The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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2 years ago

Issue No. 18

Inspiring and insightful features, stunning photographs and brilliant reporting on French travel, culture, gastronomy, life in France and a whole lot more...

Borderline Skiing

Borderline Skiing Michael Cranmer skidaddles to an as yet hardly known skiers paradise - the French Cottian Alps Maybe you’ve skied the ‘Big’Uns’: The Three Valleys, Tignes/Val d’Isère, Paradiski. With eyes (and credit card) watering, you’ve paid the price for access to those endless kilometres. But - and here’s the rub - how many of the pistes you paid to use have you actually been on? My guess is only a fraction. So, time for a reality check. Quality v Quantity. Remember the old adage, big is not always better? We all want more for our money whilst not compromising on quality. In the course of my job I get to ski a vast range of resorts and countries and here’s my Top Tip for a mid-price, but definitely not mid-quality, resort that has got pretty much all you could want. Where? Where? Answer: Montgènevre. Unh?

Now some of you will have heard of it, but I’m guessing most won’t. It’s way down south, technically the French Cottian Alps. Think Briançon. But there’s a twist. It’s slapbang on the Italian border, perched beside an ancient high pass, now an important Route National. (This is beginning to sound like estate-agent’s speak for a mansion yards away from a motorway – “easy access to transport links”). Heavy lorries do go past all hours of the day and night, but you’d never know it because they’re underground in a tunnel built for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. That’s another bit of info to perk your ears up. Turin Airport is only 1 hour and 20 minutes away…half the time it takes to get from Geneva to the Big’Uns. So far so good.