Alpe d'Huez to Huez Village

This really is a great, and largely very quiet, fairly long blue run all the way from the bottom station of the DMC around the back of town, all the way down to the sleepy mountain village of Huez. It finishes off at 1,500 metres at the Televillage cable car station, which brings you right back up into the heart of the old town, next to the “yoghurt pot” lift system – so access couldn't be simpler.

If you fancy a nice long, not too testing, run from 2,700 metres down to 1,500 metres – then why not get the DMC cable car up to the second station at 2,700 metres and jump on the lovely blue run Couloir down, take a left at the lake down to the DMC mid-station and restaurant, then on the green run of Jeux all the way to the bottom of the signal and straight across the bottom and pick up Village all the way down to Huez. It's a really great, south facing, not overly testing run all the way down.

'Village' starts at the bottom of the Signal/DMC lift (1,850 metres) and runs fairly flatly around the back of town behind the Grande Rousses Hotel and then down to the old town, it then follows the road down past Maona Village and finishes up in Huez. Basically the run follows the road down the hill from bends 1 to 5.

The wooded section near Maona Village is home to a variety of birds and wildlife and there is a large information board detailing the birds you may get to see on the right hand side of the slope as you get to the wooded section, so keep your eyes peeled for it.

When you are at the bottom, rather than jumping straight back in the cable car and coming back up into town, why not take a bit of time to explore the village of Huez itself. Huez is a very small, sleepy, charming, typical mountain village – with narrow streets and typically alpine architecture. There are a couple of small French bars and a mountain restaurant “Le Savoyard” which has a lovely south facing deck area.

The village itself is pretty much unchanged after around a 100 or so years and is full of character and charm. In addition to the couple of bars there is also a pretty little church, this genuinely is s lovely little village to visit.

Another benefit to this ski run is that there is parking at the bottom of the cable car station in Huez, so if you are coming up from Bourg d’Oisans there's no need to go all the way up into Alpe d’Huez and struggle to park – simply park in Huez, jump in the cable car and let it take you right into the heart of Alpe d’Huez. It's much less hassle than trying to park and you have a lovely run to look forward to at the end of the day all the way back down to your car in Huez.

You can alternatively use the cable car as a pedestrian and again negate the need to take your car all the way up into resort. Even if you don't have a lift pass, you can simply pay at the cable car station for a “simple” (single) or “retour” (return) ticket for the lift.

All too many times everybody heads off full steam up the hill into Alpe d’Huez itself and miss out on this true gem of a mountain village - don't be one of those to miss out!