The closest large French area to Geneva, around an hour away, which makes long weekends realistic. Five villages sit above the Giffre and Arve valleys, and the summit at the Grandes Platières above Flaine reaches 2500 metres with the whole Mont Blanc range in front of you. Flaine at the top is concrete Bauhaus that people either admire or cannot look at, and it is the one closest to reliable snow. Samoëns and Les Carroz below are proper villages with old squares and weekly markets, and Morillon sits between lake and alpine pasture.

Confident intermediates do best here. The long blue that drops from the top station into the gorge at Sixt is the run everyone remembers afterwards, and you can ski a full tour of the area without taking your skis off. Keep a morning free for the Samoëns market, and take lunch at a mountain restaurant on the Grandes Platières when the weather is clear.