An access pass that stays open all year
This is the peculiarity the resort states itself, and it is worth taking seriously. The N94 crosses the Montgenèvre pass, and the tourist office notes that the pass is open all year. The reason is simple: this is not a service road, it is a permanent border route into Italy.
Compare it with the southern Alpine resorts whose secondary access passes close from December to May, and the difference is obvious. Here, access does not depend on a seasonal reopening. It still depends on the weather of the day, on border traffic and on the state of the N94, but not on a calendar date.
The resort sits at 1,860 metres, 12 kilometres from Briançon. From Modane through the Fréjus tunnel, the tourist office quotes 1 h 15.
Thirty free minutes at the Obélisque car park
The official listing gives useful numbers: 179 covered spaces and 90 open spaces, at the foot of the slopes, hameau de l’Obélisque. Use is free under thirty minutes, after which an hourly rate applies. Outside the winter season, parking is free.
That half hour is enough for an ordinary drop-off, luggage included. It is not enough for a wait. What the listing does not give is the height limit of the covered section, so we do not invent one, and a loaded van unloads above ground. The town hall refers its parking rates to a council decision we could not open, so no parking price is published here.
What is settled before the season
Three things are agreed at booking, not on the road. The vehicle, because a group with ski equipment does not travel in a sedan. The luggage volume, roof box included, because it decides where the vehicle stops. And the arrival time, because the drive from the coast is a full day.
A fourth point is worth raising: the season. Between 1 November and 31 March the equipment rule covers every road in the Hautes-Alpes, with no distinction between communes. The car leaves equipped, or it does not leave.