FRENCH SKI RESORT LEAGUE TABLES (3): "Bien-etre et detente"

The final league table published by Alpes magazine looked at "bien-etre et detente" - again the translation "well-being and relaxation" feels a bit cumbersome.

Anyway, what the authors said they were looking for are:


...resorts for whom skiing is not everything, places where it's just as important to be close to nature, or simply to relax.  We've chosen resorts situated below 1500 metres, where it's the way of life, often symbolised by the small village and its clocktower, that is sought after - a certain "authenticity"...

The resorts were rated under the following categories:

Kms of snow-shoe walking trails
Sport
* Dog sledding
* Toboggan tracks
* Organised snow-shoeing activities
Whether or not they have a spa
Historic events
* Evening presentations etc
* Visits to the farm (!)
* Museums
Culture/activities
* Art galeries
* Markets
* Concerts
* Cinema
Other activities (eg guided tour of station, thermal baths)
Price of lift pass
Price of accommodation

And the winner is....Serre-Chevalier...which also came in 7th on the Grand Ski league tables, which makes it probably The Best All-Round Resort in France?  I've only been in summer, so can't comment.

The full listing includes some familiar names - and indeed all offer "Grand Ski" as well, in the form of a local area of 100kms plus:
1.  Serre-Chevalier (scores consistently: the ski-joering/horsey things and thermal-type baths seem to have won it)
2.  Megeve (would have won but marked down on price...)
3.  Chatel (the judges like the "famille-montagne" badge; again, marked down on price)
4. Valmorel
5. Saint-Gervais
6. Combloux
7. La Clusaz
8. Chamonix
9. Crest-Voland (click here for more on CV)
10. Brides-les-Bains
11. Saint-Martin-de-Belleville
12. Meribel

FRENCH SKI RESORT LEAGUE TABLES (1): "Le Grand Ski"

A couple of seasons ago, Alpes magazine ran a special issue called "La Palmares des Stations".   This ranked the different resorts under a series of categories.

The first is "Le Grand Ski" - ie an Ofsted-style league table aimed at those for whom the skiing is everything.

The magazine devised a complex scoring system which included:

- Height of top lift
- Vertical descent
- Range of pistes (see below)
- No of pistes
- Access to big ski area
- Events, competitions, etc
- Price of lift pass
- Price of accommodation

Perhaps the most interesting stat is the one on range of pistes.  They calculated the % of reds and blacks as a % of all pistes.  The higher the %, the greater the score - I've set this in brackets below.

Anyway, the winner is.....Alpe d'Huez, which got maximum scores on both height of top lift, vertical drop and number of pistes, as well as on price of accommodation (Serre Chevalier, Le Corbier, Chamrousse and Villard-de-Lans all did well here, too.  Courchevel, and indeed the Trois Vallees generally, did not.

Here is the full ranking (% red/black pistes):

1.  Alpe d'Huez (44)
2.  Les Arcs (48)
3.  La Plagne (33)
4.  Val Thorens (52)
5.  Vars (45)
6.  Chamonix (49)
7.  Serre-Che (50)
8.  Val d'Isere (44)*
9.  Tignes (47)
10. Les Menuires (51)
11. Meribel (43)
12. La Clusaz (37)
13. Chamrousse (48)
14. Avoriaz (43)
15. Courchevel (36)
16. Montgenevre (58)
17. Le Corbier (25)
18. Allos 1800 (51)
19. Villard-de-Lans (51)
20. Chatel (45)
21. Isola 2000 (26)

* Clearly, this assumes that all piste gradings are the same, which of course they aren't - cf the savage "blue runs" around Val d'Isere....