Four villages strung along the mountainside above Bourg Saint Maurice, linked by cable car to La Plagne to form Paradiski. Around 70 per cent of the pistes sit above 2000 metres, so the snow record is strong, and two glaciers sit at the top of the system. Arc 1950 is the one to look at first. It is pedestrianised, built in warm stone and wood rather than concrete, and almost everything in it is ski in and ski out. The other villages are more functional, and 1600 and 2000 are plain by comparison, though they put you straight onto the snow.

This is a mountain for confident intermediates and experts. The runs are long and steep and rarely flat, and the tree skiing low down is unusually good for a French resort. There are also ungroomed NATUR' pistes for people who want the mountain left as it fell. A funicular from Bourg Saint Maurice station reaches the snow in seven minutes, which makes this one of the easiest big French resorts to reach by train from Paris or London.