Pilotage sur glace à Flaine

Flaine has the largest ice circuit in France, and it is the outing we suggest when the weather ruins a day's skiing: if it is snowing, so much the better, the track only improves. There is nothing of the fairground ride about it. You are taught to place a car on a surface that does not grip: weight transfer, opposite lock, looking where you want to go rather than at what you want to avoid. Three hours of that permanently changes how someone drives on a wet road, which is why we happily suggest it to clients whose child has just passed a driving test. The fleet turns over from season to season, between front-, rear- and four-wheel drive, and we tell you which cars are genuinely available on your dates rather than selling you one that will not be there. Our advice: ask for rear-wheel drive. It is harder for the first half hour and incomparably more instructive afterwards. Allow for the drive from Megève both ways: it is not around the corner, and a half day on the circuit in practice takes the whole day.