Used to Switzerland? The French ski resorts that will feel like home
The Ski Snug teamUpdated 12 October 20269 min read
We always go to Switzerland: Zermatt most years, Verbier with friends, Grindelwald when the children were small. We love that the resort is a real place, that the mountain in the window is the one on the postcard, and that a red is a run the whole family can ski. This year the group wants France and its huge linked areas. Fine, but we are not swapping the village for a resort built round the lifts, or the snow for something lower.
If that is you, the short answer is Val d'Isère. It grew from a real mountain village, it sits at 1,850 metres, higher than any Swiss village we cover, and 100 percent of the piste we measure there is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 3,205. It shares Espace Killy's 300 linked kilometres with Tignes, has more marked off piste itinerary than Verbier or Zermatt, and is upmarket by our read. What it asks of you is the gradient: French reds are steeper than the ones you know.
How we got there
We took the four Swiss resorts a British regular most likely knows, listed what each would be hardest to give up, and held all 17 French resorts we cover against that list, on our own measurements and our own read of each place. Three things fell out.
France's height mostly comes built for skiing. Our own guides describe Courchevel, Tignes, Val Thorens, La Plagne and Les Arcs as purpose built: very good, but not the village you know.
The old villages are mostly low. Seven of the 17 French resorts we cover read as traditional to us, and six are not snow sure on our measure, which asks for more than half the piste around the village at or above 1,800 metres and skiing that reaches 2,500 metres. The seventh is Saint-Martin-de-Belleville.
Polish is rarer. Five of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover read as upmarket to us. In France it is three: Courchevel, Megève and Val d'Isère.
What France gives you in return is size. Espace Killy and the Three Valleys, quoted at 600 kilometres, are genuinely linked. So the question is which French resorts keep what you would miss. Val d'Isère keeps the most; Chamonix keeps the mountain, Saint-Martin the village and the kind reds, Megève the polish.
The numbers, with the resorts you know alongside
Your Swiss resorts are the yardstick, not options. The French picks are in bold.
| Resort | Village | Top of the skiing, measured | Ski area | Steeper than one in four | Average red, measured | Piste at or above 1,800 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zermatt | 1,620 m | 3,869 m, a station shared with Cervinia | 322 km measured with Cervinia (360 km quoted) | 12% | 17.2% | 99% |
| Verbier | 1,500 m | 3,283 m | About 97 km of its own; 410 km is the Four Valleys pass | 19% | 20.2% | 84% |
| Grindelwald | 1,034 m | 2,496 m | 150 km from its own lifts | 15% | 18.3% | 59% |
| Val d'Isère | 1,850 m | 3,205 m | Espace Killy, 300 km, linked | 29% | 23.9% | 100% |
| Chamonix | 1,035 m | 3,222 m, the Grands Montets | Separate areas; 102.5 km measured | 39% | 27.0% | 70% |
| Saint-Martin-de-Belleville | 1,450 m | 2,691 m | Three Valleys, quoted at 600 km | 20% | 21.9% | 75% |
| Megève | 1,113 m | 2,402 m | Its own, 189 km measured | 20% | 23.1% | 15% |
Both steepness columns are measured from the runs themselves, and they are why a French piste map's colours can mislead you.
Val d'Isère: an old village, higher than any Swiss one we cover
- VillageVillage
- 1,850 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 3,456 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 300 km
Val d'Isère: 158 km of piste we measure. 90 km green and blue 57%46 km red 29%22 km black 14%
Plus 29 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Our matching puts Val d'Isère closer to Zermatt than any other French resort we cover, and a Zermatt or St Moritz regular will see why on the first evening: our guide describes a stone and timber village that grew from a real mountain settlement. At 1,850 metres it is the joint fifth highest village of the 55 resorts we cover, 230 metres above Zermatt's and 28 above St Moritz's, the highest of the 15 Swiss resorts we cover.
Of the piste we measure, 100 percent is at or above 1,800 metres, a share no resort we cover beats, up to 3,205 metres, so it is snow sure on our measure, and the season runs from late November to early May.
It is the bigger week, too: we measure 158 kilometres around the village alone, more than Zermatt's 150.5 and well over Verbier's 97, before the rest of Espace Killy. The off piste survives the move, with 28.7 kilometres of marked itinerary, the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover, against Verbier's 25.9 and Zermatt's 23.1. So do the evenings: lively is on its list, as it is on Verbier's.
The trade is the gradient. Twenty nine percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 19 at Verbier and 12 at Zermatt, and the reds average 23.9 percent, against 20.2 and 17.2. Even the blues, at 16.9, are about as steep as a Zermatt red, and the top is 664 metres below Zermatt's. Start on the gentle Solaise side.
Tignes is the same pass from a higher village, 2,100 metres, built for skiing by our read: the pick if height matters more than the village.
Chamonix: the big mountain, and a valley joined by train and bus
- VillageVillage
- 1,035 m
Chamonix: 103 km of piste we measure. 42 km green and blue 41%38 km red 37%23 km black 22%
Plus 44 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
If what you would miss most is the mountain, Chamonix is the French answer: a real working town under the biggest peak in the Alps, by our read, and the closest France comes to the Swiss way of doing a ski holiday. The town sits at 1,035 metres, one metre above Grindelwald, and the skiing is a string of separate areas along the valley, joined by a free ski bus and a little train rather than by lifts: more Jungfrau than Three Valleys. Brévent and Flégère face Mont Blanc, and Les Houches is gentle and tree lined for the family.
For a Verbier regular, it is the off piste: 44.3 kilometres of marked itinerary, the third most of the 55 resorts we cover and the most of the 17 French resorts we cover, and the Vallée Blanche from the Aiguille du Midi, skied only with a guide.
Now the warnings. Thirty nine percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, the joint second largest share of the 17 French resorts we cover, and the reds average 27.0 percent, the fifth steepest of the 55 resorts we cover and steeper than the average Swiss black. We measure 102.5 kilometres of piste, nearer Verbier's size than Espace Killy's. On snow we make no call: 70 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 3,222 on the Grands Montets. The Aiguille du Midi goes higher, but it is a mountaineering lift, not a piste top.
Saint-Martin-de-Belleville: an old village with snow, and reds nearest home
- VillageVillage
- 1,450 m
- Linked areaLinked
- 600 km quoted
Saint-Martin-de-Belleville: 75 km of piste we measure. 50 km green and blue 67%19 km red 25%6 km black 8%
Saint-Martin is an old Savoyard village inside the Three Valleys, traditional and quiet by our read, with authentic and foodie on its list. It is the one traditional French resort we cover that is snow sure on our measure: 75 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,691.
Of these four, it is also where French skiing feels most Swiss underfoot. The reds average 21.9 percent, close to St Moritz's 21.0 and Verbier's 20.2; of the 17 French resorts we cover, only Samoëns has gentler ones. Twenty percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against Verbier's 19, and our matching puts Saint-Martin second of the French resorts we cover for St Moritz.
The village side is small: we measure 75.1 kilometres, with 50.2 of green and blue, no marked itinerary and 6 kilometres of black. But it is a door into the Three Valleys, quoted at 600 kilometres and genuinely linked. The evenings are quiet; if half the group wants livelier ones, Val Thorens, buzzy and high by our read, is on the same pass.
Megève: the polish, built as France's answer to St Moritz
- VillageVillage
- 1,113 m
- Highest liftTop lift
- 2,350 m
Megève: 189 km of piste we measure. 104 km green and blue 55%62 km red 33%23 km black 12%
Plus 5 km of marked off piste itinerary, kept out of the piste total.
Megève is the pick for the St Moritz or Gstaad regular whose week is as much about lunch as the lifts: elegant and calm by our read, upmarket, traditional and quiet. Our guide describes a medieval village of cobbled lanes, a stone church tower, horse drawn sleighs and tables with long held Michelin recognition, and credits the Rothschild family with developing it as a French alternative to St Moritz. Our matching puts it closer to Gstaad than any other French resort we cover.
The skiing is gentle and generous: 189 kilometres measured in Megève's own domain, with 104.3 of green and blue, 20 percent of it steeper than one in four, and the gentlest blacks of the 17 French resorts we cover, averaging 23.3 percent.
The trade is the snow. The village is at 1,113 metres, 709 below St Moritz's, and only 15 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, against St Moritz's 97: not snow sure on our measure. Gstaad regulars already live with exactly that 15 percent; St Moritz regulars who go for the snow should think hardest about this one.
A French red is nearer a Swiss black than a Swiss red
Grades are set resort by resort, and the conventions differ between countries, so they do not compare across the border: a red in Verbier and a red in Val d'Isère are not the same run. The fair comparison is the measured gradient of every piste we hold:
| Average gradient | Blue | Red | Black |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 15.0% | 19.9% | 26.7% |
| France | 16.2% | 24.3% | 29.6% |
The average French red, at 24.3 percent, sits nearer the Swiss black, 26.7, than the Swiss red, 19.9, while a French blue, at 16.2, is gentler than a Swiss red. So a family that skis Swiss reds happily should spend its first French day on blues.
The resorts bear it out. Zermatt's reds average 17.2 percent and Grindelwald's 18.3, gentler than at any of the 17 French resorts we cover; only Samoëns matches the Swiss average, at exactly 19.9. Zermatt's share steeper than one in four, 12 percent, is the smallest of the 55 resorts we cover and Grindelwald's is 15. No French resort we cover gets that low: the gentlest, Samoëns, is at 19, Verbier's figure.
Two caveats: these are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch; and terrain elevation data is good, not survey grade. The direction is not in doubt.
Who should ignore all of this
Zermatt regulars who go for the height.
Zermatt's skiing reaches 3,869 metres, as high as any of the 55 resorts we cover, at the top station it shares with Cervinia, and the glacier skis all year. Of the 17 French resorts we cover, the highest skiing we measure is Tignes's 3,449 metres, 420 lower, and none skis year round.
Anyone who chose Switzerland for the car free village.
Zermatt and Wengen are car free. Of the French resorts we cover, the nearest is Les Arcs, whose higher villages our guide calls largely car free, and purpose built: the quiet street, not the old one.
So, which one
you want the nearest thing to your Swiss week, an old village with high snow, polish and off piste, on Espace Killy's 300 linked kilometres, and your group will ski steeper reds.
the mountain is the point, you like a real town and a valley you get around by train, and the strong skiers want the off piste.
you want a quiet old village that is snow sure on our measure, reds closest to the ones at home, and the Three Valleys on the pass.
the polish and the long lunch matter more than altitude, and you are used to Gstaad's snow rather than St Moritz's.
Of the three French resorts we read as upmarket, it is the only one that is snow sure on our measure and grew from an old village. It asks a Switzerland regular to change one habit: start the week on the blues.