Bien venue: for top-class skiing, you just can't beat the French Alps

Another season, another point to be plotted on the graph: the inexorable growth of France's popularity as a ski destination continues. For much of this decade the same phrase has been trotted out: "More than one in three UK skiers chooses to go skiing in France". That remains true, but it now understates France's dominant position.

Last year, the growth of its share of the UK market was only marginal. An increase of 0.8 per cent brought the share up to 37.1 per cent in 2006/7, according to the ski industry report produced annually by the tour operator Crystal. But among the rival destinations just two – Switzerland and North America (Crystal groups the US and Canada together) – also saw growth in their market share; and in both cases the increase was a paltry 0.1 per cent.

What's so great about France? For skiers, the list of its persuasive qualities is long. Best to start, perhaps, on the mountains, whose ski areas look down on those in other Alpine countries. In a season overshadowed by the poor snow of last December, the high altitude of so much of France's skiing is more important than ever.

The purpose-built ski resorts of the French Alps, some of which are now into their fifth decade, have had their critics; and the brutality of their large, concrete buildings makes them a hard sell to summer visitors. But the idea of pushing beyond the old farming villages to create resorts right up where the deep snow lies was brilliant. Whatever their architectural failings, Les Arcs, La Plagne, Val Thorens, Flaine, Avoriaz and the other new "villages" have the irresistible attraction of snow-sure skiing literally at the doorsteps of their apartment building.

The sheer quantity of the skiing is another big draw. The British are known in the winter-sport world as high-mileage skiers: we are thought to ski all day, every day, from when the lifts open until after they have closed. (This is illusory, of course, although the languid Italians make it seem true.) But because we have no mountains of our own on which to practise regularly, we are largely a nation of intermediate skiers. And intermediates need a lot of ski terrain. In pursuit of perfection, expert skiers can amuse themselves taking repeated runs down a single, challenging slope, especially one with a few trees; but when the average intermediate has completed a blue or red run, he or she looks for another one. France's ski terrain might have been made for us. There is a great deal of it for a start: the ski areas of the Trois Vallées (at Courchevel, Méribel and Val Thorens) and Paradiski (Les Arcs and La Plagne) are the biggest in the world. And the bulk of their pisted terrain is intermediate.

The French lift system has no equal either. Again, it provides a mixture of quality – the lifts are modern, fast, and efficiently deployed – and quantity. In recent years the association of French ski-lift operators, called SNTF for short, has laboriously counted all the installations, calculated their "uplift" (carrying capacity) and worked out the number of rides taken on them. In its annual report it has regularly dramatised its findings by calculating, for example, that joined together the lifts could connect Paris with Cairo, and that their combined capacity could move the entire population of Rome up a mountain in a single day. I am fearful, however, that the task of surveying all France's ski-lifts is now too great a challenge for the SNTF. Maybe the 59 new installations it expected to see for last season were a step too far. Its annual report has traditionally appeared in late summer, but I have still not seen the results of a 2006/7 survey.

In the French resorts' announcements of their improvements for this season, the number of new lifts is smaller than usual. Even at Serre-Chevalier – a ski area near Briançon being heavily promoted in the wake of a takeover of its slopes by the giant Compagnie des Alpes – there is something of lull, between the installation of three new, six-person chairlifts and the start of a further, ¿50m (£36m) investment in the ski facilities. The big changes for 2007/8 are elsewhere; and they address an enduring problem in French resorts, particularly those that were purpose-built.

Accommodation standards in France in the Seventies were low. Most urban-dwellers lived in flats, and could tolerate relatively cramped surroundings. Also, those were not affluent times: if skiers were to buy a second home in a resort, it would have to be a cheap one. So the apartments offered in the purpose-built resorts were rabbit hutches. As most British skiers know, apartments which made the claim "sleeps six" did in fact have six beds, or at least bunks; but they did not have standing room for more than five. Practical considerations demanded that breakfast be taken in shifts, and that trips to the bathroom be planned ahead and choreographed like a military manoeuvre.

Only since the millennium have there been concerted efforts to improve accommodation standards. In many of the purpose-built resorts the developer MGM showed what could be done, erecting lodge-style buildings with apartments generous in both their dimensions and their comforts. It also showed how successful the strategy could be, given the pent-up demand for high-quality – and relatively high-priced – accommodation. In some resorts, apartment-owners in the original buildings were persuaded to combine adjoining units and create larger, more comfortable properties. And, most dramatically, the creation of the new, Arc 1950 "village" at Les Arcs by the Canadian developer Intrawest brought to the Alps an only slightly reduced version of North American accommodation, notable for both its quality and scale. Intrawest is now working to bring the same sort of development to Flaine.

Two more apartment buildings at Arc 1950 are on-stream for this season; but it is the wave of new four-star hotels, the highest-rated category in France (where five-star hotels do not officially exist), which is the most striking development for 2007/8. Flip through the press brief on innovations for the coming season, and these four-star properties keep popping up, newly built or expanded, in Chamonix and Courchevel, La Plagne and Les Arcs, Val d'Isère and Val Thorens.

The accommodation in French resorts isn't all expensive and luxurious. The scale of holiday operations in the Alps is such that the range of possibilities is extremely broad. Last season, Thomson boldly took its ski programme where no other big ski operator had gone – to a caravan park. The "caravans" at Le Grand Bornand, just an hour from Geneva airport, were actually mobile homes sleeping six people, set on a property with an indoor swimming pool. Aimed at families (the park "does not accept single-sex groups under 25 years of age", warns the brochure), holiday packages there were priced from £199 per week, including return flights from Stansted. The idea obviously worked: the holidays are still in the Thomson brochure, and still start at £199, although that price applies only for the week beginning 12 January. In the same brochure, the Alpes Hotel du Pralong in Courchevel 1850 represents the opposite extreme. Go there with Thomson in the week beginning 12 January and it will cost £1,829. The hotel has an indoor pool, too; otherwise it has little in common with a caravan park.

There are also plenty of choices in transportation. France is the most accessible ski destination from the UK, and it gets more accessible all the time. There are now regular flights – scheduled, low-cost or charter – into Geneva, Lyon, Chambéry and Grenoble, departing from (in the brochure of the market leader, Crystal) 19 different UK airports. Continuing road improvements in France – if not in the UK – make driving to the Alps ever easier; and for family and other groups it's a very cost-effective way to go. This season, the Eurostar is faster too, thanks to the high-speed link from London to the Channel Tunnel. No doubt because of developing environmental sensibilities, tour operators are pushing Eurostar packages harder now; but it remains a more expensive option than charter flights. The premium payable on opting for Eurostar varies widely: some operators charge as little as £10, others as much as £50. Read the small print in the brochures' back pages carefully if you are thinking of travelling by Eurostar.

What's not to like about skiing in France? There's the fact that in the resorts it is almost impossible to find the good, simple restaurants with prix fixe menus which were once the staple of French cuisine. Also on the downside are the crowds and the queues, which are hard to endure for skiers who have enjoyed the wide, open slopes of North America. And all those British skiers: the country is full of them. Visit the Trois Vallées or Val d'Isère, and you may well resolve to go abroad for your next ski holiday, to a place where the people speak some language other than English.

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