Saint Martin de Belleville - Ski Area Guide

An authentic Savoyard village which upholds its culture and traditions, but is lift-linked to Les Trois Vallées - the world's most extensive truly lift-linked skiing area. Saint Martin is characterised by narrow streets of stone and wooden houses with slate rooves. The local cheeses are Tomme, Sérac de Chèvre and Beaufort.

Who is Saint Martin de Belleville good for?

Saint Martin de Belleville Ski Area Height

Saint Martin de Belleville

The French Ski Resort of Saint Martin de Belleville is part of the Three Valleys ski area with access to 600km of downhill skiing, with 497 individual pistes, served by 180 ski lifts. In addition to the skiing in Saint Martin de Belleville itself (160km of pisted ski runs), the appropriate ski Lift Pass will allow you to ski or snowboard in the other Three Valleys ski resorts of Courchevel, La Tania, Les Menuires, Méribel and Val Thorens.

With pistes above 2500 metres, skiing and snowboarding is assured throughout the season.

There are six Airports within two hours drive, so ski weekends, snowboard breaks and short ski holidays to Saint Martin de Belleville are perfectly feasible. Chambery Airport is just one hours drive away, in good driving conditions, so you can be on the piste quickly.

Skiing in Saint Martin de Belleville

Saint Martin de Belleville's ski area, shared with it's neighbours Ls Menuires and Val Thorens up the valley, are part of the huge 3 Vallées, the biggest ski area in the world with over 600 kms of pistes and 200 ski lifts. The 3 Vallées offers not only the largest number of pistes but also a wide range of terrain spread over an area of 1400 km2. The sheer size of the area means skiers can follow the sun throughout the day.

La Tougnète (2430 m) can be reached directly from Saint Martin de Belleville with the Saint Martin cable car followed by the Saint Martin chairlift. Using this great access point into the 3 Vallées ski area, skiers can ski down to Les Menuires, turn towards Méribel, or ski down to Saint Martin.

From Les Menuires the skiing at Le Mont de la Chambre (2850m) offers a wide range of pistes and opens up the link to Méribel and Val Thorens. Secondly La Pointe de la Masse (2800m) is suited to good skiers. From the top you can access several mythical off piste itineraries (Lac du Lou, Col de la Fenêtre or Vallée des Encombres).

The huge snowfield between St Martin and Les Menuires has seen a great deal of upgrading in recent years. The two Mont de la Chambre chair lifts were added in 2001, the Saint Martin cable car in 2002 and the six-seater easy access Becca chairlift in 2003, and in 2004 another new six seater covered chairlift Les Granges replaced two draglifts Le Grand Lac and Les Choumes. The old Chef Lieu draglift in the centre of Saint Martin was also replaced in 2004 by a rolling draglift. The new ski lift, called the Village draglift, offers greater safety and a gentler start than its predecessor and the Roc des 3 Nanches II replaced the old Auamando Chairlift.

The French Ski School has around 20 ski instructors based in the village. Specially trained to teach all snow sports, the school offers group or private lessons, alpine, nordic, snowboard, free-ride and off piste courses.

There are 28 kms of cross country ski pistes winding along through the woods of the Vallée des Belleville. Starting from the village, cross country skiers can visit the hamlets of Le Bettex, Praranger or Saint Marcel on their way as well as the Burdin Mill.

Snowboarding in Saint Martin de Belleville

The French Ski School gives six day intensive courses dedicated to snowboarding, free-ride, or off-piste, following safety rules and respecting other riders.

For fans of jumps and other figures, the Becca snow-cross has two fun zones, each for a different standard of skiing or snowboarding:

-an experts area, with a boardercross (raised bends), whoops, a zone with four slides and hand rails, as well as four big airs [two reds, two blacks]

-a new boardercross accessible to everyone

-a learning area full of beginner modules, ideal for learning in complete security.

Competitions are also regularly organised by the two permanent supervisors.

Saint Martin de Belleville Aprés Ski

Apres ski options naturally tend to be quieter here than at most of the other resorts on the 3 Valleys. However if you do fancy a night out there are several option including a piano bar and a pub with occasional live music.

Classical music or jazz or blues concerts are organised in the evening several times a month, in the Saint Martin parish church.