Les Menuires has never been backward in coming forward – as I was told with refreshing candor during my visit “…you either love it or hate it.” And this year, the Marmite of the French Alps is defiantly celebrating its 60th anniversarye birthday.
A classic example of modernist French alpine architecture, Les Menuires was part of a series of ski resorts developed as part of the Plan Neige (Snow Plan), an innovative project launched in 1960 by Pompidou’s government that also gave birth to including Les Arcs, La Plagne, Avoriaz and Flaine.
The architects chosen for the project were given free rein to transform the pristine high mountains above the Belleville Valley from a ‘snow desert’ to a winter playground for the masses, creating new ski-in/ski-out accommodations for every budget created.
Les Menuires offered a new, less affluent generation of skiers from France and beyond easy access not only to the slopes and ski lifts, but also to other fully integrated services. The shops, ski schools, equipment hire, bars and restaurants are built into the ground floor of the accommodation blocks – in Les Menuires you can get pretty much anywhere, from a red piste to a bar, supermarket or ski shop, in your ski boots (if they’re not actually on your skis).
For skiers who couldn’t afford a traditional hotel or chalet ski holiday in the Alps’ biggest names, resorts like Les Menuires offered a cheap introduction to a sport previously reserved for the wealthy. I was one of them, and that’s why I have a soft spot for the resort that introduced me to a sport that became a lifelong passion.
Underrated slopes
At the start of the 2023/24 season, 32 years since my first visit, I could still access the slopes directly from my accommodation – the recently built four-star Higalik Hotel, a modern mix of traditional mountain chalet and cool Scandinavian style – and go to the resort’s revamped La Masse cable car, now one of the fastest ski lifts in France. It zooms up at speeds of up to 25 km per hour, launching skiers onto the 2,804-metre summit of Pointe de la Masse, where you can choose from blue, red, black or off-piste runs back to the valley.
Over the decades, Les Menuires has upgraded its lifts and opened avalanche-controlled freeride zones. As a result, large lift queues are generally not a problem outside peak periods, such as half season, and the skiing compares favorably with the wider Trois Vallées area, whether you are looking for easily groomed pistes or extensive off-piste; many experienced skiers are surprised by what the underrated resort has to offer.
This variety is a trait that Les Menuires shares with its neighbors in the largest ski area in the world. I spent the day between the slopes of Les Menuires, Val Thorens and Méribel, spoiled for choice as to what type of skiing I wanted to enjoy in the bright December sun. There was still plenty of untracked powder, but wide, winding runs – like the red Campagnol plunging from Mont Vallon to Méribel or the rolling blue Jerusalem to St Martin de Belleville – were just as appealing.
Architectural identity
Not everyone supported the plan to create Les Menuires. But after the Second World War, more and more young people left the area for easier and better-paid work in the local towns of Moutier, Albertville and beyond. Developing the region for winter sports was seen as a means to prevent this exodus.
The population of the valley in 1835, consisting of some 3,000 permanent residents, had fallen to about 1,000 in the 1940s and did not rise above 3,000 again until the 1990s – a fact I discovered in the museum in the neighboring settlement St. Martin de Belleville of Les Menuires.
The ultra-modern developments of the mid-century came as a shock to many of the valley’s historic residents, who, like their ancestors, had lived a traditional alpine lifestyle for centuries, dependent on farm cattle, sheep and goats, working their way up and with their animals down the slopes, depending on the seasons.
The largest residential block, Le Brelin, consists of 700 apartments with 2,500 beds and is known as the “snowliner” due to its enormous size. It is now a 20th century heritage site and represents the very special architectural style of that period.
However, at the time – and to some extent since – the developments were panned by critics and compared by the left-wing newspaper Liberation to the low-income housing complex in Sarcelles, a crime-ridden Parisian suburb. The Daily email was so offended that it recommended that everyone skiing in Les Menuires “… continue very quickly with your eyes closed.”
It’s probably true that many first-time visitors (myself included) initially have a vague idea of the resort’s uncompromising architecture, but once you experience how much easily accessible fun you can have on the slopes and how convenient the layout of the resort is , it’s hard not to warm to the place; it is not without reason that it markets itself as “Friendly Menuires”.
Here to stay
Although the resort’s signature modernist architecture has seen the addition of more traditional chalets in recent years, the tower blocks are here to stay. Apartment owners are encouraged to renovate and modernize their properties in accordance with various criteria, including the use of sustainable and environmentally friendly materials, and can receive subsidies for this. I visited one and found a curious mix of ’70s-inspired orange and brown exterior decor with a contemporary interior of wood, tile and steel – somehow it seemed to work.
Les Menuires is still popular with budget skiers, but the resort’s newer, more luxurious developments, such as the Higalik, mean more affluent visitors will find something to suit them.
And if they don’t, Les Menuires won’t be bothered, safe in the knowledge that many skiers have felt completely at home here for 60 years, and will continue to do so.
Essentials
The Higalik Hotel offers week-long stays from £1,527 per person, B&B, including flights from Gatwick and transfers, departing on March 30. Free architectural tours of Les Menuires are available in December and February and at Easter. Visit lesmenuires.com for more information and read our expert guide to resort holidays here.