Christian Vanaldervelt ‘s love of outdoor sports, and in particular of paragliding, brought him to the Tarentaise in the first place. Then this Northerner , who previously managed a bowling alley in Lomme in northern France, fell in love with the area and ten years ago decided to open an agency that specialised in organising events and outdoor activities. At the start, Darentasia only offered paragliding. However, over the years this has extended to cover most aerial, snow and white water sports.

As far as paragliding is concerned, it still represents half of our business and our school trains about 100 pilots every year. We enable about a thousand people to experience a tandem flight too, explains Christian Vanaldervelt. We also work in partnership with all of the outdoor specialists in the area. They send us their clients for paragliding and we do the same for white water activities, for example .

One of the key operators in the Tarentaise mountains, Darentasia is now also developing its products for the seminar and incentive market. We seemed to have more and more requests from companies, so we decided to create specific products to suit their requirements, continues Christian Vanaldervelt. We publish a brochure called Raid Savoie which gives details of all our products and which offers the organisation of seminars from start to finish. In the summer, for groups of about 30 people staying three days, we can offer a long tandem paragliding flight on the first day, a descent along the whole length of the Isère river by raft on the second and a session at one of the tree-top adventure trails, such as Accrobranche, on the third day. For a package of that length, 50% of the time is spent on sporting activities and the rest on work sessions, but obviously we can adapt according to the client’s requirements .

In response to companies’ demands, Darentasia has also acquired a property that offers accommodation – the Auberge Le Val Joli in Séez. It was completely renovated and reopened for business in 2007, offering 130 beds in total spread between 29 rooms and with three levels of service. Clients can choose between suites for six to 12 people, traditional rooms for three or four people including two that are accessible for disabled clients, and refuge-style dormitories for six people.

We also have a 70-cover restaurant that offers a traditional mountain menu and a seminar room with 80 seats, adds the owner of Darentasia. There is also Wi-Fi and each room is equipped with a flat-screen TV. We aim at keeping everything simple, focusing on providing a friendly atmosphere and lots of entertainment in the evening .

Le Val Joli is open year-round and, for the time being, most of Darentasia’s business seems to come from companies based in the Lyon area. This probably is the result of the agency’s participation at several works council events in Lyon in order to promote its services. In 2010, our aim is to organise one seminar every week on average, concludes Christian Vanaldervelt. Three days in the winter, including speed riding at La Rosière, a snow-shoe outing at Vallandry and skiing or paragliding at Les Arcs, will cost 390 € fully inclusive for the three days .