Les Gets, France

Les Gets local skiing is on the largely forested slopes on both sides of the valley, with the runs cut through the trees. Mont Chery mountain has pistes for all levels of skiers and is great for mixed ability groups because at the top of the gondola or chairlift there are runs for all abilities to take back and meet at the bottom. There are nursery slopes in the village and at a slightly higher altitude across the valley at Les Chavannes, which has snow making, accessed by road, chair lift or gondola. There are hardly any queues with 6 separate mountain lifts.

Le Pleney is the route into the rest of the Portes du Soleil. It takes you across to Morzine and from there up to Avoriaz, close to the Swiss border. This is a nice day trip for intermediate skiers, stopping in Switzerland for lunch, and is possible on all red and blue runs. But there much more available to all levels of skier in the vast 650km lift linked terrain of the Portes du Soleil.

Les Gets has a much better choice of things to do off the slopes than the norm. Indoor sports facilities include the Sereni Cimes Spa where there's a sauna and hammam. You can also enjoy UVA, beauty treatment, balneotherapy, hydrotherapy, massages and seawater cures. A fitness centre - Clair Moment - uses the Clarins and Phytomer methods of skin care. They also propose a special slimming method and offer massages. For something a little more traditional you can do with your clothes on, visit the village library or ten pin bowling is available from 4pm to 2am. Outdoors in the centre of the village there's an ice skating rink, open every day during the winter. Out on the mountains you can take a guided snowshoe outing or try out paragliding, with a tandem jump to start. More unusual things to see in the village include the famous organ in the parish church. This listed organ is worth visiting during a concert; the instrument needed 4 years to be restored. The French National Museum of Mechanical Music is housed in a 15th Century building. All the devices within reproduce sounds from their era. The collection ranges from the musical box to the very first phonographs, from the barrel organs to animated paintings. There is also a concert hall with automatic pianos and the famous phonolitz violina with three violins. A new exhibition in the gallery of the museum contains a wonderful Roger & Gallet Automatons Collection with 40 odd working masterpieces of this genre. Finally, no visit to Les Gets is complete without a trip to the cheese dairy "la Fruitière". A free guided visit is offered every Wednesday at 8 am and there you can see cheese making in the traditional way.