French Alps & the Jura Mountains

Mountains loom large almost everywhere you look in Chamonix. Skiers and sightseers are launched by cable car to heights of 3842m on the Mont Blanc massif, while the glacial void of La Vallée Blanche – one of Europe's most fêted off-piste adventures – beckons to the brave. Skiers and boarders have a choice of pistes along the valley, while in summer the same lifts access hiking and biking trails.

Chamonix has a long history as a winter-sports hub. Rediscovered as a tourist destination by Brits William Windham and Richard Pococke in 1741, Chamonix hosted the first ever Winter Olympics in 1924.

For all the desolate beauty of the mountains, downtown Chamonix hums with life. Streets are lined with Michelin-starred restaurants, sports gear stores and some of the French Alps' fanciest hotels. And if you do the nightlife justice, it'll exhaust you as much as the mountains.

This is the big one you’ve heard all about: vast, fast and by most measures, the largest ski area in the world. It's impossible to tire of all this terrain: depending on how it's reckoned, there are more than 600km of pistes and more than 180 lifts linking eight resorts and three parallel valleys. Among these are Val Thorens, Europe’s highest ski village at a heady 2300m; wealthy and ever-so-British Méribel (elevation 1450m), founded by Scotsman Colonel Peter Lindsay in 1938; and playground of the super-rich Courchevel, which stretches over three purpose-built resorts at 1550m, 1650m and 1850m and is a fave of the Moët-at-five brigade and ultra-wealthy Russians.

In between are a number of lesser-known Alpine villages – Le Praz (Courchevel-Le Praz; 1300m), St-Martin de Belleville (1450m) and très anglais La Tania (1400m); all are linked by speedy lifts to higher-elevation slopes.

Nestled by the northwestern shore of its namesake lake, Annecy is the jewel of the Haute-Savoie. From its crowning Château d’Annecy down to its gurgling canals, Annecy’s Vieille Ville (Old Town) is infused with antique charm. Made great by the medieval Counts of Geneva and augmented by the Dukes of Savoy, Annecy still has numerous 16th- and 17th-century buildings, now painted in shades of peach and rose and housing restaurants, bakeries and boutiques. Canals trickle through town, earning Annecy its reputation as an 'Alpine Venice'.

Lac d’Annecy, speckled with swans and rowing boats, is said to have the cleanest waters in Europe, and Annecy’s outdoorsy residents revel in all this nature. They row the lake, zip through town on rollerblades and bicycles, and, in winter, drive to nearby ski areas like La Clusaz. After a few lungfuls of mountain air, you might feel compelled to join them.

For winter-sports fans across Europe, Les Portes du Soleil have a winning formula. France’s second-largest ski area (after Les Trois Vallées), the gigantic ‘Gates of the Sun’ have high-altitude terrain that gathers powder snow (1000m to 2466m), picturesque tree-fringed runs, exciting après-ski and easy access to Geneva airport. There’s also the novel possibility of skiing in and out of Switzerland within a day (no passport needed).

A dozen villages access Les Portes du Soleil but Morzine (1000m), the big daddy for nightlife and gastronomy, is best-known. Further up the valley is car-free Avoriaz (1800m), a purpose-built ski resort chock full of 1960s apartment blocks. Horse-drawn sleighs romantically ferry new arrivals to and from the village centre. Arriving by road via Cluses, you hit the smaller ski station of Les Gets (1172m), whose easy access to sheltered, tree-lined ski runs has made it a favourite with families.

Brooding landscapes and inspiring hikes define the sparsely populated Jura Mountains. Extending along the Franco–Swiss border from Lake Geneva northeast to Belfort, these sub-alpine mountains lent their name to the Jurassic period in geology, when they formed. Rising highest is Crêt de la Neige (1720m), in the southwest of the Parc Naturel Régional du Haut-Jura.

In summer, fruitières (dairies) and vineyards unbolt their doors to sell prized regional produce like Comté cheese and unmistakable vin jaune (regional gold-coloured wine) to a mostly French influx of hikers and bikers. Winter attracts cross-country skiers to Les Rousses and Métabief, while the best limber up in the regional park for the Transjurassienne, France's toughest cross-country ski race.

Cultural sights, mostly overlooked by foreign tourists, provide opportunities to catch your breath: the citadels of Belfort and Besançon, modernist architecture in Arc-et-Senans and Ronchamp, and legacies of home-grown luminaries like Victor Hugo and biologist Louis Pasteur.

France’s second-largest national park, Parc National des Écrins (www.ecrins-parcnational.fr) stretches between the towns of Bourg d’Oisans, Briançon and Gap. Glacial action and the thrashing Durance and Drac rivers carved out this 918 sq km expanse of mountains and moraines. More than 100 peaks, topping out at 4102m Barre des Écrins, rise above more than 40 glaciers, beech forests, waterfalls and flower-sprinkled alpine meadows. Stomping ground for hikers between mid-June and mid-September, the park has almost 700km of trails, some following footpaths used by shepherds and smugglers for centuries.

Approaching from the north of the park, Bourg d’Oisans (50km southeast of Grenoble) is a good jumping-off point. Briançon and Gap (respectively, east and south of the park) are also suitable places to gather info and picnic supplies before lacing up your hiking boots.

Wild off-piste skiing and beginner-friendly slopes, Michelin-starred gastronomy and farmhouse cooking, soothing spas and unbridled nightlife…all are gathered in twinkly Val d’Isère, 32km southeast of Bourg St-Maurice. Val d’Isère's ability to be simultaneously chic and traditional, fast-paced and relaxed, has propelled it to stardom as the resort of choice for skiers and boarders with cash to splash. Val d’Isère has all the enchantment of an Alpine village but with world-class leisure facilities and swanky hotels.

The combined terrain of Val d’Isère and the lakeside commune of Tignes form the enormous Espace Killy ski area, named after Jean-Claude Killy, who grew up in Val d'Isère and won three slalom and downhill golds at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble. Popular with Brits, Danes and Swedes, the resort is accessible only by a sinuous access road clinging to the heights of the upper Tarentaise Valley.

Capped with a citadel and folded into a bend in the Doubs River, Besançon is a pleasant surprise. Unshowy and laid-back, the capital of the Doubs département nonetheless offers a broad spectrum of culture: 18th-century town houses, many now housing hotels and restaurants; active contemporary arts and local music scenes; and monuments to homegrown luminaries like Victor Hugo.

In Gallo-Roman times, Besançon (then Vesontio) was an important stop on the trade routes linking Italy, the Alps and the Rhine, and some striking remains of this period survive.

Huddled between Chartreuse and Massif des Bauges regional parks, the attractive town of Chambéry is often forgotten by visitors to the French Alps. Chambéry was Savoy’s capital from the 13th century until 1563, when the Dukes relocated to Turin. Past centuries have enriched the town, 12km south of Lac du Bourget, with elaborate hôtels particuliers (grand townhouses), a medieval château and a one-of-a-kind trompe l’œil–decorated cathedral.

It's a rare pleasure to retreat to a hilltop citadel after a day of epic hiking or skiing. Briançon, surrounded by mountains and capped with a fairy-tale fortress, manages equal doses of culture and outdoor pursuits. Technically France's highest city, it flies under the mass tourism radar because of its inconvenient road access compared to other Alpine resorts – despite being only 15 zigzagging kilometres from Italy.

Briançon is the northwestern gateway town to Parc National des Écrins' 676km of hiking trails. Even closer is the Serre Chevalier ski area, less than 2km from its crowning Cité Vauban, a star-shaped old town girded by high walls.