Like Grindelwald, but in France: the gentle family week, or the snow?

Our matching puts Samoëns nearer to Grindelwald than any other French resort we cover, and it keeps both of the things we tag Grindelwald with, traditional and family, and adds quiet. Our read of it is authentic and calm: a listed old village with a big area above it, best for its historic village, families and value.

It skis like Grindelwald, too. Forty percent of its piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 42, and only 19 percent is steeper than one in four, the smallest share of the 17 French resorts we cover. Its reds average 19.9 percent, the gentlest of the French resorts we cover and close to Grindelwald's 18.3. And for the long run home that a Grindelwald skier remembers, the longest piste we measure at Samoëns is a 6.3 kilometre red with 867 metres of vertical, against 5 kilometres and 700 at Grindelwald.

The trade is height and scale. The village is at 720 metres, 314 below Grindelwald and the lowest of the 17 French resorts we cover. The skiing tops out at 2,372 metres by our measure, 124 below, and only 18 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, against 59. Around the village we measure 89.5 kilometres, against 132, and 9 kilometres of black against 19. It is not snow sure on our measure, and in a thin winter that will show.

Les Gets is the other of the three we tag traditional and family. Our read is warm and traditional, a pretty village at the gateway to the Portes du Soleil, best for families, tree skiing and a charming village. At 1,172 metres the village is 138 above Grindelwald's, the nearest of the three in height.

The easy skiing is a near copy. There are 55 kilometres of green and blue around Les Gets, level with Grindelwald's 55 of blue and easier, and we measure 99 kilometres of piste in all. Beyond that, the Portes du Soleil is one genuinely linked circuit of twelve villages across two countries, 580 kilometres on our measure against 600 official, so the size of the network outruns anything Grindelwald's lifts reach.

What you give up is all of the height. The skiing tops out at 1,965 metres by our measure, 531 below Grindelwald's top and the lowest of the 17 French resorts we cover, and 1 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres. The blacks, what there is of them, are steep, averaging 33.2 percent, and there is no marked itinerary. It is a lovely village and a low one.

If what worries you about Grindelwald is the snow, Serre Chevalier is the French answer. It is snow sure on our measure: 72 percent of the piste we measure is at or above 1,800 metres, up to 2,751 metres, 255 above Grindelwald's top. It is bigger, too, 153 kilometres around its villages, 21 more than Grindelwald, with 91 kilometres of green and blue, and the gentle share is close, 38 percent against 42. Our read is relaxed and sunny, sun, trees and a string of old villages.

What changes is the feel underfoot. Twenty-seven percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, nearly double Grindelwald's 15, and the reds average 24.9 percent against 18.3. The steep share is the biggest difference our matching finds between the two. We tag it quiet but neither traditional nor family, and the village, at 1,350 metres, is 316 above Grindelwald's. A confident family will like the height; a nervous one will notice the reds.