We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

As from this skiing season no more hassle with loose ski passes; a hands-free system has been introduced. For more information, click on the image.

As of today, the ski classes for the February holiday can booked. This can be done up until January 31. Be sure you make your reservations on time; full is full!

This year, the lessons can - for the first time - be booked online. Go to the link on the information page of the ESF of Le Mont-Dore. Need help booking classes? Please contact us!

The bedrooms and bathrooms of the Puy Ferrand, Puy de la Vache, Puy de Dôme and Puy de Sancy apartments are now equipped with a ventilation system.

In January the Puy de Baladou and Puy de l'Angle apartements will also be equiped with a ventilation system.

And soon the renovated bathrooms of the Puy Ferrand and Puy de la Vache apartments will be ready.

During the 2-week Christmas holidays Les Camélias has only very limited availability left: the Puy Ferrand apartment is available from December 19 to 27, the Puy de Sancy apartment is available from December 19 to 26 and the Puy de Dôme apartment is available from December 21 to 28. If you want to spend your Christmas holidays with us, the sooner you book the better!

The past week hard work has been done at Les Camélias. A new heating system has been installed. This winter our guests will surely reap the fruits of this.

For example, the radiators in the apartments have been equipped with programmable thermostat knobs. You are of skiing and expect to be back in your apartment at around 5 pm? Then these knobs make sure that your radiator will switch on before you get back and that you will arrive in a nicely heated apartment. If you arrive home early, it will be easy to overrule the program.



There are also advantages for us: no more waking up at dawn to turn the heater on, no longer manually indicate that water must be heated and – not unimportant - less loss of heat.

If you are thinking of staying with us in December or February, it is advisable to book quickly. We have especially only limited availability for the week of December 26 until January 2 and for the period of February 20 until March 6.

We are currently enjoying a wonderful late summer. Pleasant temperatures combined with beautiful autumn colors.



An excellent time to go hiking or cyling. Or for example, to go searching for mushrooms.

Now that we are starting to receive reservations for the winter season, the website already has put on his winter coat. Winter activities are at the top of the menu, the winter logo has replaced the summer logo and pictures have been replaced by more wintery ones. Since a couple of days the winter calendar is online.

Les Camélias donates € 1,= of each invoice to the Vajra foundation. In 2008 we got to a total of 53 invoices, and therefore we donated € 53,=. On September 9 we prepared the 100th invoice of 2009.

About the Vajra Foundation: The Vajra Foundation is an organisation which is contributing to the welfare of the poorest in Nepal through several projects. With the help of many volunteers, donors and sponsors the Vajra Foundation is able to build and finance hospitals, schools and water projects. The Vajra Foundation strives to have the projects run independently after their launch. The Vajra Foundation does not only offer real help, but also likes to contribute in the field of information provision about the problems in developing countries.

Last Saturday we finally had time to try out the Super-Besse mountain bike descents. We enjoyed ourselves greatly and the trails have our approval.



The ski resort of Super-Besse has 5 mountain bike descents, 2 blue, 2 red and 1 black descent. A ski lift takes mountain bikers and their bikes to the top of the descents.

Always wanted to try a GPS? At Les Camélias you can do this. The GPS can be rented for 1 day or for a longer period. Our road bike and mountain bike routes are available as GPS tracks. We are currently working at hiking tracks as well.

The ski resort of SuperBesse has now 5 mountain bike descents, 2 blue, 2 red and 1 black descent. A ski lift takes mountain bikers and their bikes to the top of the descents.

If you are thinking of staying with us in July or August, it is advisable to book quickly. In July, we only have 2 apartments available from Monday, July 27 to Saturday, August 1. The first week of August we are completely full, and the 2nd week of August we only have 1 apartment available. At the moment we still have a few apartments available for the 2nd half of August.

Last week we had our first mountain biking guests. They booked a stay with us via Vasa Sport. On the Vasa Sport Website a nice photo impression can we watched.

The bedroom and bathroom of the Puy de Dôme apartment on the second floor have been renovated.

The walls of the Puy de l’Angle bedroom also got a new layer of paint. For more pictures of our apartments go to the photo album of the apartments on our website.

Last week we changed the bike for hiking shoes. We walked from the garden of Les Camélias to the Puy de Sancy and back. We took many pictures. A number can be found in the hiking photo album

Take a look: Hiking photos

Since the beginning of this week the Puy de Baladou apartment on the first floor has a completely renovated bedroom. The two outer walls now have an insulated wall, the wooden floor has been treated and the bedroom has a new coat of paint. We also refurbished the bathroom of the Puy de Sancy apartment on the 2nd floor.

Currently we are busy renovating the bedroom of the Puy de Dôme apartment. For more pictures of our apartments go to the photo album of the apartments on our website.

In wintertime tours with sledge dogs can be made near Les Camélias. But also in springtime great trips with these wonderful dogs can be made. For example, we recently did a memorable walk with Misja, Miko, Cisco and Oural of Les P'tit Loups de la Banne.

On our way to the Puy de Sancy this week we saw a large group moufflong with lambs. The group was guarded by an impressive ram. Moufflongs are the smallest wild sheep and the ancestor of our domestic sheep.

Currently a number of apartments are being improved. We are taking the opportunity to give the apartments new names. Apartment 2 will be "Puy Ferrand”, 5 will be "Puy de la Vache", 6 will be “Puy de Dôme”, 9 will be “Puy de Sancy”, PM1 will be "Puy de Baladou” and PM2 will be "Puy de l'Angle".

There are many great events this spring and summer near Les Camélias: road bike and MTB rides, running competitions, hikes, fleamarkets, but also a competition for pedal cars in the streets of Le Mont-Dore. More information can be found in our calendar.

Up until our departure for France, Erwin was treasurer of the Vajra Foundation. We would like continue to support this foundation and have therefore decided to donate € 1,= of each Les Camélias invoice to this foundation. In 2008 we got to a total of 53 invoices, and therefore we recently donated € 53,=. We will continue this campaign in 2009. An excellent winter season has already resulted in 49 invoices for 2009!

About the Vajra Foundation: The Vajra Foundation is an organisation which is contributing to the welfare of the poorest in Nepal through several projects. With the help of many volunteers, donors and sponsors the Vajra Foundation is able to build and finance hospitals, schools and water projects. The Vajra Foundation strives to have the projects run independently after their launch. The Vajra Foundation does not only offer real help, but also likes to contribute in the field of information provision about the problems in developing countries.

On the photo below one can see that our heated ski storage is gratefully used. With 2.5 meters of snow on the top of the Sancy this is actually no more than logical.

In order to give visitors to our website an even better impression of what Les Camélias, Le Mont-Dore and the Sancy massif have to offer, a number of photo albums have been added to the website.

Take a look at the following pages:
- Photos of our apartments
- Le Mont-Dore photos
- Wintersports photos
- Roadcycling photos
- Mountain biking photos
- Hiking photos