Saint Martin de Belleville

The traditional end of Les 3 Vallées

Saint-Martin-de-Belleville was a commune in the Savoie department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France until 1 January 2016, when it was merged into the new commune of Les Belleville. It is one of the gateways to Les 3 Vallées, and the numbers on this page, 600 km of pistes and 166 lifts, describe that entire linked area rather than the village’s own slopes. It is also the home of La Bouitte, a restaurant with two Michelin stars and one of the best in the French Alps.

The skiing

The base is at 1,400 m and the highest point in the area at 3,230 m, a spread of 1,830 m. The top height means altitude helps snow reliability across the upper reaches of the network; the village at 1,400 m is lower than the highest bases in the area, so the home run will be the part most exposed in a thin winter. The season runs from December to April.

No difficulty split is recorded, and with 600 km it hardly matters: an area this size has terrain for everyone, and 166 lifts, roughly one per 3.6 km of piste, keep it moving. The choice of base in Les 3 Vallées is therefore about character rather than access, and that is exactly where Saint-Martin comes in. It offers the same lifts and the same 600 km as any other base in the area, from a village rather than a purpose-built station. Skiers who want to ski hard all day and come back to somewhere quiet, with a serious restaurant at the end of it, are the ones it suits best. Put simply, it suits people who want the whole area every morning and a village, rather than a resort, every evening.

Character

Our data flags Saint-Martin for traditional charm and scenic views. As a historic commune, now folded into Les Belleville, it is a village with a past and a permanent community; the 2016 merger changed the administration, not the village. La Bouitte gives it a gastronomic reputation that few villages of its size can claim. The trade-off for that character is the lower altitude of the village itself; the reward is a base that feels like Savoie rather than a ski station.

Practicalities

Chambéry (CMF) is the nearest airport in our data, roughly 57 km away as the crow flies; the road route will be longer. Local information is on the village’s official website.