Four and a half hours, and why Geneva changes the question
Four hundred and twenty kilometres, four and a half hours: the longest resort run on the grid, and it only makes sense in certain cases. The resort publishes the figures that let you judge: 176 km and 2 h 00 from Lyon-Saint-Exupéry, 179 km and 2 h 00 from Geneva International Airport, 95 km and 1 h 15 from Chambéry.
Put plainly, if the flight is not already booked into Nice, arriving via Geneva halves the driving time. We say so before selling the job, because a client who finds that out afterwards does not come back.
There remain good reasons to leave from Nice: a long-haul flight that only lands there, a holiday that starts on the coast, a group that prefers one vehicle from the terminal to the chalet. In those cases the run is planned as a journey, not as a transfer.
After Moûtiers, three mountain roads
The motorway part raises no questions. The route splits near Aix-en-Provence, at the A8 / A51 fork that the operator describes as the point linking Nice, Gap and Marseille. That is where the road to Savoie parts company with the road to Marseille.
The last part is different. The Courchevel town hall gives the sequence from Moûtiers: D90, then D915, then D91A. Around thirty minutes of mountain road, beyond the station that remains the most useful landmark for placing the resort.
Those thirty minutes are worth the rest of the trip in attention. They cannot be made up and they cannot be anticipated: they are driven at whatever pace the road allows on the day.
The chain-fitting post is not a formality
The commune writes that mountain roads can be icy, that special equipment, winter tyres or chains, is compulsory, and that after heavy snowfall access to the resort is closed to any vehicle not carrying it. The check happens at chain-fitting posts staffed by the municipal police or the gendarmerie.
The national framework points the same way: from 1 November to 31 March, winter equipment is required in the communes listed by prefectoral order and marked by roadside signs.
For us that means three decisions taken at booking: the vehicle is equipped for the season, the rest stops are planned, and a roof box goes on if skis travel. The price is settled before departure and does not depend on the weather.