Annecy is a peaceful and charming town in the Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps that is not only a wonderful location for holidays but is also the ideal place to go skiing.
You can go skiing in resorts in the Annecy area and learn and practice French at the same time with the help of Ifalpes French Language School. What better place could there be to study this language than in France? Ifalpes combines French lessons with ski trips in the FRENCH & SKI Course, and represents a very good deal for your money because the price includes a ski pass and transport to the ski resorts.
Ski Resorts around Lake Annecy
There are four main ski resorts situated around the shores of Lake Annecy, a lake that also offers many other sporting activities. The resorts are known as La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand, Manigod and St Jean de Sixt.
La Clusaz
La Clusaz is a big ski resort near Annecy and is much favoured by British skiers and visitors to the Alps because it gets promoted by tour operators. La Clusaz tends to get marketed in France as an ideal ski resort for beginners and for families, but it is suitable for newcomers to the sport and professionals alike. The resort is only hours away from major European capital cities making it a destination that is easy to travel to.
Le Grand Bornand
Le Grand Bornand is another resort that gets promoted as suitable for families, which indeed it is, but it also has much to attract skiers in general, and has some challenging terrain that would appeal to the real professionals. Le Grand Bornand is within 45 minutes travelling distance from Annecy.
Manigod and St Jean de Sixt
Manigod and St Jean de Sixt are smaller than La Clusaz and Le Grand Bornand but if you want to practise your French they are ideal because these ski resorts do not attract anywhere near as many British people speaking English. St Jean de Sixt has the world’s only bungee ski jump.
Le Semnoz
Another skiing location in the area is Le Semnoz, and, being only around 20 minutes’ drive from the heart of Annecy, it is the closest.
Centred around the mountain of the same name, Le Semnoz is the smallest ski resort near Annecy and is little more than a restaurant and a couple of chairlifts, but nevertheless it has much to recommend it, such as its 18 km of ski slopes.
So take a Holiday in Annecy
So if you want to learn French and enjoy a holiday in a truly beautiful location then you will see that Annecy is an ideal location for doing this. There is a range of hotels in the area and it is easy to see why this town in the Alps is such a popular tourist destination. If you begin a course with Ifalpes you will be speaking French from the start, and the school also organises many interesting cultural and leisure activities in which you can interact with local people and practise your skills with the French language.