Portes du Soleil

In our next episode, we are diving deep into the world of non-ski activities and excursions in Avoriaz

We'll be breaking down the best snowshoeing trails, where to try ice diving in a frozen lake, and we'll be taking a very close look at paragliding over the cliffs of the Portes du Soleil

Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss our ultimate winter adventure guide.

This has been Transfer to Alps

Now, the Folie Douce brand is famous across the French Alps.

But they opened their Avoriaz site in December 2018, and it completely changed the apres-ski game in the Porte du Soleil.

It's built on a really cool historic spot.

Originally, it was just a tiny, quiet family restaurant called Chez Longver back in the 1950s.

And when it comes to Avoriaz, you aren't just talking about a couple of local hills and a handful of drag lifts.

You are talking about the absolute heart of the Portes du Soleil.

This is one of the largest, most spectacular interlink ski domains in the entire world, and the sheer scale of it is actually quite hard to wrap your head around if you've never been.

Oh, the scale is just massive.

You can buy a local Avoriaz-only pass, which covers about 130 kilometers of local pistes.

That is fantastic if you're a complete beginner or if you've got young kids who are only going to ski the local nursery slopes.

But if you are an intermediate or advanced skier, you absolutely must buy the full Portes du Soleil pass.

Yes.

From 7:30 PM, the bar takes over and it becomes this incredibly trendy, lively lounge with live jazz music playing in the background.

They have a dedicated head bartender who crafts some of the most inventive cocktails in the Portes du Soleil, and their menu is a really bold mix of high-end French gastropub classics and a proper fully-fledged sushi bar.

[laughs] Sushi in the mountains sounds like it shouldn't work, but they absolutely nail it.

They have an actual Japanese sushi master in the kitchen.

But in the winter, the goats are tucked up warm in their barns, and the village becomes this absolute gourmet paradise for skiers.

La Crémaillère is an old mountain dairy chalet at 1,470 meters that was restored and turned into a rustic restaurant.

It has been run by the Brays family for three generations, and they serve some of the most authentic, rustic Savoyarde cooking in the entire Portes du Soleil.

The big reason people make a massive detour to eat here is their mushroom dishes.

But this season, we are heading somewhere that looks and feels entirely different.

We are climbing up to 1,800 meters in the Portes du Soleil.

Yeah, to a resort that basically looks like a bunch of cedarwood spaceships decided to land on a sheer cliff edge.

Welcome to Avoriaz.

That is a serious amount of powder.

It really is.

And because you're right in the absolute heart of the Portes du Soleil, you've got access to a mind-boggling 600 kilometers of interlinked slopes across 12 different resorts in France and Switzerland.

But even if you just stick to the local Avoriaz sector, there is this brilliant, laid-back, high-energy vibe that you don't really get anywhere else.