Megève

Megeve sits on a sunny plateau in the Haute-Savoie, ringed by gentle wooded peaks with the white bulk of Mont Blanc filling the view to the east. It owes its character to the 1920s, when Baronne Noemie de Rothschild set out to create a French answer to St Moritz and built a resort around the existing medieval village rather than flattening it. The result is a place where the pleasures are as much about the setting as the sport: a cobbled central square with a stone church, horse-drawn sleighs on the snow, and a long tradition of good food and unhurried afternoons.

The skiing spreads across three linked but distinct areas, the wooded slopes of Le Jaillet, the open pistes of Rochebrune, and the higher, sunnier terrain of Mont d’Arbois, adding up to a wide domain that suits intermediates, families and cruisers better than thrill-seekers chasing the steepest couloirs. That balance is deliberate, and it is part of why Megeve has kept a loyal following of visitors who return for the atmosphere as much as the vertical. A cable car climbs from the village to Mont d’Arbois, from where the views reach across to Mont Blanc, and the linked lift network is wide enough to fill several days of gentle exploring.

The winter season runs from December to April, with the Christmas and February holiday weeks the busiest and the village at its most festive. Summer is a genuine second season here rather than an afterthought: the plateau turns green for golf on the Mont d’Arbois course, hiking and mountain biking across the same slopes, and long lunches on mountain terraces with Mont Blanc as the backdrop, all with far fewer crowds than the peak of winter. Spring and autumn are quiet shoulder months when much of the resort rests.

Megeve has always favoured the chalet over the tower block, and its wooden, farmhouse-influenced architecture is part of the appeal. For a family or a group who want space, a fire and easy reach of the village square, chalet rentals in Megeve range from the slopes of Mont d’Arbois to quiet lanes within walking distance of the church.