Val d'Isère

Val d'Isère is what the rest of the Alps quietly measure themselves against. Two thousand metres of village, three thousand of mountain, the Solaise and Bellevarde faces that produced Killy and the Olympic downhill, and a snow record that simply outlasts the season everywhere else. The skiing is serious — the Face de Bellevarde is still the Face de Bellevarde — but the village has earned its evening, and a tartiflette at La Folie Douce in March light is its own argument.

We fly here because some people want a weekend on the Bellecôte and some people want a weekend on the Face, and Val is what the second weekend looks like. Because the snow above 2,500 metres is a different agreement with the mountain. Because some weekends are for the village and some weekends are for the run, and Val will give you both.