Snow is falling in the Alps with just a week or two before most slopes open for business. If you’re a skier with a growing urge to buy your own ski home, why not consider one of these exciting French resorts, each offering something a bit different, when booking your winter break this year? We’ve found a tempting property for you in each too.

Samoëns
Fresh from a recent €25milllion investment in new lifts and pistes, Samoëns is a beautifully preserved medieval village that in recent years has transformed itself into one of the prettiest dual season resorts in the Alps. Located in Haute Savoie just an hour from Geneva airport, it is linked by a high-speed gondola to the Grand Massif ski area, which includes Flaine, Les Carroz, Morillon and Sixt Fer à Cheval.

Thanks to Samoëns’ comparatively low altitude, namely 720 metres, it’s just as popular during the warm summer months as it is during the snowy winter season.

The heart of the resort remains a working Savoyard village, one that has accolades for its family-friendliness and charming presentation – Samoëns is listed as a ‘ville fleurie’, which means it is officially one of France’s most beautiful towns. It is also the only ski resort classified as a ‘National Heritage Site of France’.

Arc 1950
In contrast to Samoëns, Arc 1950 was purpose built from scratch less than two decades ago. It is the most recent of the four villages that make up the large Les Arcs resort, which is part of the 425-kilometre Paradiski ski area.

Being created only recently means the developers were able to draw on lessons learnt from other older resorts and incorporate what they deemed to be all the best bits into their masterplan for Arc 1950.

Unlike the concrete, boxy style of many French resorts built in the latter half of the 20th Century decades, the architects for Arc 1950 opted for a more traditional Savoyard design, including cobbled streets and gabled buildings. The end result is a compact, noticeably pretty and very convenient ski village, one that is completely ski in-ski out and in one of the most snow sure areas of Les Arcs. There are currently around 750 apartments there.

Châtel
With its traditional Alpine architecture and farming origins, laid-back Châtel is one of the rising stars of the French Alps. An extended village located at one end of the Dranse Valley, it links with the huge 600-kilometre Portes du Soleil ski area, which spans the French and Swiss Alps and includes Morzine, Les Gets and Avoriaz.

In Châtel it’s not unusual for working farm buildings to sit alongside pretty ski chalets, and the resort is growing! There are currently more than 10 new property developments in the pipeline there, with typical prices still less than the other larger and better-known resorts.

Châtel has plenty to offer outside of the ski season too, but in particular it is a popular mountain-biking destination and boasts 20 dedicated tracks for bikers of different levels. A welcome new development in Châtel is the addition of a snow factory, which produces artificial snow!

Les Deux Alpes
France’s second oldest ski resort after Chamonix and home to Europe’s largest skiable glacier, Les Deux Alpes is only set to get better. The resort, located in the Isère department, comprises the two high altitude villages of Mont de Lans and Venosc, the latter being an old farming village and oozing traditional charm.

What makes Les Deux Alpes an especially exciting place to buy right now is the huge investment heading its way over the next five years.

Improvements will address nearly all aspects of the resort, from lifts to résidences, and car parks to hotels, but one key development is the planned cable link with Alpe d’Huez, which would create one of the largest skiing areas in Europe.