10 Picture-Perfect Ski Resorts to Stay At in France

by

Le Point

December 3, 2019

An escape to the Alps or Pyrénées would be a dream in the winter. Shredding on the slopes, staying in a cozy chalet, warming up with vin chaud, enjoying Savoyard classics like fondue and raclette… Here are 10 addresses in the French mountains perfect for spending a weekend living like winter royalty. The prices listed are for December, so if you want to save a few (hundred) euros, pick a February or March weekend for your hiver getaway.

1. Les Chalets du Mont d’Arbois

Where: Megève
Opening: December 13
Ranking: 5-star hotel
Mood: reinvented Savoyard Rothschild. Under the leadership of Pierre-Yves Rochon, Thierry Curty creates a clever blend of timeless mountain coziness and contemporary elegance that Four Seasons, which manages the hotel, has made its trademark.
Amenities: 41 rooms in three chalets, two of which can be privatized; a Michelin-starred restaurant; a yurt where you can enjoy Savoyard specialities; a bar with terrasse; a lounge with a fireplace; a Bamford spa and a club for children.
Winter sports: The ski lifts are very close. The Idéal suite is actually installed at the top of the Mont d’Arbois slopes.
— From 660€ per night in December. website here.

2. MiL8

Where: Avoriaz
Opening: December 14
Ranking: 4-star hotel
Mood: Very local, the architecture of the MiL8 incorporates all the usuals of a ski chalet — wood, tavillons, sloping facades, snow-bearing roofs — while the decoration, contemporary and warm, plays with styles and materials.
Services: 42 rooms, a restaurant, a bar, a children’s area and a wellness center with swimming pool and massage cabin.
Winter sports: Slopes are accessible on foot.
— From 250€ per night in December. website here.

3. Club Med

Where: L’Alpe-d’Huez
Opening: December 15
Ranking: Club de vacances 4 tridents
Mood: Completely modern and refreshing thanks to the interior design duo Marc Hertrich and Nicolas Adnet, whose work at L’Alpe-d’Huez is their twelfth collaboration with the brand.
Amenities: 441 rooms; two restaurants; a Payot spa; two swimming pools (one inside and one outside) and a children’s club (from 4 months to 7 years old).
Winter sports: This all-inclusive offer, customary of Club Med, includes ski and non-ski winter activities. The slopes are in walking distance.
— booking / rates here. website here.

4. Mademoiselle

Where: Val-d’Isère
Opening: December 19th
Ranking: 5-star hotel
Mood: Medieval chic. A theme fully assumed down to the last detail by the architect Christophe Tollemer, who is experienced in the art of historical reinterpretation: he handled the decoration of Les Airelles, in Courchevel, and La Bastide, in Gordes.
Amenities: 41 rooms, including five apartments with butlers; two restaurants; a large terrasse; a Guerlain spa; a wellness area with swimming pool, and a children’s club.
Winter sports: The hotel is ideally located between the ski lifts and the bottom of the slopes, providing perfect access to the mountain.
— From 850€ per night in December. website here.

5. Grand Hôtel du Le Soleil d’or

Where: Megève
Opening: December 6
Ranking: 5-star hotel
Mood: Gourmet and voluptuous, since everything here, from materials to tones, promises to enhance the flavors of spices and chocolate.
Amenities: 16 rooms and three chalets with hotel services; a kitchen designed by Flora Mikula; a panoramic bar; a chocolate factory; a wellness area with swimming pool and Gemology treatments.
Winter sports: Access to the slopes via the Chamois cable car.
— From 275€ per night in December. website here.

6. Amaya

Where: Les Saisies
Opening: On December 21
Ranking: Luxury hotel residences
Mood: Canada’s far north embodied in the colors of armchairs and drapes, and in imagery (caribou, buffalo, polar bears).
Amenities: 44 apartments from two to five rooms (4 to 10 people) divided into three chalets; a lounge with fireplace; a lounge bar; a wellness center with swimming pool and children’s areas.
Winter sports: Direct access to the Carrets slopes and therefore to the Espace Diamant.
— From 920€ the week of January 11th in a two-room (4 pers.) apartment. website here.

7. Base Camp Lodge

Where: Bourg-Saint-Maurice
Opening: currently
Ranking: elevated hotel and youth hostel
Mood: Functional and urban, with a nod to the region: bedside lamps in the shape of a fir tree, headboards evoking the ridge lines, cable car mirrors…
Amenities: 106 rooms, four dormitories and nine individual spaces; a restaurant; a bar; a panoramic terrasse and a fitness room.
Winter sports: The new funicular allows you to reach slopes of Arc 1600 in seven minutes.
— From 15€ per night in a dormitory and 49€ in room in December. website here.

8. Le Coucou

Where: Meribel
Opening: December 12
Ranking: 5-star hotel
Mood: Upscale. Pierre Yovanovitch delivers a reinterpretation of the usuals of mountain decor where the traditional wooden cuckoo clock rubs shoulders with geometric prints, rounded shapes, dodo chairs and works of art.
Amenities: 55 rooms and two chalets with hotel services; two restaurants including a Beefbar and an Italian one; a bar; a smoking room; a Tata Harper spa; an indoor/outdoor pool and two children’s clubs.
Winter sports: Slopes are accessible on foot.
— From 640€ per night in December, breakfast included. website here.

9. L’Armancette

Where: in the quaint village of Saint-Nicolas-de-Véroce, on the peaks of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains
Opening: currently
Ranking: 5-star hotel
Mood: Very personalized. The design is based on the singularity of the furniture (Italian), the fabrics (mainly Missoni) and the materials (green marble from India, blue granite from South America…).
Amenities: 17 rooms and, starting December, three chalets with hotel services; a restaurant run by the former three-star chef Antoine Westermann; a bakery; a tea room; a Kos spa with swimming pool and a children’s club.
Winter sports: Access to the slopes via the Chef-Lieu chairlift, exclusively pedestrian and the last of its kind in the Alps.
— From 693€ per night in December. website here.

10. Ecrin Blanc

Where: Courchevel
Opening: December 20
Ranking: 4-star hotel
Mood: chic resort for the family, as well as leisure travelers and business clientele.
Amenities: 127 rooms; two restaurants; a food truck, a pizza grill; two bars and a children’s club (from 4 to 17 years old).
Winter sports: Direct access to Courchevel 1850 (named so for its altitude of 1,850 meters) thanks to the new chairlift Les Grandes Combes as well as to the Aquamotion (15,000 square meters of indoor aquatic space) via a private tunnel.
— From 289€ per night in December. website here.