In reply to CurlyStevo:
> If I choose to go down the snow chains route will a pair suffice or do I need chains front and rear?
I live in the Alps a small village at 1200m, so we get a lot of the conditions you're going to encounter. The French are excellent at keeping the roads cleared, but sometimes the weather can be just too much. I changed to winter tyres in November, just like everyone else round here. I'll keep them on until April.
Two weeks ago we had tonnes of snow, and the snowplough came through and cleared it, but there was still a couple of inches of hard packed slush snow on all the roads, and you get that all the time in ski resorts. In my front-wheel drive car with winter tyres, this was fine (if you're careful), but my wife had hired a car for work the week before, and it didn't have winter tyres. The difference was incredible - it was twitchy and slidy on the same surfaces.
So, get winter tyres anyway. They're not just for snow, but handy in the UK in the cold and the wet. They don't work out more expensive as you're simply saving your summer tyres while youre not using them.
I only use snow chains for the front, as they're really only for getting out of trouble and crossing sketchy patches, and I can count on one hand the number of times I used them last winter.
You will very rarely have to use them, but if you're trying to drive to your hotel in a ski resort at 10pm and the Gendarmes aren't letting non-chained drivers through, you will regret not having them for the sake of 40EUR.