Skiing in France

France is in many respects the world’s leading ski nation. It is certainly the leading ski holiday destination for the British, taking up more than 40% of the market, nearly three times as many as its closest rival, Austria, which in the 1970s was our number one destination.

The country has more than 300 ski areas, of which several, including Montgenevre and la Clusaz, have recently celebrated more than a century of winter sports. France has held the Winter Olympics on numerous occasions, including the first games in Chamonix in the 1920, when downhill skiing was at last taken seriously enough to be considered a competition sport.

French ski areas

In the skiing world France is perhaps best known for having the world’s biggest lift-linked ski areas, most noteworthy the giant Three Valleys with its 600km (375 miles) of runs, the world’s biggest. But it also has more than half of the world’s top-ten largest areas with giant domains. These include:

• Les Portes du Soleil with more than a dozen mostly lift-linked ski resorts in France and Switzerland;
• L’Espace Killy shared between Tignes and Val d’Isere;
• Paradiski linking La Plagne and Les Arcs by the spectacular Vanoise Express double-decker 200 passenger cable car.

You can ski over the border from France in to Andorra (Portes des Neige), Italy (La Rosiere to La Thuile) and Switzerland over the famous ‘Wall’ run of the Portes du Soleil between Avoriaz and Champery. This cross border route can also be covered on a ski lift. You can ski the world’s longest lift-served run at the Vallee Blanche above Chamonix which also offers one of the world’s biggest lift-served verticals.

Accommodation

Many of the most famous French ski resorts of the modern era have been ‘purpose-built’ over the past 30-50 years, and are communities that can cater for tens of thousands of guests a day.

On the one hand these purpose-built centres have a reputation for great convenience for skiers with all facilities to hand, on the other they can be criticised for unimaginative architecture and lack of character.

Most of these resorts are made up of apartment-style accommodation and these were criticised in the 1970s and 1980s for being very cramped (the fact that they were also very cheap was not criticised!). However, many of these have now been demolished or refurbished in to more spacious and luxurious apartments, often with facilities like swimming pools and saunas on site.

Although apartments remain the dominant type of accommodation, hotels have also been growing in popularity and, whilst a resort with 10,000 guest beds might formerly have had one low-starred hotel, today there may be half a dozen rated up to four star (the highest category in France).

Another change is that these apartment blocks, once owned outright by large corporate developers, are now more likely to follow the North American model of being owned by private investors, often Britons, who rent them out for the season through agencies. This again means there’s more likely to be a personal touch and pride in the buildings.

A third option, traditionally preferred by the British market, is for catered chalets. These are to be found particularly in British destination favourites such as Meribel, Morzine, Courchevel, Chamonix and Megeve, and in most other leading French resorts too, although in lesser numbers.

Cheap skiing

Travel and accommodation costs are amongst the lowest in the ski world in many cases, as apartments are quite affordable, especially if four to eight people fill one so that there are no under-occupancy supplements.

On lift ticket cost you can find the full range from Europe’s most affordable at about 130 Euros a week in a small ski area to nearer double that and the continent’s most expensive at one of the giant pass regions (the 800km/500 mile area around Chamonix comes top).

Family skiing

France leads the world in its nursery provision for children, most major resorts having nursery facilities for babies from a few months old, with ski school available for an increasingly long portion of the day, from age three onwards. Apartment accommodation is generally family friendly and many of the altitude resorts are car free.

There are mixed reports of the Ecole de Ski Francais, the national ski school which operates in all resorts. Whilst some families have no complaints, many others have had less happy experiences with non-French children in groups left to struggle. Those booking through us rather than independently are well looked after in all-British groups.

There is no sign to an end of France’s dominance of the UK market and, as the country has some of Europe’s highest slopes, with year round snow, and is investing in snowmaking and replacing drag lifts with chairs and gondolas for a superior on-mountain experience, there’s no reason why its popularity should decline in the foreseeable future.