This French ski resort is a true paradise on earth with its exceptional white landscapes and its endless courses in the heart of the forests.
Lovers of the great outdoors, eager to escape and experience thrills in an exceptional natural setting, swear by Lapland. For sure, in winter, this destination offers magical landscapes dressed in a thick white coat and imbued with serenity. But what if we told you that you don’t need to go beyond the Arctic Circle to have this kind of experience? A French ski resort combines these same attributes. It is worthy of a fairy tale.
Nestled in the heart of the snow-covered forests of the Haut-Jura Natural Park, this ski resort is renowned for its large, wild and preserved spaces and in its 4 villages there is a warm and welcoming atmosphere like in the Nordic regions. Its frozen lake in winter, its trees covered in frost and its snow-capped peaks offer breathtaking panoramas. Like Lapland, it offers a multitude of Nordic activities with family, alone or with friends, such as skiing, snowshoeing, tobogganing, dog sledding or even skijoring, an ancestral Scandinavian activity which combines skiing and the equestrian team, with the horse pulling the skier on the slopes.
Welcome to the ski resort “Les Rousses”! Its main activity is cross-country skiing, its inhabitants have made it a real philosophy… With its 220 kilometers of slopes open to all, the resort is the largest French Nordic ski area in France and one of the largest of Europe. Among its must-sees, the Risoux forest, accessible from the villages of Les Rousses and Bois d’Amont, offers endless trails in the heart of the forest and valleys, littered with around fifteen panels containing philosophical or amusing quotes. .
But there’s more to life than just skiing. In Les Rousses, a range of endless hikes are available to you on foot or on snowshoes, with its 55 kilometers of marked routes including 22 kilometers of special snowshoe trails. You will evolve in a protected setting, enhanced by spruce forests with the alpine ski slopes as a backdrop. In total, the area includes 52 alpine ski slopes and 29 ski lifts, divided into two massifs: Dôle and Tuffes.
And it’s not just winter sports in Les Rousses. Don’t miss the excellent visit to Fort des Rousses, the 2nd largest fort in France. This former military base from the 19th century has become one of the largest Comté refining cellars in all of Europe,ith more than 50 000 m² of vaulted rooms.
Convinced by this idyllic setting? The ski resort is easily accessible from Paris (5 hours by car), Lyon (2 to 3 hours) or Geneva (1 hour). The slopes of the Rousses resort are connected to the neighboring areas of Hautes-Combes, Bellefontaine, Longchaumois and even Swiss Romande.