Like St Moritz, but in France: the altitude travels, the lake does not

Our matching puts Tignes nearer to St Moritz than any other French resort we cover, and the snow is why. The village is at 2,100 metres, the second highest of the 55 resorts we cover and 278 above St Moritz. The skiing reaches 3,449 metres by our measure, the highest of the 17 French resorts we cover and 183 above your top. The snow sure share is level: 97 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres at both, joint fifth of the 55 resorts we cover. And the season runs late November to early May, longer at both ends than St Moritz's December to April.

The mountain has a familiar temperament. Twenty-five percent of the piste is steeper than one in four, against 24, and 30 percent is gentler than 15 percent, against 28. Both have steep blues: Tignes's average 17.6 percent, the second steepest of the French resorts we cover, and St Moritz's 16.4 percent, the second steepest of the Swiss resorts we cover. Both have kind blacks, too: Tignes's average 23.5 percent, the third gentlest of the 55 resorts we cover, against your 25.5.

What it adds is joined up skiing. Espace Killy is one linked 300 kilometre area, shared with Val d'Isère, where St Moritz asks you to travel between mountains. Around Tignes we measure 75.9 kilometres of green and blue against your 30 of blue and easier, and 14.2 kilometres of marked itinerary, where around St Moritz we measure none.

What you give up is everything off the snow. Tignes is purpose built, and our read on it is practical and high: a place made for skiing, not for being seen. There is a frozen lake, but it holds an ice rink rather than polo and racing. If you want more polish on the same lifts, our guide to Tignes calls Val d'Isère its glossier neighbour.

La Plagne's village is at 1,800 metres, just 22 below St Moritz, so the feeling of waking up high carries over almost exactly. Then the scale changes. We measure 202.5 kilometres of piste around the village, the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover and nearly twice your 106, and Paradiski, shared with Les Arcs across the Vanoise Express, is 425 kilometres, all linked.

It is far kinder at the easy end. There are 127.9 kilometres of green and blue, the fifth most of the 55 resorts we cover and more than four times St Moritz's blue and easier, and 39 percent of the piste is gentler than 15 percent, against 28. There is more at the top end too: 28 kilometres of black, the fourth most of any resort we cover, against your 16. And if you have ever paid a pilot to take you down the Olympia Bob Run, La Plagne has its own Olympic bobsleigh track that visitors can ride.

The trade is height at the top and the whole social side. The skiing reaches 3,022 metres by our measure, 244 below St Moritz's top, and 80 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, still snow sure on our measure. Our read on La Plagne is practical and friendly, built across ten villages for families and value. It is a week for a group that wants miles of easy skiing, not a social calendar.

Part of St Moritz's pull is that it is a real place with a past, not a resort built for skiing. Saint-Martin-de-Belleville is the French answer to that: an old Savoyard village, traditional and quiet by our read and known for its food, sitting inside the Three Valleys, which is quoted at 600 kilometres and genuinely linked.

On the measurements it is gentler than St Moritz. We measure 75 kilometres of piste around the village, with 50.2 kilometres of green and blue, more than your 30 of blue and easier, and only 20 percent steeper than one in four. The reds average 21.9 percent against your 21.0, so the everyday skiing feels familiar. It is snow sure on our measure: 75 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,691.

The trade is height and buzz. The village is at 1,450 metres, 372 below St Moritz, and the skiing around it tops out 575 metres lower. There are only 6 kilometres of black close by. And quiet means quiet: this is not a place with a social calendar. It suits a St Moritz regular who goes for the food and the peace, not the scene.