Travel

Brutal beauty and powder perfection in Les Menuires

PICTURE the scene.

It’s 10pm on December 22, 2024 and barely has the ski season begun than a happy group emerge from the bus at the Gare Routière in Les Menuires in the midst of a snowstorm.

(Think George, Andrew, Pepsi and Shirley piling out of those 4x4s 40 years ago in Last Christmas, but with fewer frosted tips, less lip gloss and much more luggage.)

I was on ski holiday with my husband and two teenage kids.

We hoiked our cases to a funicular lift for the two-minute ascent to the infamous Brelin apartment block, a 1970s brutalist icon that looks like an out-of-control ocean liner has finally come to a stop on a snowy hillside.

Brelin apartment — this brutalist gem is a purpose-built ski community

We grabbed pizzas from the takeaway on the ground floor of the block and tucked in, peering out at the 10-inch-deep snow sitting on the balcony rail, and beyond to the modernist steeple and illuminated town square.

We couldn’t stop ticking off how different it felt to other Christmas ski holidays we’ve taken; we’ve always stayed at authentic ski towns before which, by their nature, are at a much lower altitude, so this was a departure.

No, there wasn’t a cutesy wooden chalet in sight, there was no skating rink and there were only a handful of trees, but – and this is the important bit – there was snow. Oodles of it.

There was no need to sit there biting our fingernails, checking the weather apps, looking skywards and wondering how much of the white stuff was really dusting the top levels. There was loads of snow. It was a sure thing.

The location

Les Menuires is part of the Three Valleys ski area (Pic: David Andre)

Les Menuires is located in the Vallée des Belleville in the Savoie department.

As you climb from the main road, you come to St Martin de Belleville, an authentic French ski village that, at 1,450m, caters for the high end of the market.

Further up the winding road, you come to Les Menuires, the valley’s 1,850m family-friendly, purpose-built resort and then, at the very top, Val Thorens sits at a dizzying 2,300m, a huge draw for hardcore skiers and 24-hour party people.

The three resorts offer a huge amount of skiable miles, and they are also linked to the Three Valleys, the largest lift-linked ski area in the world.

The skiing

We loved the skiing in the Belleville Valley and if I’m honest we could have spent the week happily repeating the wide, long and pleasing reds and blues of Les Menuires and Val Thorens.

We did make the most of our Three Valleys ski passes though, skiing over to Méribel a couple of days and then on to Courchevel another.

We barely repeated a slope twice (apart from the golden-hour beauty of Violette that brought us right back to our front door) and when I look at the map now I realise we barely scratched the surface of what the area has to offer.

Despite its size, we found the Three Valleys easy to navigate and we appreciated that, with such an expanse, although the lifts were busy in the main towns, you could easily escape queues if you stayed high.

The slopes in Val Thorens and Les Menuires were our favourites and stayed sunny through the afternoon.

Enjoy the views from the highest slopes

The convenience

We had the best week of skiing we’ve ever had, thanks in part to the massive dump that first night and the bluebird skies the rest of the week.

In addition to the excellent snow, we appreciated the ski-in-ski-out that a purpose-built resort offers, and the convenience of having facilities within striking distance.

The centre of Les Menuires – La Croisette – has everything you need.

Whether on skis by piste from the apartment door, or on foot via the speedy funicular, we had access to the lifts that took us to the bulk of the ski area, all manner of food, souvenir and clothes shops, ski and boot hire, the lift pass office and more.

Although there are multiple areas to Les Menuires, for ease I’d stay in la Croisette as everything is in reach.

And for the ultimate ease, stay in Brelin; it’s more than just an apartment block and has a grocery, bar, pizzeria, bakery, ski hire shops, lift pass machine and more under one roof.

Rachel and her family tried the First Tracks experience - which meant early morning access to deserted and freshly ploughed ski slopes

The extras

As a purpose-built resort, Les Menuires has much to offer when the ski day is done and dusted (or has not yet begun).

In authentic ski villages, it’s often a schlep-too-far to take part in evening attractions, but again, it was all remarkably convenient in Les Menuires.

We took out a couple of skidoos one evening; one parent, one child per steed and a guide to navigate the ascents.

The skidoo is an unwieldy machine on the flat, but it’s an ace at scaling the mountains in pitch darkness.

Another evening, we took a ride with a retired piste-basher in his grooming machine to Chalet Sunny where he laid on a cheese fondue and Génépi cocktail before delivering us back to town.

Our favourite experience was First Tracks. We convened at dawn one morning, along with 30 or so other bleary-eyed skiers, at the bottom of the Pointe de la Masse gondola, ready to enjoy VIP access to the mountain and its pistes before the world-and-her-husband joined us.

It was 8.30am at 2,800m. An orange glow lined the white peaks of the Three Valleys as we looked back over the deserted vista.

Everyone was still asleep, here we were and the mountain belonged to us. We skied down, took the lift back up, had breakfast in Le 2800 restaurant and then enjoyed our second solitary descent.

Halfway down the red piste to town, I stopped to admire the now-bright blue sky, the snowy zig-zags of the mountains and the brutal architectural lines of Les Menuires. What beauty* - and all before we’d usually had breakfast!

*Yes, that’s right, you heard me. I said beauty. You may think you like authentic alpine resorts that twinkle cutely in the valley, but with recent weather patterns in the Alps, you have to face facts. Early-season skiing has to be high, purpose-built and modern - and Les Menuires is a sparkling gem.