In reply to frqnt:
Agree on Le Tour and Les Houches for beginners. Le Tour very wide and open, with well-prepared pistes, but not so great for food and drink on the hill; book a table early. Les Houches the most gentle of the 'mountain resorts' in the valley. And with some pretty charming restaurants, if you can find them... LH also has snow-shoeing tracks and the Mont-Blanc tramway. Oh, and you get a great view of the shiny new Gouter refuge... (well, it looks rather small, but very prominent once you spot it).
Genuinely objectively safe backcountry skiing...? Hmmmm... Well, , it took Les Houches a few days to bash the Plancerts red after heavy snowfall, so it started a bit like a 'back country' piste, until it got cut up... It's a long drag back, though, which true beginners might struggle with...