A real, working French village that happens to have a serious ski area, an hour from Geneva.
A note for American skiers: France grades pistes on a four-color scale rather than the three most US resorts use. Green and blue are beginner and easy, much like at home. A red run sits between an American blue and black, more demanding than an easy intermediate but short of a true black diamond. Black runs are the hardest on the mountain, comparable to an American black or double-black diamond.
La Clusaz is closer to what most Americans picture when they imagine the French Alps than the purpose-built resorts further south: a village that existed long before skiing did, with its own bakeries, church, and Monday market. Its ski area, shared with neighboring Manigod across five massifs (Beauregard, Manigod, l'Étale, l'Aiguille, and Balme), covers 125 kilometers of varied, uncrowded piste — 85 runs in total, 16 green, 31 blue, 30 red, and 8 black — served by 49 lifts, between 1,100 and 2,600 meters of altitude. It's an hour from Geneva airport, which matters more than it sounds, less time in a transfer van, more time in the chalet.
It's a favorite with French families for a reason: the skiing is genuinely good without the formality of Courchevel or Megève, and the village stays a village even in high season.
