Arc 1600

Arc 1600 came first. It opened at Christmas 1968 with a single building and forty kilometres of pistes, making it the oldest of the four Les Arcs villages and the one where Charlotte Perriand's hand is still most visible. The designer, who led the resort's creation from 1967 to 1989, dropped the planned towers in favour of low buildings laid along a single contour line so that nothing would block the view down the valley. That decision earned the village France's Twentieth Century Heritage label in 2003. A ski rental Arc 1600 means staying somewhere designed from the outset without cars, where everything is walkable and parking sits below the village. Set among the trees at 1,600 metres, it remains the quietest of the Arcs, well away from the bustle of Arc 1800. Arc 1600 accommodation still gives the same access to the 200 kilometres of Les Arcs runs and the 425 kilometres of Paradiski beyond. The funicular drops to Bourg-Saint-Maurice and its direct trains in seven minutes. Choose Arc 1600 for architecture and quiet rather than the density of the bigger resorts.