ELTIPS AV R T

You have probably never heard of it, but the ski area boasts 190km of well-kept pistes and is close to the Alpine giant that is Mont Blanc.

I was based in Les Saisies, one of seven interlinked villages, and its beauty is that it has been overlooked throughout recent history.

Somehow it managed to stay unspoiled when winter sports holidays started to take off during the 1950s and ’60s. It retains a quaint charm, all squat wooden chalets and unsalted, snow-laden roads.

I arrived a few days after a huge dump of the white stuff, much to the locals’ relief.

The season started slowly this year but as the coach pulled into the resort we were greeted by the promising sight of motorists digging their cars out of snowdrifts several feet deep.

Les Saisies was even smaller than I expected so it was no wonder that I received blank looks back home when I told people where I was heading.

And looking skywards to the mountains above I was at first puzzled by the emptiness.

Where was everyone? Was something wrong?

Out in the crisp air the next day and it was the same story as I embarked on my first downhill run.

I wondered whether it was perhaps just a quiet week, but my lovely guide Emmanuel told me the quietness comes as standard in Les Saisies. “It’s because we don’t have the same nightlife of places like Val d’Isere and Tignes,” he tells me in heavily accented English.

“So we get a lot of families visiting, and a lot of French and Belgians, but not many English at all.”

After a few runs down the slopes, I was in two minds about whether to keep Les Saisies to myself and scrap this travel write-up.

It was lovely and the peace up there was worth the trade- off of quieter nights in the sleepy resort.

Although there were 151 runs on offer, I persuaded Emmanuel to guide me off-piste so I could take advantage of the recent heavy snow.

It was one of those perfect blue sky and powder days that skiers always hope for and rarely get.

We glided over knee-deep fluffy snow, carving fresh tracks on the mountain. I punctuated the runs with occasional topples into deep pillowy snowdrifts, and Emmanuel was forced to wait as I dug myself out in an ungainly fashion.

My bed for the night was at the Residence Armallis in the centre of the village, a short slip-slide of a walk from the slopes.

Exhilarating

T The apartment was cosy but well app appointed, with a balcony featuring the obligatory exhilarating view of the Beaufortain mountain range. O One of my companions on the trip wa was not a keen skier, so we re researched other things to do in t the resort. A quick web search found all the usual activities – snowshoeing, Nordic skiing and sledging. But there was a new snow s sport called Snoocing on offer. We booked a taster session and the next day found ourselves on wh what was essentially a strange little Make sure you take home a slab of the famous local cheese, Beaufort. It is a hard cheese, a bit like the Swiss cheese gruyere. To refuel during a day on the pistes, stop at the chocolaterie in Les Saisies for a decadent cake and a hot chocolate spiked with brandy. Try your hand at biathlon – the winter sport that combines cross country skiing and rifle shooting. A taster session can be booked in resort for £39.50. sledge attached to a single ski. But unlike an actual sledge, Snoocs are allowed on the slopes in Les Saisies (and another 60-plus resorts) and we soon found ourselves whizzing down the mountain in fits of giggles.

What is clever about the Snooc is that single ski is actually one on top of the other, and you can take it apart to provide a pair of skis for walking back up the slopes.

That makes it possible to enjoy longer off-piste adventures – hike up and whoosh back down.

We also booked in for a ride on a piste basher. The basher is the huge caterpillar- tracked vehicle that smooths the pistes after each day’s action. As the light faded we hopped into the cab and headed uphill.

It was slow going and soon the heat of the cab and the whir and clunk of the machinery began to have a soporific effect.

But it felt exciting to be up in the deserted mountains at night.

The free trips would be great fun for children – or tractor enthusiasts – but book well in advance.

After a few days in Les Saisies I had only scratched the surface of the piste area. It is a quiet little gem of a place, so let’s just keep it between you and me... FACTFILE Les Saisies is a 90-minute drive from Geneva – transfers from £60pp. Budget airline flights to Geneva begin at £29. Residence Armallis starts from €150 per night for an apartment for 2/4 people. A six-day ski pass for the Espace Diamant costs £167.