France Ski Vacation

The French Alps are famed for their skiing. France hosted the first Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix in 1924. Chamonix is home to the highest mountain peaks in the Alps, including the famous 15,632-foot Mont Blanc. Chamonix is the epicenter of skiing, and just 25-minutes trip to Italy through the Mont Blanc tunnel or to Switzerland via the Col des Montets. Chamonix offers 145 trails including the most famous Le Brevent, Vallée-Blanche, and Grands Montets, plus over 30,000 acres of off-piste skiing and snowboarding terrain.

Courchevel is part of Les Trois Vallées Ski Area, along with Val Thorens and Meribel. Les Trois Vallées are ranked in order of elevation, starting with Courchevel 1300 (meters) and a charming Savoyard village. Courchevel 1850 is the highest with the most upscale resort of French ski hotels, restaurants, and nightclubs – this is where the rich and famous Europeans ski. Méribel is perhaps France’s most well-designed ski resort in Les Trois Vallées, with efficient lifts and a great ski village with extensive après ski and Meribel nightlife too.

Verbier St Bernard is part of the Les 4 Vallées with 89 lifts connecting four ski valleys and over 410-kilometers of trail skiing. The highest elevation skiing at Verbier is on the glacier of Mont Fort at 10,925-feet. 

Val d’Isère, also called Paradiski and L’Espace Killy for the famous French ski racer Jean Claude Killy, has over 300 kilometers of skiing including the resort of Tignes all interconnected by 90 lifts. Val d’Isère hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics, and is home to some of the most famous ski terrain of the French Alps like the men’s downhill Bellevarde Face. Val d’Isère's après ski, French cuisine, and nightlife is impressive too - very Savoie.

See our review of skiing the French Alps of Villard de Lans as well.