Working in Val d'Isere/Tignes 07/08

Don't worry about your French, more people will speak English in both those places than they do French :p

Tignes/Val are 2 very different places, so you gotta think about what you want to do. Val is a really nice village, but still has loads of good pubs whereas Tignes is cheaper and has more partying. Actually scrap that, you just gotta decide what kind of drinking you want to do.

Not sure what you want to do, but you won't get a job in (active) skiing easily in france as a foreign, non-french speaking, not ESF certified ski instructor.
So I'm guessing your best bet would be a bartending job, maybe you could get a job as ski technician although languages are preffered here to. Other less fun jobs would be concierge or something like that. Not sure about the lifty's, think here again french is a must.
For bartending there's lots of places you can go, I myself spend most of my time in Tignes in Caz!café, it's dutch but the dutch are pretty easy going people, you can send an application to them on tignes@cazcafe.nl from September on.
Go on the internet and look up websites or contact details from bars and start emailing them.

I wouldn't recommend you heading of to france in the middle of the season, I tried that last year and wasn't able to find one job.

Get out early when there are more jobs going.
I worked in Val last season and you want a bar job no question. You can ski whenever you like and you'll get free drinks in other bars, so it will end up being way cheaper for you, plus you'll meet many more people.
I can't say anything about tignes but as for Val, the best bars for non french speakers (and the most fun are)

Switch Rodeo: run by a mellow aussie, there are normally cool people working there. its normally pretty chilled out, but it goes off on the right night.

Morris Pub: has many staff so its a good crowd, fraser is a nice guy (manager) and has huge nights with live music. You'll need to apply through Mark Warner i think- the website is www.mountainpub.com i think.

Foret Bar: not really a big player on the bar scene, but its really easy work and they do have some big theme nights so it could be fun.

Le Petit Danois: this is one of the most popular bars in town. the girls that work there tend to be super hot and the manager Jarle is a top bloke. apply on www.lepetitdanois.com

There are other bars, but they wouldn't be such a good bet. Bananas is run by a french guy who's losing the plot, Pacific is dead apart from live sport nights, Saloon only employ girls as bar staff, although you could get a glass collecting spot. you will destroy your liver if you work here though. www.saloonbar.com

Unless your an aussie/kiwi etc you won't need a visa and as I say, you'll have an awesome time working in the bars I listed.

o, i just checked your profile- you will need a visa.

Le Petit Danois is an awesome place, super strong Danish beer poured by a guy drinking cough syrup, plus hot chicks. What more could you want?

thanks heaps guys that's wicked

i'll start applying asap

english dont need visa's?

No one within the European Union need visa to work within the Union.
I've been applying to mate, let me know something if you find a job, we'll go skiing then haha

Get a job in the pub moris in val, its the jam,im working above it for mark warner as skki host leaving on the 30th is gunna be sick.Tignes is not good for partying whoever said taht, vald is the place to go for it..have a good season!

if you want a job in a ski shop u may want to check out favre sports or precision ski (both same company). The aussie bar in val is pretty sick too, cant remember the name though, not much help. Should be a good snow year (fingers crossed). Snow has finally started falling.

im afraid to say i know val better than any other resort and bar jobs are literally like gold-dust. if your not there at the bery beginning of the season i.e. right now, you will be seriously lucky to even be considered for a bar job. if the guy behind the bar tells you to leave your cv with him, ask him to see the pile he's already got and then think again!
your best bet honestly is to stop reading this now and go to the airport! i know this doesn't sound helpful but its the truth my man. do it. just leave now!

why the hell are you ski hosting,

about the worst job you could do in a ski resort.

Whenever there is a pow day you have to go and ski with a bunch of english no hopers on their package holiday. You may get a load of skiing but not the kind of skiing you want to be doing in a season. Just charging piste all day, i think you will get pretty

ya, thats true. precision ski/favre sports are the only real options for ski shop work if you can't speak french- both these places pretty cool work atmospheres, but you get crazy busy at weekends when its rental time.

and the bar you speak of is called switch, see my list up top...

if you're canadian, the working holiday visa should set you up nicely.  i'm canadian and squeezed out a bunch of winters sans visa and sans beaucup de francais so if it falls through let me know and i can try and give you some hookups on alternatives.

if you want to hit up the euro-tail (rich tourists and wannabe gangsta brits) and get hammered nightly, go val d'isere.  if you want a more hard core experience and , go tignes.  lack of french is a non-issue in val d.  val d'isere is also much more picturesque whereas most of tignes looks like a communist nightmare.  the skiing is the same, but the vibe differs between the two.

definitely try for a bar job.  the less responsiblity the better, because the brit chalet & hotel companies work their staff to the bone...    if you do get that visa, try and work for a french company.  waaaaay better pay and conditions than the brits.

^^ nevermind on the first bit.  the 'whistler' threw me....

you wont find that many 'wannabe gangsta' brits in val,

you will find loads of rich kids who arent really there for the skiing, there for the partying and it is a place to be seen.

skiing wise, the best of espace killy is found on the tignes side (grande motte etc) but i am not sure that i would want to spend a season there. the towns are completely different. Tignes is block of concrete high rise flats, it looks like the russians went there in the 60's and jst build mass housing in a comunist style. val is more of a town, you can walk everywhere, there are also more bars that i would want to work in in val, switch is the best bet although petit danois would be good as well.

I'm in the same boat and got a working Visa, and found it easy to find a job once you're over there and looking. Actually almost worked for Favre sports, check out the Natives website (natives.co.uk) andthem up. I'm sure they're still looking