France
Alpe d`Huez
A large and architecturally unattractive resort with plenty of high-altitude, snowsure skiing from before Christmas until after Easter. The lift system extends down to Vaujany and other smaller and more pleasing resorts in neighbouring valleys.
Alpe d'Huez is one of France's oldest resorts and is the hub for the fifth largest ski circuit in the country. Back in 1934, a young engineer called Pomagalski invented the drag-lift here just days ahead of a rival in Davos. It was also a venue for the 1968 Winter Olympics. However, Alpe d'Huez is better known to millions of cycle fans each July when the approach road becomes one of the most energy-sapping climbs of the Tour de France.
Over the years the resort has grown without design along a sunny balcony above the beautiful Oisans Valley, reached by 22 hairpin bends. Lifts link the various sectors of the village, which provides a utilitarian base for some excellent skiing for all standards.
The 3330m Pic Blanc is the starting point for a number of off-piste itineraries. These include the Grand Sablat, the Combe du Loup and a long, tricky descent via the Couloir de Fare. A 20-minute climb from the cable-car station takes you to the top of La Pyramide. From here you can ski more than 2000m of vertical down to Vaujany. Alpe d'Huez has a half-pipe on the Signal piste as well as a terrain park at Plat des Marmottes.
http://www.alpedhuez.com/
Bessans
Bessans is the official training centre of Biathlon french teams and receives regularly foreign teams. Bessans benefits from exceptional snow coverage as winter lasts for more than six months there, from November to May.
Bessans, with its Scandinavian air, is one of the favourite destinations for Nordic skiing enthusiasts. The village, built on the flat bottom of a former lake is seen as a meeting point, as well as the large expanses of fresh snow that tempt long hiking adventures.
IHere is the point for the practice of the gliding sports in their purest of forms...With its 80 kilometres of cross-country skiing tracks, Bessans is one of the capitals for this family and sports orientated discipline, accessible to all. Its marked and well maintained slopes mean that large areas of countryside can be discovered amongst the larch trees : from green tracks (very easy) to black tracks (very difficult)!
Bessans also has 3 kilometers of Alpine skiing slopes with 2 ski lifts. Ideal for children and beginners, the slopes are fully south facing. 15 kilometres of Discovery Trails (marked and secured) are at your disposal for relaxing strolls through snow dusted larch trees. Snowshoe hikes (alone or in groups) are moments of complete liberty for the viewing of the fauna and the magnificent mountain scenery.
http://www.bessans.com/
Chamonix
Strikingly beautiful glacial scenery and rugged off-piste beneath the soaring peaks of the Mont Blanc massif. This is a high Alpine area best suited to strong intermediate and expert skiers and riders looking for new challenges. Beginners and nervous skiers should steer clear. Vibrant après-ski scene, a cosmopolitan ambience, and easy airport access.
Chamonix first ventured into tourism in 1741 when two heavily armed English explorers, William Windham and Richard Pococke, took three days rather than the present 60 minutes to reach the valley from Geneva. Pococke, for reasons best known to himself, was dressed as an Arab.
They gazed up at the ice fields of Mont Blanc, but it was another 45 years before the highest peak in Western Europe was successfully conquered by local crystal collector Jacques Balmat. Since then it has become the climbing – and more recently – skiing capital of the world.
The little town with its fin de siècle villas and grand hotels acts as a magnet for powderhounds. They are attracted by the extraordinarily steep and awe-inspiring terrain that takes no prisoners.
After a fresh ovenight snowfall you must rise with the sun to cut first tracks. By mid-morning not a bowl or a single gully will be left unsullied by the passage of ski and board.
There are plenty of groomed pistes, but they are much steeper than in most other resorts. This is not the place for those who demand doorstep skiing and enjoy miles of conveniently linked motorways, nor it is a good resort for families or groups of mixed ability.
http://www.chamonix.com/
Courchevel
At its highest level, Courchevel is the most chic and the most expensive resort in France, and it also happens to have outstanding skiing. But that is just the top bit. Courchevel is made up of four quite separate villages at different altitudes and has something to suit everybody. You just need to known your geography.
Courchevel has been reigning supreme since 1946 as the resort closest to the heart of Parisians. Ever since the Mugnier family first cashed in their cow pastures and agreed to the construction of the first lift, Courch' as the locals call it, has caught the eye of capital café society. In present day terms what we are talking about is Courchevel 1850, the highest of these villages with direct links to Méribel and the other resorts of the Trois Vallées.
Courchevel 1850 is the only centre here with Le Jet Set appeal, a purpose-built portfolio of extraordinarily hedonistic hotels and private chalets perched on the mountainside above the still unspoilt valley town of Bozel. It has few Alpine rivals for comfort and cuisine – and none for cost. It caters for an international clientele that includes Russians, and now Chinese and Bollywood, who frankly don't give a damn what it costs to stay, ski, and eat here as long as they enjoy themselves. That's 1850.
Some 200 vertical metres down the mountain in both altitude and social standing comes Courchevel 1650, a more authentic French mountain village with reasonable restaurant prices and affordable chalet accommodation. It also has the best skiing.
Courchevel 1550, which is geographically directly below 1850 and now served by a new six-person chair, is becoming a serious satellite of its sophisticated sister, while 1650 retains a less affluent and earthy character entirely of its own.
At the bottom of the mountain lies the original farming village of Le Praz or Courchevel 1300. This is a delightful place to stay with good accommodation, one of the best restaurants in the area, and easy access by gondola to the other Courchevels. However, it is likely that resort-level snow cover will be limited throughout a large proportion of the season.
http://www.courchevel.com/
Flaine
Large ski area with an excellent snow record near the Mont Blanc massif. Suitable for all standards of skier and rider looking for a no-frills holiday in delightful Alpine surroundings. A short airport transfer and piste-side accommodation makes it popular with families. Flying down the red Lucifer run or blue Belzebuth above Flaine, it is easy to imagine you have somehow become in entangled in a devilish time warp. While other famous resorts in the French Alps over the past 38 years have expanded out of all recognition, this temple of Modernism, once worshipped by the British in general and by the Scots in particular, has so far remained largely undeveloped since the 1960s – but not for much longer.
The harsh diamond-shaped blocks of apartments conceived by architect Marcel Breuer still sit in a natural bowl on the edge of the Mont Blanc massif, little more than a one-hour drive from Geneva. Depending on your cultural viewpoint they are either an eyesore or a shining example of the Bauhaus School.
True the raw concrete edifices have mellowed in colour, but to us they still look as alien now to their majestic mountain setting as they did when the Beatles ruled the charts.
Indeed the only 'new' addition is the so-called Scandinavian Village, and that was built 20 years ago. This contrastingly pretty, but isolated collection of pastel-painted cabins on the outskirts now looks, like the rest of the village, run-down and in serious need of a makeover.
Weather-beaten sculptures by Picasso and Dubuffet still adorn the ski school meeting place. They serve as reminders that Flaine was originally planned by geophysicist and wealthy banker Eric Boissanas not only as a ski resort, but also as a cultural centre on snow.
Flaine's history as a major ski resort has been marked by more troughs and crests than anywhere else but, after a decade in the doldrums, it is suddenly about to become the hottest property in the Alps.
Canadian resort developer Intrawest, the force behind the creation of the successful Arc 1950 village at Les Arcs, has picked Flaine for its next major investment in the Alps. The area around the main gondola base station is to be completely redeveloped and a new 'village' will be constructed below the Scandinavian village.
The first of 550 apartments – increasing the number of beds in Flaine by 30 per cent – are scheduled for completion by 2008 and all should be completed by 2012. Each building will have a different cultural theme – contemporary is the watchword – in keeping with the resort's original avant-garde image. Canny skiers who did not buy in Les Arcs will be reaching for their cheque books, for Flaine has just as much to offer.
Despite its modest altitude, Flaine has as a more reliable snow record than any resort of comparable altitude in France, thanks to the micro-climate created by nearby Mont Blanc. Snow cover is virtually guaranteed from early December until late April. Equally important is the high quality of the ski terrain, which extends to the traditional villages of Samoëns, Morillon, Les Carroz, and Sixt.
http://www.flaine.com/
Isola 2000
The purpose-built resort of Isola offers 120km of piste and was built by a British property company in the 1960s. Isola is the most southerly ski area in France but it is a particularly good place to find late-season snow. Created with families in mind, Isola has a decent collection of shops, bars, no-frills apartments and hotels, and a large, sunny nursery area. British skiers make up a large portion of the winter business, with many owning apartments in the resort.
The original building, unattractive and soulless Front de Neige Centre, is right on the slopes. More aesthetically-pleasing wood-clad additions behind it improve the resort's appeal. The ski area is limited, but varied enough for beginners, families with young children, and undemanding intermediates. A new gondola opened last season, greatly improving mountain access.
http://www.isola2000.com/
La Grave
For experts only. Rugged off-piste skiing on the glacial slopes of the mighty 4000m La Meije. The ski area is tenuously linked to Les Deux Alpes.
La Meije, which rises above the rugged little village of La Grave between Grenoble and Briançon, was the last great peak of the Alpes to be conquered. Local guide Pierre Gaspard finally reached the 3982m summit in 1877. This corner of L'Oisans is one of poorest, least populated, and most wildly beautiful areas of France, a place of jagged peaks and rushing waterfalls.
La Grave has some of the most demanding high-altitude skiing and snowboarding in Europe, with an extraordinary vertical drop of 2200m through dramatic glacial scenery.
The top of the ski area can be reached by a long gondola and drag-lift from La Grave or by a 20-minute hike from top of the ski area at Les Deux Alpes.
http://www.la-grave.com/
La Plagne
The giant ski area is made up of 10 mainly purpose-built villages set at different altitudes above the valley town of Aime. The skiing is linked by cable-car to Les Arcs and together they form Paradiski, one of the largest ski circuits in the world. Suits high mileage cruisers, beginners, families, and off-piste skiers. Alpine charm is in short supply in a couple of the higher villages.
La Plagne tries and often succeeds in being all things to all people. The lower villages of Montchavin, Montalbert, Les Coches, and Champagny-en-Vanoise have varying degrees of rustic farmland appeal, while the the six higher holiday centres major on ski convenience. On paper, La Plagne is the perfect ski destination with a long vertical drop, snow-sure high-altitude runs, ski-in ski-out hotels and apartments, and a sophisticated lift system. Runs below the tree-line are delightful. However, the endless acres of exposed and often bland snowfields higher up and the architecture of some of the dormitory villages are not to everyone's taste.
Paradiski – its combined ski area with Les Arcs – is so vast that even an experienced skier will be hard put to travel from one end to the other and back in a single day. The double-decker Vanoise Express, which spans the Ponturin gorge that separates the two resorts, cost €16 million to build and is a remarkable feat of engineering.
However, both La Plagne and Les Arcs are so enormous in their own right that only a small proportion of visitors to either make use of it. Unless you plan more than two trips to Les Arcs during a one-week stay it is more economical to pay the daily supplement. The main beneficiaries are skiers who choose to stay in Monchavin or Les Coches. Instead of hiking up through the lift system on the La Plagne side, they can explore the much more rewarding terrain above Vallandry and Arc 1800.
The original high-altitude resort of Plagne Centre (1970m) is outwardly a monument to the Alpine architectural atrocities of the 1960s but it has undergone a complete makeover down the years and functions well as a holiday centre. Aime-La-Plagne (2100m) resembles a battleship stranded on a white mountainside. Belle-Plagne (2050m) is easier on the eye with a pleasant village centre. Plagne-Bellecôte (1930m) is high-rise and plain. Plagne-Villages (2050m), Plagne-Soleil (2050m) and Plagne-1800 are much more agreeable wood-clad complexes built in sympathy with their glorious scenic surroundings.
Lower down the mountain, Montchavin and Champagny-en-Vanoise are rich in cowshed kitsch. These old farming villages that have long since been won over to tourism, but they make excellent and attractive bases from which to explore the region.
http://www.la-plagne.com/
Le Corbier
Le Corbier is part of Les Sybelles, one of the largest ski areas in the Maurienne Valley, sharing 300km of terrain with the neighbouring resorts of Les Bottières, St Jean d'Arves, St-Sorlin d'Arves and La Toussuire. The new Sybelles Express six-person chair-lift takes skiers up from the village centre to the top of Mont Corbier in eight minutes.
The skiing is ideal for beginners and lower intermediates.
http://www.le-corbier.com/
Les Arcs
Part of the giant Paradiski area linking the resort with La Plagne and providing snowsure, high-altitude skiing in purpose-built villages. Good terrain for all standards and abundant off-piste opportunities. Les Arcs was one of France's great new areas developed during the boom years of the 1960s. This was a time when every Parisian and quite a few others flocked to the Alps for at least one week each winter in search of snow, sunshine and a shoe box-sized apartment they could call their own.
Local skier, Robert Blanc, conceived the idea of building a series of villages at different altitudes on the mountain above his home town of Bourg-St-Maurice. Ex-Olympic champion, Emile Allais, lent his name to the project and the first village of Arc 1600 opened in 1968. Les Arcs has come a long way since then.
Villages at 1800 and 2000 were followed much more recently by the development of another at 1950. Intrawest, the giant North American resort developer, chose Les Arcs for the first of what are planned as a number of property-led commercial forays in the Alps.
Arc 1950 is now the focal point of the whole resort – with a true village ambience. The last apartment building will be completed in 2008. It provides sympathetic architecture and reasonably-priced apartments finished to a level not previously found in the French Alps.
The timing of initial construction coincided with the creation of Paradiski, the name given to the combined ski area of Les Arcs and adjoining La Plagne. Both resort lift companies are under the same ownership of the Compagnie des Alpes, who decided to link two of France's largest ski areas together to provide a rival to the Trois Vallées.
After years of discussion and oiling of the cogs of French bureaucracy, the 200-passenger double-decker Vanoise Express cable-car was built at a cost of €16 million across the deep Ponturin gorge that separates the two resorts. From the beginning, the lift company admitted that the number of visitors in either centre who would use the lift in any one week would not exceed 30 per cent. In reality the figure is much lower.
Nevertheless, skiers in both Les Arcs and La Plagne now have the daily choice of a quite stupendous amount of terrain. The hamlets of Vallandry, Peisey Nancroix and higher Plan Peisey beside the new lift have also developed as resorts in their own right.
The original village Arc 1600 remains the most compact and child-friendly. Arc 1800 is the largest and liveliest, soulless 2000 has guaranteed snow-cover but precious little else to commend it. Arc 1950 is the brave new heart of the resort. Les Arcs' founder Robert Blanc would be proud of it had he lived to see it. Sadly he died in an avalanche in 1980.
Les Deux Alpes
Large ski area with snowsure glacial slopes served by a modern lift system. Suited to novices, intermediate cruisers, families, and off-piste skiers in search of fresh challenges. The nightlife is some of the most frenetic in France.
Les Deux Alpes lies between Grenoble and Briançon in a remote corner of the Dauphiné. Its biggest asset is its high altitude, which allows skiing to continue throughout much of the year and makes it a popular venue for out-of-season ski and snowboard camps. It has been a ski resort since 1939 when a primitive rope-tow was installed. Unfortunately this fell down 15 minutes after the opening ceremony. Hostilities with Germany then got in the way of any further development plans until the late 1950s when a gondola paved the way for Les Deux Alpes becoming an important French resort.
The purpose-built village was conceived as a station de ski on the sunny balcony above the ancient community of Venosc to which it is connected by gondola but not by piste. Venosc, with its cobbled lanes, craft shops, and enticing restaurants provides a welcome contrast and a tranquil alternative bed base to the functional ski factory above it.
L2A sprawls along a narrow ledge below what were once the high summer pastures of sheep and goat farmers. The village lacks aesthetic appeal but is by no means an architectural eyesore on the scale of Tignes, Les Menuires, and other French resorts that developed during the the 1960s.
L2A is suited to all levels of skier and rider. However, lower intermediates should note that on the main mountain the gradient here is 'reversed'. Some of the easiest skiing is higher up on and around the glacier. The benefit of this is that complete beginners can learn against the panoramic backdrop of the high Alps rather than on a shaded sloped tucked away on the outskirts of a village. The downside is that newcomers and other inexperienced skiers will find the much steeper final descent to L2A beyond their capabilities. The alternative is to follows a narrow and often icy green path. This is not made easier by the number of better skiers whizzing by. Until you have gained sufficient confidence it makes sense to download by gondola.
Advanced skiers will want to explore the glacial terrain of La Meije, reached by a 20-minute hike from the top of the ski area to the 3568m Dome de la Lauze. From here you can ski all the way down to the ancient climbing village of La Grave.
Here and elsewhere in the L2A area it is important always to be aware that you are in high mountains where the weather can change within minutes. It is the kind of territory where anyone who goes off-piste without a qualified local mountain guide is risking their life. Even then, it is up to the individual to take overall responsibility for his or her own safety. Mountain guides, like everyone else, are fallible.
http://www.les2alpes.com/
Les Menuires
Large sunny purpose-built resort in the giant Trois Vallées area favoured by the budget-conscious who want to ski Méribel and Courchevel without the high cost of staying there. Suits all standards of skier and rider.
The ugly ducking of French ski resorts from the 1960s has grown positively handsome in middle age. A swan it is not, but Les Menuires has long since matured from the low-cost concrete dormitory that it once was into a comfortable and convenient ski base that lies 450 vertical metres short of Val Thorens up the winding road from Moûtiers.
The original eyesore of La Croisette had a makeover for the Albertville Olympics (the slalom events took place here) and then a couple of years ago the worst résidence was bulldozed to make way for a gleaming new MGM apartment block that has completely changed the aspect of the resort. The construction of a church also gave it physical, if not spiritual, soul providing a focal point for the real village that Les Menuires had finally become. Much of the new development is concentrated on the pleasant satellites of Reberty, Les Bruyères and Preyerand, slightly higher the hill, which have really become a resort in their own right with restaurants, shops, and bars (but no pharmacy – the only one is in La Croisette).
Inevitably the downside of this grand metamorphosis is that Les Menuires is no longer the bargain basement it once was. However, accommodation prices remain significantly lower than in the more fashionable big-name resorts of the Trois Vallées. Val Thorens, St-Martin de Belleville, and Méribel are easily reached on skis. A trip to the lower reaches of Courchevel is more of an expedition – a full day out with scarcely time to grab a quick lunch before beginning the homeward journey. Missing the last lift connections involves an expensive taxi ride home.
http://www.lesmenuires.com/
Meribel
Méribel is a sprawling chalet-style resort built originally by an Englishman on the mountainside above the valley town of Moûtiers. The most central and convenient base for fully exploring the giant Trois Vallées ski area. It offers an enormous amount of intermedate skiing and the widest choice of luxury chalets of any resort in Europe. Méribel vies with Val d'Isère for the title of the most popular resort in Europe for English-speaking skiers. It was founded in the late 1930s by British skier Colonel Peter Lindsay who, like other international racers, had boycotted St Anton in Austria and was looking for a new resort when he stumbled upon the scenic Les Allues valley.
The first lift was installed after World War II when Lindsay began developing the area in conjunction with French racer Emile Allais. He decreed that all buildings must be made of stone and wood with slate roofs in order to blend into their beautiful mountain environment. Méribel today has grown into a ski city that he would not begin to recognise. It stretches in different quartiers up the mountain from Méribel Village at 1400m to the top of Méribel Mottaret at 1800m. But, miraculously, his building regulations have been vigorously adhered to and, with the exception of the original buildings of Mottaret, Méribel avoided the concrete architectural horrors of the 1960s. The main village is also connected to the valley by a long gondola that climbs from the spa resort of Brides-Les-Bains.
Heart of the resort is Méribel 1450, which houses most of the shops, restaurants, and the lift hub of La Chaudanne. The bi-weekly street market provides colour. Other communities are situated off the dead-end road leading to the Altiport and on the edge of the wooded pistes leading into the resort. Confusingly, Méribel Village is not the main village but a modern satellite situated a 2km drive away from 1450, but linked by chair-lift into the ski area.
Méribel Mottaret is a higher satellite situated at 1750m on the road above Méribel 1450, and is a convenient base anyone wanting doorstep skiing and the best snow-cover. The different sectors of town are served by a ski bus which reporters complain is oversubscribed. Some walking is inevitable. Before booking accommodation – particularly for families with young children – it is important to find out where your hotel or chalet is located.
From Méribel a mighty network of lifts link Courchevel, La Tania, Les Menuires and Val Thorens to form one of the world's greatest intermediate playgrounds. However, so many English-speakers congregate here during the winter months that you could be forgiven for thinking that this was some sloping suburb of south-west London rather than a top French ski resort.
Montgenevre
Sole French component of the otherwise Italian Milky Way circuit, an unpretentious French border town with lots of charm, but blighted by road traffic
Montgenèvre, the ancient village on the Italian frontier is the only French component of the otherwise all-Italian Milky Way ski area which last season successfully hosted the XX Winter Olympics. Away from the main arterial road it is a pleasant, unspoilt rural French town with tumbledown stone houses and a weekly market selling local produce. Unfortunately it is blighted by through-traffic including heavy lorries en route from Turin to Briançon and beyond. However, reporters were impressed by the friendliness of the resort.
Skiing takes place on both sides of this road leading to the frontier. Montgenèvre's own area, beneath 2680m Le Chalvet, holds considerable charm and challenge, with runs for all standards leading back down to the village and across the border to Claviere. Snow-cannon were added to provide secure training slopes for the Olympic teams.
On the other side of the road, a gondola and a quad-chair provide direct access towards the Monti della Luna and the long runs to Cesana Torinese. Montgenèvre has a terrain park with a half-pipe in the Gondrans area. Reporters complain that the region has too many drag-lifts.
http://www.montgenevre.com/
Val D`Isere
Its dedicated fans – and they are legion – consider that Val and adjoining Tignes have the best off-piste skiing in Europe. This high-altitude glacial resort has a reliable snow record and modern lift system. Recommended for complete beginners, strong intermediates, and experts – but not for wobbly second-weekers. Busy nightlife, but light on gourmet restaurants for a resort of this size and sophistication. Val d'Isère combines with neighbouring Tignes to form one of the principal winter playgrounds of Europe. More British skiers go here than to any other resort in the world and amount to 36 per cent of the population during the winter months. Fortunately the French also favour it and prevent it from become altogether anglicised by providing an effective counter-balance.
Val is a cultural and social melting pot for dedicated skiers and riders from all over the world who are drawn by the high, rugged mountains at the head of the beautiful Tarentaise Valley.
The village, which stretches along the road from purpose-built La Daille to the farming outpost of Le Fornet, has smartened its appearance in recent years and can now be described as attractive. Wide pavements have been created where there were previously none. Mature trees have been transplanted to line the main commercial area, and the worst of the concrete edifices of the 1960s have been reclad in soothing wood.
Focal point is Val Village, a cluster of 'old' buildings housing smart boutiques. This was created for the 1992 Winter Olympics around the 11th-century church and the handful of genuine old farmhouses dating back to when the settlement was a hunting lodge for the Ducs de Savoie.
Val has grown in all directions in recent years and even the central area is now divided into different quartiers. Of the two satellites, La Daille has purpose-built ski convenience but little character. By contrast, burgeoning Le Fornet is becoming an increasingly attractive place in which to base yourself, although it's a long walk home to both from the nightlife that is entirely confined to the centre.
The Train Rouge, the resort's free bus service, runs with startling efficiency every few minutes during the day from one end of the resort to the other. Buses between Val and Tignes are neither as frequent or as cheap as you might expect. Parking is difficult, but having a car is useful for visiting Sainte-Foy or for trips to Paradiski (Les Arcs/La Plagne) and La Rosière. Val's biggest plus point is its altitude and geographical situation that create a snow-sure micro-climate. You can ski here from late November until early May and book a holiday in the certainty that you will not find green fields on arrival.
The piste-skiing is good, but to its ardent followers it is the easily accessible deep snow terrain that beckons. This is a high-mountain area that carries an ever-present risk of avalanche and should always be treated with the utmost respect. Fatal accidents – they happen each winter – are usually caused by inexperienced or ignorant skiers and riders ignoring warnings and venturing off-piste when it not safe to do so on the principal that 'it can't happen to me.' It can.
The ski area often takes a full day to fully reopen after a serious dump, and wise skiers head off for a day in the more sheltered and secure powder of Sainte-Foy. Conversely, the snow making facilities are world class and even the Pissaillas Glacier has now been fitted out, ensuring good snow in early season as well as for summer skiing in July. Radio Val d'Isère on 96.1FM gives bilingual weather and piste-grooming updates.
http://www.valdisere.com/