France has the highest ski village of any country we cover, Val Thorens at 2,300 metres, and at Christmas altitude matters a great deal. The purpose-built resorts of the Tarentaise sit high: Val Thorens at 2,300 metres, Tignes at 1,810 metres and La Plagne's upper villages at roughly 1,800 to 2,100 metres, with Les Arcs climbing from Arc 1600 to Arc 2000. That altitude is the main reason they are usually open in Christmas week when lower villages are still waiting.
The trade-off is character. A resort built in the 1970s for skiing does not look like an Austrian village, and Christmas in Val Thorens feels different from Christmas in Lech. But the Three Valleys and the Espace Killy give you more terrain than you can ski in a week, most chalets here are catered in the British sense, and Geneva is a short enough transfer to fly out on Saturday and ski on Sunday morning.