boy: Thanks for the helpful info. Looks like we'll be heading there by car.

In reply to Tommy Boy: Thanks for the helpful info. Looks like we'll be heading there by car unless anyone else has a better idea. Cheers!

In reply to Tommy Boy: get yourself to briancon by train. If you are there in June I should imagine it will be easy to hitch as there are loads of climberpaddlers around. Should certainly beable to hitch to vallouise which is about 7k down the valley from ailefroide. Enjoy.