After over a year of blogging absence, I’m back with a third “little” baby girl (who in fact is not that little already ;-), a Master’s degree in Digital Marketing almost finished, a maternity leave that finished three months ago (and a subsequent return to work…) and above all an even stronger desire to have fun with my little family in the mountains!
It’s the Le Paradis des Praz in Chamonix that brought back my blogging “mojo” so to speak 😉 It’s been a long time that I’ve been anywhere that has ticked so many boxes on the young kids outing agenda…I just couldn’t contain my excitement! (honestly I do get out out sometimes…)
I was taken there by my local Chamonix exerts, my Dad and his girlfriend, who took my two older munchkins to Chamonix for a week at the start of the school holidays. The action packed programme they had lined up for them sounded rather fabulous, I was actually quite jealous and reluctant to return to my office in 35 -40 °c heat & no air conditioning!
Back to the Le Paradis des Praz, which is very aptly named I have to say!
Easy access – First and foremost it was easily accessible. It is situated behind the Chamonix golf course. You access “Le Paradis” by a nice gentle walk, along the river, shaded by trees from a free (yes free) car park near the hotel les Lanchers in Le Praz (Route des Praz). It is perfect for little ones…long enough to stretch their legs but not so long that younger members of the family start whingeing and ask to be carried. We even saw a few squirrels!
Activities – It had a nice little selection of child specific activities – A mini play park nestled between the tress, with the usual suspects – swings, slides etc. but a few more alternative activities too such as slack lines and a mini Tyrolienne. There was also a paddling area down by the river with a little wooden platform in the middle of the river. Despite the “heat wave” style temperatures, please note the water was freeeezing…fresh from the glaciers! After approximately 30 seconds I could no longer feel my feet! This didn’t seem to affect my eldest daughter!
Riding School – There is a little riding school with the super friendly Valerie offering different options for young children from poney and caleche rides to riding lessons. This was all reasonably priced (5 euros for a 10 minute poney ride).
Shaded pic nic areas – There were shaded pic nic areas dotted around with families tucking into their pic nics.
Spacious – Despite the high concentration of children, everything felt spacious and not once did I notice a screaming child (although I’m almost certain there were some, for once not mine!).
Nice café, snack bar – A friendly, clean, little snack restaurant with a clean toilet and get ready for it…a changing table for babies and a bottle warmer (free service) with happy, smiling, friendly, helpful staff. We ordered crepes for the afternoon snack and they were delivered to our table (yes they brought it to you!) and everything was reasonably priced.
What can I say, apart from if you are in Chamonix and fancy a chilled out afternoon or morning with your little ones this place is pretty cool.
For further details you can check out their Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/LeParadisDesPraz?fref=ts
