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Les Deux Alpes (now more commonly written as Les 2 Alpes, particularly when referring to the ski domain) is one of the biggest and most important ski resorts in France's Isère département; perched hig... moreLes Deux Alpes (now more commonly written as Les 2 Alpes, particularly when referring to the ski domain) is one of the biggest and most important ski resorts in France's Isère département; perched high on the edge of the wild and beautiful Parc National des Écrins, at the latitude where the Northern and the Southern French Alps meet.
Les 2 Alpes is consistently at the vanguard of new-school snowsports and has one of the biggest snowparks in the Alps, plus innovative in-bounds freeride 'Slide Zones' features. The ski area is most famous for having Europe's largest skiable glacier; with high-altitude snow-sure pistes which are just as busy in summer as they are in winter. The descent from the summit to the lowest piste-accessible point in the domain delivers an incredible on-piste vertical drop of 2220 m (7282 ft), one of the world's biggest.
In the local regional dialect, the word 'alpe' refers to a high meadow; Les 2 Alpes is therefore so named because it straddles the mountain pastures belonging to the two nearby parish villages of Mont-de-Lans and Venosc, whose originally separate summer-only farm settlements have now merged into one large year-round mountain-sports resort, strung out along the meadows on a long flat col high between the Romanche and Vénéon valleys. This large and lively new town sprawls for almost 2 km (1¼ mi) in an urbanised strip along this linear perch, bordered by the bustling base-area ski slopes. With over 2000 permanent inhabitants, a figure that swells 16-fold with the influx of international visitors during the height of the winter season, it is one of France's most animated resorts: offering a wide choice of accommodation and a large and vibrant selection of shops, cafés, restaurants, bars and clubs.
The resort may have an unpolished appearance, but it still has a discernible and likeable soul. less
