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Ski & Snowboard In France

Be prepared! Whether you’re heading to centuries-old towns like Chamonix, Val d’Isère and Megève, purpose-built resorts like Méribel, Courchevel and Val Thorens, or a resort that combines the two, like La Plagne, the skiing in France is BIG, perhaps beyond normal imagination. Once on the hill you will be amazed at the efficient lift system that lace together the slopes, trails and off-piste opportunities. Cable cars, chairs, gondolas, and draglifts all are well organized and allows huge numbers to be transported with minimal waiting. There are multiple interconnected fields and verticals of two or even three thousand metres (5-7,000 feet!). The blend of old villages and purpose-built resorts is perhaps most colourfully exhibited in L'Espace Killy, the world of famputs French skiing Jean-Claude Killy. It encompasses his hometown of Val d'Isere, a village that goes back many centuries, and Tignes, a 20th century complex that seems to have sprouted from the snow. The skiing terrain is connected and it is easy to move between the areas. In Tignes it is possible to ski 365 days a year, because of the wide glacier on which intermediate skiers can have a ball on. And getting to it is ... different. An underground f'unicular' or  'subway' travels underneath the glacier. There are no panoramic views on the way up but the reward comes when skiers emerge to see an area with 110 miles of trails cut through the snowfields and 57 lifts. And a vertical drop just short of a mile. Skiing in France is truly spectacular and iconic!

ALPE D'HUEZ
If a bicycle can make it during the Tour de France, then surely your car can  handle the sheer switchbacks en route to Alpe d’Huez? The 3,500 metre (11,000-foot) Pic Blanc dominates the scene, but south-facing Alpe d’Huez, perennially sunny under its winter coat of snow, is not in its shadow.

A great vacation spot for families, Alpe d’Huez’s compact lift system and myriad of runs feed into the village. Although it is an ideal destination for novices and intermediates, the resort’s two most famous runs are black. Sarenne, on its namesake glacier, offers perhaps the longest on-piste run in Europe at almost 16 km (10 miles). Then there’s the Tunnel, which starts steep, eases off as it blasts through the mountain, and before your eyes can adjust, drops off precipitously as you exit the tunnel. The main village of Alpe d’Huez is a varied assortment of hotels, shops and restaurants, a heated pool and skating rink.

CHAMONIX
The 'Chamoinx experince'! France's oldest ski resort has the world's highest lift-served vertical descent- 2,700 metres (9,200 feet) from the Aiguille du Midi peak on the hip of Mont Blanc, down into the city of Chamonix. It affords the experience of a lifetime-the spectacular run down the famed Vallee Blanche. The feeling of anticipation is palpable as the Aiguille du Midi cable car, seemingly hugging sheer clifs,  rises almost vertically over the north face of Chamonix’s Mont-Blanc.  At the top you walk through an ice tunnel out into the sunlight to hand your skis to your guide, who then ties you to other members of the party for a walk of several hundred metres down a slippery ledge. You hold onto a rope with a white knuckle grip, because you don't want to bounce back down to town! On the relative safety of a small plateau, you catch your breath and mount skis. The guide cautions that he must always be in front; he knows where the crevasses are. You only have to be told once.  It's a 2-4 hour adventure, depending on long you  take pictures of the unbelievable landscape.

What makes Chmonix so speical? For some it means a life-long dream of skiing the 12-mile long Vallée Blanche; for others a descent into Italy; for others still an off-piste trip down the L’Envers du Plan Glacier. Of course that’s only one side of Chamonix. The seven main ski areas that line this 14-mile long valley serve up some of the most memorable and scenic runs on the planet. The fact that you can’t actually see the main ski areas from town just adds to Cham’s mystique. But even beginners can work their way up from the quaint pistes of Savoy, Bossons and Planards to the intermediate terrain of Le Tour and Les Houches, and on to the heights of La Flégère, Le Brévent, and Les Grands Montets. Lifts, pistes and powder aside, the real beauty of Chamonix lies in the fact that for every extreme skier, or even ordinary expert, there is a non-skier or rank beginner who is getting just as much of a thrill from being here.

CHATEL
Perched on the border of France and Switzerland, Châtel is a charming old Savoyard village steeped in tradition. If it’s atmosphere you’re after, this is the right place. An open-air market draws locals and tourists on Wednesdays, and there are still many dairy farms in operation. Châtel has many and varied restaurants. You can dine seated on a milking stool in an ancient barn, sample the gastronomic Fleur de Neige, which serves some of the most unique regional dishes, or sip génépi in one of the cozy bars and clubs.  Châtel is a sizable ski area. There’s Super Châtel, mostly intermediate and novice terrain and the jumping-off point for the longer runs northward to Torgon and south to Morgins and beyond. Further south you can venture off to Le Linga and Avoriaz. Eleven beginner lifts rise right in the village, and a  children’s program  make this an ideal resort for families.

LA PLAGNE
A total of ten villages, six modern and four old, make up this mammoth area with 110 lifts. It is best known for its endless intermediate terrain (70 intermediate runs!) and family appeal.

La Plagne is the single largest ski area in Savoie. From the top of the Bellecôte, at 3,000 metres (10,660) feet, you can ski over glacier, across pasture land, past the tiny hamlet of Les Bauches and through pine forests before reaching the apple trees of Montchavin 2,000 vertical meters later. It is as scenic and serene as skiing can be. If you don’t have a guide or instructor to lead you off the centrally-located runs, try one of five different "Plagne Evasion" itineraries that wind through the Plagne Bellecôte, Belle Plagne, Les Coches and Montchavin sectors. Each itinerary, chosen for its scenery, snowcover and level of difficulty, is identified by the silhouette of an animal and marked with special signs.

And La Plagne is not without excitement! The blacks off Bellecôte are scenic but steep - their vertical drop top 1,000 metres. A smoother, but even faster, descent can be had on the kilometre lancé, the speed skiing run above Aime la Plagne.

Yet there is another side. La Plagne is still close to its traditional heritage. Many ski instructors shepherd livestock in the off-season; ancient stone shepherd huts dot the slopes; and rustic mountain restaurants serve hearty traditional fare. True, there are enclosed shopping arcades, 370 lift operators, skito the front door apartment complexes connected by covered passageways, and the Télémetro cablecar that connects the main multi-storied area of Plagne Centre to Aime la Plagne, a small city within a building. But, there are also 90 km's of cross-country trails, walking tours to the authentic mountain villages of "Le Versant du Soleil" across the valley from La Plagne, and guided visits to local baroque churches and cheese makers it still has the traditional French feel!

LES 3 VALLEES - Courchevel, La Tania, Les Ménuires, Méribel and Val Thorens.

You might wonder what one ski area could possibly be doing with 72 snow cats, 34 gondolas, and 1,230 snow guns? But ski just one day in Courchevel, Méribel or Val Thorens - three of the five resorts that make up Les 3 Vallées - and you’ll begin to understand. Individually they are huge; collectively they invite disbelief. A total of 200 lifts unites 283 marked runs-a lift to run ratio that makes waiting in line refreshingly rare.

The real beauty of Les 3 Vallées, which also includes the resorts of Les Ménuires and La Tania, lies not so much in the area’s size, however, as in its topography. The three roughly parallel valleys have such a variety of terrain and are so seamlessly linked that even a beginner can experience the thrill of traveling from resort to resort on skis. From peaks like Caron, Saulire and Tougnete you can drop down to glaciers, rock-studded couloirs or groomed intermediate trails. Steeps dive among the pines and cross-country trails loop through a national forest. Some ridgelines yield views of Mont-Blanc, others of Italy. A vast expanse of untracked powder might lead you to a baroque church, a stone shepherd’s hut or to one of 47 mountain restaurants. You can take lifts to a fourth valley, the Maurienne, or explore thousands of acres of off-piste terrain. There is even a glacier for sale, literally.

To "do" Les 3 Vallées the right way, you should hook up with one of the area’s 1,100 guides or instructors, especially if you want to make it home before the lifts stop running. On a classic round-trip itinerary from Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz) to Val Thorens via Méribel’s Mont de la Chambre, you will tally 13,800 feet of vertical. But there are at least as many ways of covering Les 3 Vallées as there are lifts.

However, Even equipped with a  gameplan and a guide, you will have to face facts: The Vallée de Belleville that stretches north from Val Thorens and includes the resorts of Les Menuires and Saint-Martin as well as countless scenic hamlets is much, much bigger than you (300 km miles of marked runs and 23,250 acres of off-piste). In every direction there are people skiing; tiny, happy specks weaving back and forth. The peaks of Péclet, La Masse and Caron pierce the sky.You can’t go wrong here. Les 3 Vallees is a lifetime of skiing.

LES ARCS
Welcome to daredevil central, a sleek purpose-built resort with a world-famous speed skiing course and a reputation for legendary off-piste skiing. This is a haven for snowboarders and skiers alike. Contemporary condhotels and residences dominate Les Arcs. The three levels of the resort are named after their altitude (in meters): Arc 1600, the most arklike of all; Arc 1800, the liveliest; Arc 2000, an Arctic space station. You can ski from the 10,583-foot Aiguille Rouge all the way down to the hamlet of Villaroger. Les Arcs attracts a younger crowd.

LES 2 ALPES
The village of les 2 Alpes nestles up to the ski slopes; the older more traditional part to the south, and the newer development to the north. The majority of the skiing stretches east of the base, including Glacier du Mont de Lans and Glacier de la Girose, which offer 400 acres of summer skiing (and 800 metres of vertical!). Below the glaciers hang the rugged off-piste runs of La Grave, known as the Alps’ most thrilling. West of the village is another, smaller ski sector which is interesting for less advanced skiers.

If you can tear yourself away from the skiing, two sights should not be missed: the ice grotto, a tunnel over 100 metres long with fantastic ice statues carved out of the glacier; and the village of Venosc with its ancient chalets, churches, fountains, sun dials and local crafts, including wood carving and painting, pottery, and weaving. (Just an eight-minute gondola ride from the center of Les 2 Alpes.) All four of the resort’s night clubs offer free taxi service from restaurants and back home again. For a quieter evening, try one of the many piano bars or pubs.

MEGEVE

If any place can be said to have star quality it is Megève. For many years it has been the destination for both films, actors, and the rich and famous. For those who choose not to travel on foot, the jingle of sleigh bells in the town’s main square announces the arrival and departure of festively painted carriages heaped high with blankets. Day and night, the queue of horse-drawn sleighs stands at the ready in the shadow of the church’s stone bell tower.

Certainly, a town this cinematic demands a perfect backdrop, and the surrounding mountains provide stunning scenery. The undulating peaks of Mont d’Arbois, Mont Joux, Mont Joly, Côte 2000, Rochebrune and the Massif du Jaillet are protected from the gale force of winter by the hulking Mont-Blanc and Grandes Jorasses. Gentle snows settle over the firs that carpet Megève’s knolls and valleys and border its 186 miles of runs. Here, the sun always seems to shine.

MERIBEL

Today, 65 percent of Méribel’s skiers - many of whom hail from Great Britain - are repeat visitors. Adn for good reason! So, if when you step from the renovated, 8-seater Pas du Lac gondola everyone seems to know exactly where they are going, it should come as no surprise. But even those who have stood at the top of Saulire many times before can only be stunned by 360 degree views stretching from the glaciers of the Vanoise National Park around to Mont-Blanc. From here, you can drop over the ridge into Courchevel or rack up non-stop vertical on Méribel’s 120 km (80 miles) of runs that drop from ridgeline to valley floor.

For a 2200 (6,890-foot) vertically-loaded lesson in mountain topography, follow a guide from wind-swept Saulire down through pine and deciduous forests to Brides-les-Bains. For more powder and fewer trees, try the steep, open reds of Mont Vallon. You’ll be skirting the edge of the Vanoise National Parc as you head back toward Mottaret, the more modern satellite village of Méribel. If you’re returning from further afield (read Courchevel or Val Thorens), you can cruise-control down one of the many runs that lead back to Méribel and Mottaret.

MORZINE

Access to 400 miles of runs served by 228 lifts could spoil a place less grounded in its roots than Morzine, one of eight French resorts and seven Swiss that make up the Portes du Soleil ski circuit. Gabled roofs are clad in locally-mined slate, facades adorned with hand-carved wooden balconies. Recipes for dishes like shepherd’s soup and farcement have been handed down for generations. Perhaps the greatest tradition though is the family-run hotel where owners are known to take guests skiing by day and sledding by night. There are no four-star properties here, but half of Morzine’s 70 hotels have heated swimming pools. And then there’s the skiing.

From the 4,000-vertical-foot drop of the World Cup Vuarnet black and the above-tree line cruisers off Les Hauts-Forts to the fir-lined runs of Pleney and the powdery bowl of Chamossière, the combined areas of Morzine and neighboring Avoriaz virtually define variety. Cross-country trails overlook the Morzine Valley, follow the Dranse and Manche Rivers, and circle the pristine Lac de Montriond for a total of 60 miles. Lift rides culminate in breathtaking views of Mont-Blanc, the Dents du Midi and even Lake Geneva.

TIGNES

Looking at the shimmering reflection of snow-capped peaks in the tranquil waters of Chevril Lake, it’s hard to imagine that the original village of Tignes lies submerged there.

Just above the dam that formed Chevril, a new  resort on the threshold of one of the world’s greatest ski domains, L’Espace Killy, stands above treeline. Its villages of Le Lac, Le Lavachet and Val Claret are miniature alpine cities with only the towering peaks of Tovière, La Grande Motte and La Grande Casse to give them scale. Les Boisses, just above the dam, and Les Brevieres, just below, are quaint Savoyard outposts linked to the resort by ski lift, and the only remnants of days gone by. At the pinnacle of Tignes, La Grande Motte accesses enough skiing to occupy you for a week. But, that is merely the tip of the glacier when you can sample the vast recesses of La Tovière, Lavachet, Palet, Aiguille Percée, Palafour and the rest of L’Espace Killy (Tignes and Val d’Isère). Off the beaten piste and off the backside of Tignes rambles Aiguille Percée (pierced needle), marked by its namesake rocky pinnacle with a needle’s eye hole. Tignes attracts a crowd that likes to burn the p-tex at both ends. After the lifts stop, live jazz and rock beckon until all hours.

VAL D'ISERE

People tend to wear themselves out on Bellevarde, Val d’Isère’s most popular run, but what a mistake when there are 123 others in L’Espace Killy - the combined areas of Val and neighboringTignes - not to mention a Pandora's box of off-piste possibilities. You can take a ride on the rollercoaster known as Solaise, which has the distinction of being able to entertain beginner and expert alike. And once you’re warmed up, you can try your luck on O.K.’s Colombin bump.

This legendary run named for Val d’Isère’s greatest champions, Oreiller and Killy is not for feeble quads. You might book a guide and head off-piste to the remote and rugged Iseran pass, or follow the Isère river bed along the Col Pers, where the only other tracks you’ll see are those of chamois, ibex, hares and weasels.

If you’re not up to the big-time skiing on high, you can always ride the seven learning lifts at the base of the mountain at no charge. Just steps from these sunny, protected runs is your hard-earned reward for mastering the snowplow turn: half a dozen cafés and restaurants spilling onto the snow.

TOP 10 REASONS TO SKI FRANCE

1. THE WORLD'S LARGEST SKI AREA. France offers many interconnected ski areas, just one of which boasts 400 miles of groomed slopes and 200 lifts — the size of the 6 largest American resorts put together. and what's more they are all accessible with one ski pass!
2. MORE BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. The price of a ski-pass in France is about 30% less than American resort passes. This, plus low-cost, off-season airfare to Europe, the strong dollar, and the expanse of the ski area make France the Greatest Value in the World.
3. THE BEAUTY & CHARM OF FRENCH ALPS. Discover the magic of French Alps, the warmth of the people, their history and the mystery of the Alps and the Mont-Blanc, the "roof-top of Europe".
4. GASTRONOMY & ART DE VIVRE. The slopes dotted with restaurants where weary skiers can bask in the sun and enjoy five-course meals, sampling regional specialties and wine, while down in the resort charming bistros and distinguished Michelin-starred restaurants abound.
5. APRES-SKI AND NIGHT LIFE. For every taste, there is exciting nightlife in the French Alps: restaurants, bars, jazz clubs, casinos, discotheques, classical music concerts, festivals and celebrations... the true French Savoir-Faire!
6. COZY AND COMFORTABLE ACCOMMODATIONS. A wide selection of charming, boutique hotels, luxurious accommodations, apartments and chalets built in the wooden Savoyard-style and a friendly, English-speaking staff to cater to your every need.
7. EXCELLENT SNOW AND SLOPE CONDITIONS. In the French Alps, snow is generally guaranteed from mid-December through mid-May, 75% of the slopes are groomed, and technologically advanced lift systems whisk skiers to the vast, clearly marked ski terrain, making lift lines virtually non-existent. Off-piste adventures are also a favourite!
8. ALL LEVELS, ALL SPORTS WELCOME. Whether a beginner or an advanced free-rider, whether an avid alpine skier or a snowboarder, visitors to the French Alps have the space and freedom to practice their chosen sport.
9. HEAVEN FOR THE NON-SKIER. Besides the many alternatives to skiing (snow shoeing, sledding, snow-mobiling, nature walks and hikes...), there is incredible sightseeing in the Alps and in the neighbouring towns and villages of the "Rhone-Alps" area of France.
10. FAMILIES WELCOME. In France, there is a passionate respect for nature, for the mountains and for winter sport that is shared as a family and passed down from one generation to another. In this spirit, families and children are warmly welcome in all resorts.

The Five Ski Destinations of France

 Ski Fields in The Alpes and Jura areas

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