Serre Chevalier is one of the major French ski resorts. Located in the southern part of the Alps, close to the Parc National des Ecrins, in the Hautes-Alpes department of the French Alps, it enjoys a large skiing area (250 km of slopes) and very sunny weather, boasting 300 days of sunshine a year. In Serre Chevalier, 80kms of the 250kms of slopes are covered by snow cannons in case of periods of no snowfall. It is owned by Compagnie des Alpes.
Serre Chevalier consists of the town of Briançon, with the villages of Chantemerle, Villeneuve, and Le Monêtier-les-Bains. The ski champion Luc Alphand was born and lives in the valley of the resort.
Contents |
The lowest the skiing goes down to is at 1200m and the highest Telesiege Yret at 2800m. One of the outstanding features of Serre Chevalier is the wooded nature of the slopes. The Treeline stops at 2150m, that means there is about 700m of vertical treelined slopes. The slopes are managed by the CDA. There are 63 lifts : 35 drag lifts, 21 chairs (among which 7 six passengers chairs, 3 high speed quads), 2 cable cars and 5 gondolas. There are 103 slopes (23 Green, 29 Blue, 39 Red, 12 Black[1]). With its great natural terrain Serre-Chevalier is widely regarded as one of the top snowboarding destinations in France
In the summer Serre Chevalier becomes an area dedicated to kayaking, walking, cycling, mountain biking, climbing, rock climbing, sledding, paragliding and generally enjoying the mountain area. Serre Chevalier has organized the MTB french championships in 2008. MTB Trial french championships in 2009 and organises this year the BMX european games. Culinary festivals are also regularly held the most famous being the "Fete du Slip", a yearly celebration of the making of a traditional alpine sausage.
4 lifts reopen for the summer months to take walkers and mountain bikers up the mountain.
The nearest airports to Serre Chevalier are Turin in Italy and Grenoble in France. These are served by some of the UK's budget airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair, providing easy access from many European cities.
There is an SNCF railway station in Briançon. It has direct trains from Paris and overnight sleeper trains.