Discover · May 26, 2026
Champagny-le-Haut, gateway to the Vanoise park
At the gateway to the Vanoise National Park, the listed Champagny-le-Haut valley is discovered on foot: glaciers, marmots, stone hamlets and refuges.
Some places have to be earned: Champagny-le-Haut is one of them. At the end of the valley, at 1,500 metres, this classified basin opens straight onto the Vanoise National Park — France’s first national park, created in 1963. A quiet gateway to one of the finest wild territories in the Alps.
A genuinely preserved valley
No concrete here, no stacked apartment blocks: the valley has been a classified natural site since 1992, and camping is even forbidden (except at the Huttopia campsite). The stone hamlets, with their lauze roofs, have remained as they were, at the foot of the Grande Casse, the Grande Motte and the Grand Bec (3,398 m). Below runs the Doron.
It is this silence, and this intact nature so close to such large accommodation, that make the place rare.
Discovered on foot, even with family
You don’t need to be a serious hiker to enjoy it:
- The Gorzderés stroll, between the hamlets of Le Bois and Friburge, is 2.5 km, accessible to all (including wheelchairs), dotted with reading tables.
- The large four-hamlets loop, very easy, links the valley’s villages.
- At the hamlet of Le Bois, the Espace Glacialis tells the story of alpine glaciers.
Wildlife is close everywhere: marmots in spring and summer, ibex never far on the heights.
In winter too
When the snow falls, the plateau becomes a cross-country ski area, in absolute quiet. And every winter, the village hosts the Ice Climbing World Cup on its ice tower.
Our chalets sit in this valley, in La Chiserette: you are not next to the Vanoise park, you are already at its gateway. See our chalets.