Skiing in France
Skiing business in France arrived as late as in the mid-60's, whereas the other alpine countries have been building their mountain resorts for almost 20 years. However, very fast and well-planned development allowed French sportsmen to win some of skiing competitions and improve sports popularity among the nation.
Skiing in France takes place in two parts of the country: the Alps and the 5 times smaller Pyrenees. Although as many as 400 fully equipped mountain resorts are situated in the Alps range, they only cover 6% of its total area, so that the mountains have not lost any part of their natural beauty. Due to location at the height of up to 3300 meters above sea level, French resorts are busy for a very long part of the year. The skiing season in these starts in late autumn and ends in the first days of May.
Similar to other Alpine countries, the policy of one ski pass accepted by many resorts greatly improves quality of services and provides the skier with incredible choice of skiing trails everyday during their holiday. The accommodation options awaiting travellers vary from old, traditional villages similar to Megeve, through modest resorts getting full only for the weekend to absolutely artificial structures like La Plagne or Val-Thorens. Tourists visiting French Alps for holiday can choose among many various accommodation options, from simple non-serviced apartments to high-end 4- and 5-star hotels, depending on one's needs and spending possibilities.
Only 80 biggest French ski resorts can accommodate almost 1 Million tourists, what allows France to be a cut above its main competitor in this area - Austria. On the other hand, 5 Million French citizens choose mountains for their winter holidays (Christmas, School holidays in February and Easter) every year. This leads to high prices and lower attractiveness of French resorts among other nations. Only 15% of all visitors come from abroad, whereas Austrian resorts are visited by around 70% of foreign tourists.
Spending winter holiday in France is quite expensive in comparison to Austria or Italy, but skiing possibilities and service quality offered here will let you forget the cost.