Tarentaise Valley

The Tarentaise Valley (French: Vallée de la Tarentaise) is a valley of the Isère River in the heart of the French Alps, located in the Savoy region of France. The valley is named for the ancient town of Darantasia, the capital of the pre-Roman Centrones tribe.

At the foot of the valley, in the west, is the city of Albertville. Going east up the valley, Moûtiers is reached, then Aime, and finally the last large town, Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

The area is internationally best known for its world-renowned ski resorts, including Les Trois Vallées (Courchevel, Méribel, Val Thorens etc.—off a side valley from Moûtiers), Paradiski with La Plagne above Aime, and Les Arcs above Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Espace Killy with Tignes and Val-d'Isère is further up the valley. These communities hosted most of the events for the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics. A weekly lift ticket in any of the described systems gives skiers a choice to ski one day in each of the other two systems mentioned. There were once plans to interlink all systems and resorts to create the—by far—largest ski area in the world. However that vision was ended with the creation of the Vanoise National Park. Other ski areas includes Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise, La Rosière, and Valmorel.

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