Winter in the French Alps- Pros and Cons

Our month in the French Alps in winter was anything but ordinary, here are the pros and cons.

We went to the Alps right after walking the Camino de Compostela, and we had envisioned a month of cozy winter hygeness, snowboarding and lots of decision making. It was! Well, minus the snowboarding part, the weather had other plans.

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We stayed in an AirBnB that we rented for an entire month, and it proved to be the perfect place. I know the Alps were going to blow my mind, but I didn’t know just how much. Such a crazy place, it feels like you’ve landed in another planet.

The Pros and Cons of Living In Les Houches

The cons:

We had to take bus to Cham, not many things opened til mid December.

The pros:

quieter, closer to lift, cheaper groceries, public transportation, more community feeling, dogs everywhere (although this is also true of Chamonix).

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Aside from this, we had 2 markets within 1 km and luckily (and unluckily) for us it was never so cold we couldn’t walk. We also had an organic market less than 3 blocks away. It was meant to be!!!

After 3 weeks of waiting for snow, we knew our time in the Alps was coming to an end and we needed to leave to a nearby resort if we wanted to snowboard in the region. Talking to our neighbor, we fund out that Courmayeur, a resort on the Italian Alps, was already open. WE RAN. We literally have never researched and planned anything faster than that. Ever.

Read my blog on going from Les Houches to Courmayeur by bus here.

We absolutely loved living in a small Alps town in the winter, if I could change anything, it would be to go later in the season when we are certain that there will be snow.  We only got to snowboard a few times, but we did many other things. The Alps have so much to offer; from amazing year round hikes to lively downtowns filled with local shops. We also had some of the best Indian food of my life at Restaurant Ghandi

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