Where to Buy Now: Bourg-Saint-Maurice, French Alps

BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE

French Alps

Nicknamed the ‘Capital of the Upper Tarentaise’, Bourg-Saint-Maurice is a town in the Savoie département of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. The last large town along the Tarentaise Valley in the heart of the Alps, it’s popular with holidaymakers from all over the world, thanks to its international railway station and the fact that the ski areas of Les Arcs and Paradiski are just seven minutes away by funicular railway.

This charming town has something for everyone – baroque churches and chapels, Alpine pastures, historic and avant-garde architecture alike, plus shops, restaurants and extensive leisure activities.

The family-friendly ski runs and snowboard cruiseways of Les Arcs and Paradiski, the glorious off-piste action in Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise plus the more advanced runs in the Val D’Isère are all a short distance away and easily reachable by public shuttle.

As it sits close to the French-Italian border, the outskirts of ‘Bourg’, as it’s often called, mark the start of a number of classic mountain routes for cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers, to Annecy via La Clusaz in Switzerland, northern Italy, the Italian Lakes, southern France and the French Riviera.

Paradiski also boasts one of the best developed mountain bike trail networks in the Alps, extending from Les Arcs to La Plagne and over into Champagny, offering some really stunning views of Courchevel and the Three Valleys area along the way.

Unlike many local towns and villages, Bourg-Saint-Maurice is open year-round and is also a popular summer destination. During warmer months, it’s a haven for nature lovers that offers such activities as white-water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, horse-riding, climbing and trekking plus spa facilities. In addition, the surrounding mountains are a good spot for paragliding and hang gliding.

Its year-round popularity makes Bourg-Saint-Maurice a great choice for rental properties and the area is popular with British, Dutch and Belgian buyers plus UK and French expats who live, for example, in Singapore, Dubai or Japan. The recent fall in the Pound-Euro rate hasn’t had any effect on property sales and the market is still busy.

The area offers a wealth of property to suit every dream, from fully-refurbished, traditional stone farmhouses with beams and fireplaces and town apartments close to the shops, bars and restaurants, to ski chalets in the middle of nowhere and tumbledown barns in need of total renovation.

With thanks to Hélène Ferronniere, our partner agent in the Alps

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