The Sarenne is the headline. A black run of sixteen kilometres drops off the back of the glacier and it is the longest of its kind in the Alps. Beyond it there is wide intermediate terrain, reliable sunshine and good gentle areas for beginners right in the village.

Alpe d'Huez sits on a south facing balcony above the Romanche valley. It is large, purpose built and functional, with apartments dominating and hotels at the top end, plus a swimming pool and an ice rink in the resort itself. It shares lifts with the quieter old villages below at Vaujany, Oz and Auris, and Vaujany is a real village with a cable car of its own and a good answer if you want quiet without losing the area. Take the Pic Blanc lift on a clear morning for the view, which reaches across a fifth of France on the right day. The twenty one hairpins of the road up are famous from the Tour de France, and the resort has an aerodrome that takes light aircraft directly.