Photo of the month: Tignes

While the popular Tarentaise Valley ski resort you see today is a year-round playground for adrenaline junkies and party animals, it has much more sedate origins...

Located beside a lake in the Tarentaise Valley, the former Savoyard farming village of Tignes is today one of France’s best winter sports destinations. It has a fascinating history.

A hydro-electric power scheme led to a dam being built in 1952, flooding one of the former villages. Some Resistance-style locals even blew holes in it and were jailed. The lake is drained once a decade and you can walk around the remnants of the old village and even spot the church. The dam has a fresco of Hercules painted on it.

The ski resorts of Val Claret, Le Lac, Le Lavachet and Les Boisses were built in the 1950s, while Tignes 1800, the new village of the resort at the heart of Tignes and Val d’Isère linked ski areas (called Espace Killy after Jean-Claude Killy, ski legend and Val d’Isère native), opened in 2013. It is centred around a replica of the original church from the valley floor.

Throughout December
Alsace Christmas markets - Festive ambience and local treats
From Colmar (pictured) to Mulhouse, and especially in the famous yule-friendly capital, Strasbourg, the Alsace region comes alive in December. As well as local foodie treats, stock up on stocking-fillers such as artisan-crafted wooden toys.

Throughout December
Galeries Lafayette’s Christmas tree
It may be installed mid-November but the department store’s traditional sapin which dominates the main atrium at its flagship store on Bouelvard Haussman is best appreciated as the festive
holidays approach. Inevitably, the tree is now sponsored – last year’s by jeweller Swarovski.

For more events in December click here