In the morning, you walk for a few seconds before stepping into your bindings to glide to the lift of your choice, probably the Funival, still the world's fastest lift, with new carriages this winter. At the end of the day, good skiers ski right back to the door, beginners stop where they started, thirty seconds' walk away.

A few hundred metres up the slopes are the sunny terraces of the Fruitiere and Trifollet, where a therapeutic drink or two to music, techno at the Fruitiere, everything but at the Trif, set one up nicely at the end of the day for the final schuss home to a hot bath.

The chalets is very comfortable and well appointed. The bedrooms are not huge, predictably, since the real estate they occupy must be some of the most desirable in the world, but they are well-built and tasteful, with underfloor heating, reasonable cupboards, good lighting and gorgeous bathrooms. Even the beds are bigger and firmer than usual in France. Each bedroom has a private ski locker in the ski room, with very effective individual boot warmers.