VERY PRETTY SKI AREA, MOSTLY BELOW THE TREE-LINE, BUT LOW ALTITUDE MEANS SNOW COVER CAN BE UNRELIABLE

The two main ski areas are Mont d'Arbois and Rochebrune which are independent of each other, save for a cable car connecting the two base areas (1,100m). The Rochebrune sector has mostly green, blue and red runs, one of the longest of which, L'Olympique (blue) now has artificial snow cover throughout. (Indeed, generally speaking, Megeve has made huge investments in snow-making equipment in recent years and therefore its relatively low altitude is not such a big problem as it once was. But it can still be a dodgy destination very early or late in the season)

From the Rochebrune summit drag lifts (quite a bit of the uphill transport in Megeve is slow and old-fashioned) you can go up to L'Alpette (1,880m), another region of red and blue pistes, equipped with snow-making facilities, from which you can work your way on drag and chairlifts to Cote 2000, which generally has the best quality snow in this area. A quad chairlift rises up to 2,014m and the starting point of Megeve's Women's World Cup Downhill run. This is an excellent, undulating, steepish black piste which offers stunning views towards Mont Joly and Mont d'Arbois, as well as down into the valley and across to Le Jaillet.

On the Mont d'Arbois/Bettex/Mont Joly sector some of the prettiest runs are those that run down to the hamlet of St Nicolas de Veroce, where there are lots of old wooden chalets and huts that function as farms in summer - there are still over 100 small farms in the Megeve region. Although the snowcover is not always excellent here, because the snow is lying on top of alpine meadows rather than rocks, the odd bare patch will not do much harm to your skis.

Princesse is a beautiful long black run with varied terrain, going from Mont d'Arbois down to the base of the Princesse telecabin. (This lift has been renewed more than doubling its capacity from 1,100 people per hour to 2,800.) From the top of Mont Joly (2,350m) there are two challenging runs - a red and a black. The red has a sharp right-hand bend that which is happily well protected with netting, in order to prevent reckless skiers going over the edge and sliding to their deaths. There is also a lot of challenging off-piste terrain that can be accessed from the top of Mont Joly.

Le Jaillet, on the opposite side of the valley from the rest of the skiing, is Megeve's third and smallest and quietest ski area, but it is certainly worth a day of anyone's time. The runs are best suited to intermediates, but there are two good steep runs down from the Christomet summit - one red and the other black. Le Jaillet is usually the first of Megeve’s ski areas to close – sometimes as soon as the beginning of March.

There are lots of other ski areas within easy driving distance, including St Gervais and Chamonix, and the Mont Blanc area ski pass covers not just Megeve but a total of 190 lifts and 700km of runs. The new and more modest Evasion Mont Blanc covers 117 lifts and 450km of pistes – effectively all the resorts around Megeve, but not those in Chamonix area.