French Alps

There is no sea here, but the region takes lake bathing seriously in summer. Lake Annecy is the best of it: the water is clear and reaches about 23°C in July and August, and grassy public beaches and wooden jetties line the shore at Annecy itself, Sévrier, Talloires and Menthon-Saint-Bernard. Lac du Bourget near Aix-les-Bains is larger and quieter. Little Lac d'Aiguebelette is often the warmest. The French shore of Lake Geneva at Évian and Thonon has pebbly lidos with long views across to Switzerland.

The swimming season runs from about late June to early September. Outside it, and in the high valleys, the water is glacial. The beaches are small, and on summer weekends the shore gets crowded. Treat swimming as a pleasant part of a summer lake stay, not the reason to come.

Savoyard cooking is mountain food built around cheese: fondue, raclette, tartiflette, croziflette and diots sausages, backed by Reblochon, Beaufort, Abondance and Tomme de Savoie that you can buy straight from the farm in the Aravis and Beaufortain valleys. Lake Annecy and Lake Geneva add perch and féra (a local whitefish). To drink there are the crisp white wines of Savoie, Génépi and the Chartreuse liqueur that monks still make near Grenoble. The open-air markets in Annecy's old town are the most pleasant places to eat your way around.

At the top end the region punches hard. The shores of Lake Annecy, Megève and Courchevel have some of the most decorated mountain kitchens in France. Below that tier, most resort menus repeat the same melted-cheese dishes, so after a week a visitor may want more variety.

People come here for the mountains, but the towns have good things to see. Annecy's old town, with its canals and the island prison of the Palais de l'Isle, is the prettiest. Chambéry, the old capital of the Dukes of Savoy, has the ducal château and the elephant fountain. Grenoble has one of the stronger fine-arts museums in provincial France, and you reach its Bastille fort by cable-car bubbles. In the far south, Briançon's star-shaped walls are part of the UNESCO-listed Vauban fortifications.

You also find alpine heritage scattered across the region: Baroque churches with bright painted interiors in the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys, the climbing history told in Chamonix's museum, and the Grande Chartreuse monastery's museum in its forested massif. These are pleasant half days, not the reason to plan a trip.

Nightlife here means winter après-ski. From December to April the big resorts get loud from late afternoon. People dance on tables at mountain restaurants on the slopes, then move on to bars in the resort centre and clubs that stay open into the small hours. Val d'Isère, Val Thorens and Méribel have the busiest party crowds. Courchevel has the glossy, expensive version. Chamonix mixes climbers' bars with a younger, international seasonal crowd.

Outside the ski season the resorts go quiet. In summer, evenings centre on Annecy's lakeside terraces and old-town bars, and on Grenoble, a student city with a reasonable bar scene. Choose resorts carefully: many family villages are asleep by ten.

This is one of the great mountain landscapes on earth. Mont Blanc rises straight above Chamonix, and you can ride a cable car from the valley to the Aiguille du Midi at 3,842m for glaciers and granite spires at close range. The Chamonix valley is a centre for mountaineering, and the Tour du Mont Blanc is among the world's classic long-distance walks. Further south, the Vanoise and Écrins national parks have ibex, chamois, marmots and high, wild passes.

In winter the Tarentaise holds some of the largest linked ski areas anywhere: Les Trois Vallées, Paradiski and Tignes-Val d'Isère, with high, snow-sure glacier skiing. Summer brings paragliding over Lake Annecy, road cycling over the Galibier and Madeleine passes, via ferrata, and rafting on the Isère. Lower down, the Bauges and Chartreuse massifs are gentler limestone country.

Base yourself in Annecy or on the shore of Lake Geneva and there are plenty of outings. Geneva is under an hour away. Lake ferries from Évian and Thonon cross to Lausanne and the vineyard terraces of Lavaux. Yvoire, a walled medieval village full of flowers on the lakeshore, makes an easy half day. Chambéry and the spa town of Aix-les-Bains are close, and Lyon, with its Renaissance quarter and its food, is about two hours by train.

From Chamonix, the Mont Blanc tunnel puts Courmayeur and the Roman town of Aosta in Italy about an hour away, and Martigny in Switzerland is a short train ride. From the deep resort valleys of the Tarentaise the options thin out, because most of the day goes on the road.

French ski schools are built around children, with snow gardens for the youngest and group lessons for every level. Purpose-built car-free resorts such as Avoriaz, Flaine, La Plagne and Les Arcs let families walk from apartment to slope, and many villages have nurseries and toboggan runs. In summer, the rack railway to the Mer de Glace, alpine farms, easy lift-served walks, marmot spotting and the shallow lake beaches around Annecy keep children busy. Annecy is easy and safe to wander with a pushchair.

The effort is real, though. Ski gear, cold mornings, altitude and long transfer days wear out small children. Apart from a few water parks, there is little made purely for entertainment. Families do best in compact resorts with nursery slopes close at hand.

Once you are in a ski resort, getting around is simple. Lifts link villages across whole valleys, and most resorts are compact enough to walk. Reaching them is harder. Most visitors fly into Geneva, Lyon or Grenoble and then take a shared transfer or drive. Saturday changeover days in winter bring long queues on the roads up the Tarentaise valley. Trains serve Annecy, Chambéry and Grenoble well, run up the Tarentaise to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, and climb the Chamonix valley on the mountain line from Saint-Gervais, but buses to the higher villages are patchy.

In summer a car pays off, because the best lakes, passes and trailheads are spread across separate valleys linked by winding roads. Snow chains are needed on many approach roads in winter.

Shopping here is specialised. Chamonix's main streets are lined with mountaineering, ski and climbing shops, which are some of the best places in Europe to buy technical gear. Courchevel 1850 and Megève have luxury fashion and jewellery boutiques that serve a very wealthy winter crowd. For things to take home, look for local produce: wheels of Beaufort and Reblochon, Savoie wine, Génépi, Opinel knives from the Maurienne valley and wooden crafts. Annecy's old-town markets are the most pleasant places to buy them.

Apart from that, most resort shops sell rental gear and souvenirs, and for wider choice you go to Grenoble or across the border to Geneva.

The main ski resorts are expensive in winter. A lift pass, equipment hire, ski school and an apartment or chalet in school-vacation weeks add up quickly. Lunches on the mountain and drinks in resort bars are priced for people with nowhere else to go, and the smartest addresses in Courchevel, Méribel, Val d'Isère and Megève are some of the costliest places to stay in Europe.

You can cut the cost. Self-catering apartments in purpose-built resorts, smaller family villages, low-season weeks in January or late March, and summer stays all cost noticeably less. Grenoble, Chambéry and the farm villages of the Bauges or Chartreuse have ordinary French prices. Annecy in July and August costs more than you would expect for a town its size.

Performing arts are a modest part of a stay here. Grenoble has the region's main year-round programme: a large arts centre with theatre, dance and concerts, and the chamber orchestra based in the city. Annecy and Chambéry have smaller civic stages. Summer brings the most interesting events: the long-running chamber music gatherings at Évian, open-air music festivals in Chamonix and other resorts, and concerts in mountain churches.

In the ski season, entertainment is mostly bands at après-ski bars, so a visitor who wants opera or serious theatre should plan an evening in Lyon or Geneva.

The Savoie has taken the waters since Roman times, and it still does. Aix-les-Bains on Lac du Bourget is a grand spa town with Belle Époque hotels and a thermal establishment. Évian built its reputation on its spring water and its lakeside promenades. Saint-Gervais has thermal baths in a wooded gorge below Mont Blanc. Brides-les-Bains, La Léchère and Uriage are smaller, quieter spa towns where the cure is the point of the stay.

In winter, the upmarket ski resorts add hotel spas with pools, saunas and hot tubs looking out on the snow, and Chamonix has thermal-style baths facing the peaks. The best way to slow down is a few summer days by Lake Annecy or in a high village, or a spa stay in Aix or Évian. A winter resort at full speed is less restful.