Our Blog - Snow Trip, France

Our Blog - Snow Trip 2025, France

We decided to do a quick trip after Valentines Day this year to try to find some snow for Lucy to play in. Instead of heading South to the Pyrenees or Andorra, we decided to go NorthEast, near what is called the "Massif Central". It is a highland region with mountains and plateaus, between the Alps and the Pyrenees. It contains a set of mountains, the highest one being the Puy de Sancy at 6,188 ft. Mind you, it has been a mild couple of weeks and so we were not even sure we would be able to get to much snow. But a couple of ski stations were nearby, so we had to try.

We stopped at two medieval villages on the way to our hotel. The first being the Plus Beau Village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie that has been voted as the "Favorite Village in France" (not sure who exactly voted). Then another stop at the village of Capdenac-le-Haut, not to be confused with Capdenac-Gare (I explained the difference in the blog page).

We stayed 2 nights in the tiny little village of Marcolès, another Plus Beau Village. This one had a Michelin-starred restaurant with a hotel, so that was our base for 2 nights. Our first night, we ate dinner at the Michelin-starred restaurant, and while I won't go through every dish, I think we need to buy plates like this one to better showcase my cooking :-)

Now, the main purpose of this trip was snow ... not for us, but for Lucy. We really don't get snow at home, so we have to travel to find some. This time, in the Massif Central at a ski resort called Le Lioran (or Super Lioran). It is a large resort, with 43 slopes and 18 different ski lifts (one of them was a cabin and the rest are just seat lifts). It has been quite a warm February, so quite a few of the slopes are closed due to lack of snow. But we were able to take the cabin up to the top station, which sits at an altitude of 6,086 feet. From there, we could walk up to the top of the peak, which got us up to 6,100 feet. It wasn't powdery, but Lucy seemed to enjoy it.

A few little patches before we got to the top.

Here we are at the top, and you can see how there is snow but it is a little patchy, even at the top. But then looking a little below us, you can see how there is really no snow on much of the Massif Central.

That is our goal ... the very top .. the Plomb du Cantal. It is the 2nd highest summit in the entire Massif Central, which is pretty impressive to think we were going to be standing on top of it!