Serre Chevalier is one of the major French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 ski resorts. Located in the southern part of the Alps

Alps

The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

, close to the Parc National des Ecrins, in the Hautes-Alpes

Hautes-Alpes

Hautes-Alpes is a department in southeastern France named after the Alps mountain range.- History :Hautes-Alpes is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 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. It is owned by Compagnie des Alpes

Compagnie des Alpes

Compagnie des Alpes is a French company created in 1989 to operate many ski resorts in Europe. Compagnie des Alpes is a part of Caisse des dépôts et consignations.-History:...

.

Serre Chevalier consists of the town of Briançon

Briançon

Briançon a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department....

, with the villages of Chantemerle, Villeneuve, and Le Monêtier-les-Bains

Le Monêtier-les-Bains

Le Monêtier-les-Bains is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France.-Population:-Skiing:Monetier's slopes are a part of the extensive Serre Chevalier ski area. There are 7 chairlifts and 4 drag lifts with the highest skiing in the domain at 2760m.-Geography:Le...

. The ski champion Luc Alphand

Luc Alphand

Luc Alphand is a French former alpine skier and race car driver.- Skiing :Born in Briançon , Alphand made his World Cup skiing debut in 1984...

 was born and lives in the valley of the resort.

Ski Area

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).
With its great natural terrain Serre-Chevalier is widely regarded as one of the top snowboarding destinations in France

Summer

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.

Transport

The nearest airports to Serre Chevalier are Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

 in Italy and Grenoble

Grenoble

Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...

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.

External links

• Serre Chevalier Tourism Office and ski area Official website