It is not all sport and adventure in the mountains.  Here' s an opportunity to enjoy seriously good music.

Valais has discreetly ushered in new rules for smoking. It is now banned inside public places.

Snowjet’s London flights return this ski season

BLEUSY CLASSICAL GUITAR

Slake your cultural thirst for classical music in the Alps at a series of guitar recitals in the Chapel of Bleusy in Nendaz. (La Chapelle du Bleusy is beside the Bisse du Milieu just off the road to Siviez.) Nendaz is hosting its 6th International Guitar Festival this summer. Acclaimed concert musicians from the Swiss Conservatory and from Europe, Russia and Latin America will play every Friday evening through to 13 August and also on Tuesday, 27 July at 8pm. Admission is free and more information is available from Nendaz Tourisme

GONE IN A PUFF

For all of you who wondered if Valais would ever catch up with other European ski areas that have become clean air fanatics over the past few years, here is the good news. The whole district quietly banned smoking inside public buildings last summer. So all the restaurants, bars and clubs in Nendaz plus the mountain restaurants dotted throughout the Printse sector and the wider 4 Vallées sector are now smoke-free zones.

SION FLIGHTS

Snowjet returns this winter with regular weekend flights between London Stansted and Sion starting on 19 December 2010. The service will continue until 17 April 2011. Only 15 km away from Secret Alps, it takes less than 30 minutes to drive from airport to apartment. Flight times vary a little in the course of the season but travellers coming from London should always arrive in Nendaz in the early afternoon. Even better news for Secret Alps guests is that the return flight departs either at 14.00 or 17.30 which means that you can enjoy a morning on the slopes and still get back to London in time for tea.

Our own Secret agent can arrange taxi transfers to and from Sion. There is also a good, reliable bus service between Sion and Nendaz.