UKC

We're thinking about spending next winter in the French Alps to up our skiing. We'd probably either be working remotely or taking a break for a few months rather than getting local jobs, and staying just less than three months to avoid visa issues.

I'm interested in where anyone would recommend that we stay for a season. Obviously there's Chamonix, and we're also considering Briancon. For reference, we're fairly decent skiers that comfortably ski blacks on piste, and have some off piste experience too.

Recommendations and advice much appreciated!

What do you want to get out of the trip?

What's your budget?

Will you have off piste and touring equipment?

Does it have to be France?

Are restaurants and an apres scene important?

Chamonix is unlikely to be the best answer but hard to say where would without a bit more info

I would check the law with remote working in France if you are not an EU citizen.

Good questions.

Improving our skiing - my wife is pretty good, and the only way she's realistically going to get better is by spending a season out there. We're most interested in lift-served off piste, but I'm sure we'll do some touring too.

We can't afford to spend three months staying in Club Mednor go heli-skiing every weekend, but we're not going to be constrained by budget significantly.

Transceivers and shovels etc, yes; touring skis, no (but that might change).

We considered Colorado, but working remotely isn't so convenient with the time zone, and it's harder to get back quickly for work or family emergencies. Could be Italy... but neither of us speak more than about 10 words of Italian, and we know the French Alps a bit better. One of the advantages of Briancon is that Montegenevre and some of the Italian resorts aren't that far away.

Not especially, but I guess a bit of a community that welcomes visitors/ expats would be good.

We have... it's a bit of a grey area, seems as though we could get a visa, but equally could easily slip under the radar if we're not there for more than three months. The French have also only (apparently) deported one UK citizen since Brexit for not having the appropriate visa or residency status, which suggests they're not too fussed about it.

Hi Whenry,

I am based 20 mins from Briancon, feel free to ask any question you have about the area or being here for a chunk of time. 

Cheers

For non-extreme lift served off piste, Val d'Isere is in my opinion comfortably the best resort in France, everything about it is expensive though. Touring opens up even more terrain and there are several off piste guided groups which could help you get a feel for the place 

Grimentz and Zinal have great terrain and if you buy the very good value Magic Pass then it gives you a lot of cool resorts to mix things up. Not France but French speaking and if you stay a short drive from the lifts then accommodation can be quite good value. Few Brits or guided groups that you can join

I don't know Briancon, it looks really fun but often seems to get much less snowfall from a given storm than the resorts further North. Obviously there are weather systems that favour it but these seem to be less frequent and this would put me off a little

Staying in Bourg Saint Maurice and flitting between the Tarentise resorts could also be an option. The better value accommodation would go some way to cancelling out increased spending on lift passes

Finally Verbier (French speaking) would allow you to push your skiing as much as anyway (and little need for touring gear) but unlike Grimentz this is a difficult to do remotely cheaply

I personally wouldn't pick Chamonix as IME there is relatively little North facing moderate off piste terrain. Grands Montets is great but you can ski everything 'in bounds' in a day (when they reopen the top lift this might change) and the other areas face South and therefore don't keep their snow in nice condition for long. Nicest town of all of these though and others strongly disagree with me about Chamonix's off piste potential but it always seems to me that to get the most from it you need to be happy skiing pretty extreme terrain 

I’d give some consideration to Alpe d’ Huez. The resort itself has very extensive piste skiing with some long and varied runs, some of which are at the tough end for marked pistes, often with awkward moguls.The off piste is really good and a lot of it is easily accessed from the lifts either directly or with shortish hikes. However you also have only a short trip to get to Deux Alpes and La Grave for some more pretty challenging off piste. 
if you want a break from the resort Grenoble is only about 90 minutes by car.