Courchevel, France

The swishiest ski resort in the Trois Vallees, Courchevel is about as louche as high altitude antics can get. Perfectly groomed pistes wiggle through snow-dusted pine-woods, past gourmet mountain restaurants to meet a town centre filled with designer boutiques and Bentleys. But it wasn’t always the case, before the oligarchs arrived, this was a popular resort with the Brits and French for its superb, multilevel skiing, which, with eye-watering investment in snow machines and piste maintenance, just keeps getting better. Having fully embraced Courchevel’s piste-side parade of tiered seafood platters, Champagne coupés and general Michelin-starred, moneyed madcappery, skiers can snow plough into their chalet backdoors, or the plush ski lounges of the resort’s curiously varied hotels for a deep tissue take on après.