It seems to have lost its way somewhat, and is now competing against southern French resorts like Risoul or Puy St Vincent, rather than the Premiership resorts further up the valley. It's more of a Nottingham Forest, or a Leicester City. It's certainly part of the history of skiing (born in 1976, aiming to be more human-scale than the big purpose-built resorts, jobs to stem the rural exodus). But it's no longer in the spotlight, and investment in the lift system over the years has been patchy.
That said, it has a big ski area (called, appropriately enough, La Grande Domaine), with more than 150k of pistes, shared with St Francois Longchamp, over in the Maurienne Valley. It is not entirely forgotten - Crystal feature the resort as one of its 33 French destinations in their 2011/12 brochure. And it's not entirely down-at-heel. Club Med are building a new 5 star, 1500 bed, centre, which appears to have divided the locals. To read more, see the French Wikipedia entry for Valmorel. To see more, click here:
The facilities will be open in summer - a big deal for resorts these days.
Just a few tips about Valmorel:
1. It's barely 30 mins from Albertville, so one of the handier resorts for a short trip
2. It's close to a very special valley (Ceillac), which is for ski rando only, has a couple of small hotels and, unusually, a gondola straight into the skiing. This would be a short ski stay with a difference. Locals advised me that the road up to Ceillac would be narrow and icy, so I went to...
3. Doucy-Combelouviere - a satellite suburb of Valmorel. The road up there was narrow but not icy, and it is a bit closer than Valmorel centre, with easy parking on the main road and a semi-fast lift into the skiing
4. St Francois-Longchamp. The more interesting skiing is on this side. The village isn't very appealing visually, but friendly. Do not expect to see many Brits.
5. Col du Mottet, on the Valmorel side. This is proper, high(ish) skiing.
6. Tour de France lovers will like the Col de la Madeleine. You can find the summer road sign. (I didn't).
www.valmorel.com
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