Why Oz in the French Alps is the perfect family ski destination

Who’s the Wizard of Oz? As far as parents in our group are concerned, his name is Pierre Paret-Solet — a locally born ski instructor who can wrangle frozen boot bindings with the flick of a wrist, scoop up myriad lost poles while skiing backwards and cajole wilful children without remotely raising his voice. And if, say, just as you sit down to lunch a snowboard happens to shoot off the side of a slope because the kids were using it as a sledge, he can retrieve it before your tartiflette hits the table. And all with a genuine smile. 

Welcome to Oz. Constructed in the 1980s, Oz-en-Oisans — or Oz 3300 to use its more modern moniker — is a little ski village in France’s Isère region. An hour by road from Grenoble (two from Lyon), Oz is one of the most recent resorts to be built in the French Alps but, despite this, has the air of a traditional wooden chalet hamlet — a diminutive cluster of traditional Alpine buildings set around two ski lifts. It’s a place so bijou, you could veer off the nursery slopes on a sledge and pretty much slide straight into your accommodation. A log cabin is the hub for kit hire and the ESF (Ecole du Ski Français) ski school, where instructors seem to possess Pierre’s child-inspiring charm, beyond which, a mini strip of bar-cafes and a grocery shop are backed by snowy peaks and a modest collection of low-rise apartments.

Unlike the fictitious kingdom, Oz delivers on its simple promise, of being a manageable family-friendly ski resort. But like any good wizard, it has something up its sleeve. Beyond the 30 local ski runs, via short gondola ride, Oz links with the vast Alpe d’Huez Grand Domaine ski region: a string of five ski resorts and two villages, including the buzzy, year-round mountain town of Alpe d’Huez itself, all-in totalling 155 miles of piste.

What that means — a boon for mixed ability groups — is that you can divide and conquer with ease. Beginners and rusty intermediates can enjoy the nursery slopes and pretty green and blue runs among the trees around Oz and its neighbouring hamlet, Vaujany, while the gung ho can gondola up to Pic Blanc, the region’s 3,330m summit, to tackle what’s dubbed the world’s longest black run, La Sarenne. This half-hour, 10-mile downhill drops some 2,000m from Pic Blanc’s glacial heights through deep gorges to below the tree line, beginning with a steep mogul field and — a bragging rights variant — a near vertical drop into the piste from the end of Le Tunnel. 

It’s battle tales of this mountain passage that the teens in our group bring to the table at La Grange. The classic mountain hut restaurant with a sun-trap terrace is an easily located lunch spot near the Alpette lift, the gondola connecting Oz with the wider ski area. Over wood-fired pizzas and platters of mountain charcuterie, others in our group regale with tales of off-piste adventure. Not on skis but in snowshoes. Oz has generous terrain for Nordic activities, where visitors can spend hours climbing above sparkling lakes or exploring the virgin snowdrifts around 2,800m Dome des Rousses. Despite trails travelling no more than a mile from a ski lift, silence and solitude reigns supreme, and they demand the company of an avalanche trained guide. So, the Grand Domaine is brilliantly diverse. Even its intermediate mid-section — a web of blue and red runs with Alpe d’Huez at its centre — comes with stellar views. From the Place Marmotte ski area, the valley is scooped out below, a bowl that fills with milky clouds on a warm spring morning, a temperature inversion that looks like a lake has suddenly been magicked between the pistes. Just above, in the aptly named Lac Blanc area, we turn our back on the valley to descend 120m into a snow cave: the Grotte de Glace, a gallery of ice sculptures created annually by local artists, currently conjured into Ancient Egypt, complete with frozen sphinx and pharaoh. From here, skiers and non-skiers alike can summit Pic Blanc on the glacier gondola where epic — if often wind-blown — views offer a 360-degree panorama as far as Mont Blanc and the distinctive jagged Chartreuse Mountains. Of course, if you want a different kind of jaw-dropping view, there’s always La Folie Douce. The Val d’Isère-born apres spot synonymous with nightclub-style acts and table dancing before the sun’s set, has its fourth branch in Alpe d’Huez. We visit at lunch, the kids fascinated by the cabaret-in-the-day-vibes and contemporary cool food: onion soup with lids of crusty bread; boards of smoked trout with salads in jars; lollipops of Reblochon cheese. The children’s menu is gourmet standard (Arctic char fish and chips; quality bolognese), served in hearty portions that can easily do for two. And, given mountain prices, it’s not extortionate, with two courses for €16 (£14). Our early booking proves prudent — we clunk out in our ski boots before the fur boot and sequin jacket crew really crack into the Krug.Back at base, La Ferme d’Oz provides apres ski, village style: sunset drinks and a familiar menu of mountain fare where an indecent number of dishes are prefixed with the phrase ‘trois fromages’. On the nursery slopes, just beyond the restaurant’s terrace, kids can try all manner of non-ski activities: airboarding (a mix of bodyboarding and snowboarding on an inflatable snowboard), mono-skiing, sledging and even laser rifle shooting in regular, free sessions organised by the local tourist office. Or, back at our accommodation, Timberlodge hotel, they’re kept entertained by a pre-dinner swim in the somewhat bracing indoor pool — sauna and steam room standing by. This three-star-hotel, all faux fur throws, wall-to-wall wood and bunk rooms, is a great base for families. The bar restaurant, serving crowd-pleasing French and Italian food, centres around a big modern fireplace, while the boot room, in the basement below, is ski in, ski out in good snow.

Timberlodge is a boutique offering by local standards, but little Oz is about to see some significant expansion. Two new four-star apartment complexes each with a restaurant and a swimming pool are in development for 2025-26, which will boost the town’s capacity by some several hundred beds. Its access to the big ski areas will improve, too, with Oz’s two gondolas being modernised between now and 2026, offering faster links — potentially with expanded hours that would make Alpe d’Huez a viable spot for evening skiing and more grown-up apres fun. And the tourist office is also getting an impressive makeover, to include an indoor climbing wall and sports complex, which should open in 2024.

Oz already has a surprising breadth of activities given its small stature. There’s husky sledding, torch-lit ski descents, forest walks around the village that end with marshmallow roasting sessions and sunset hikes with wine and cheese tastings. Our group sets off on the Pré Raynaud trail encircling the resort, which passes through woodland, before opening into a field with expansive views over l’Eau d’Olle Valley where the sun is starting to sink. And if that isn’t enough to stretch post-skiing legs, yoga lessons are also included in the tourist office’s roster of regular activities (many of which are free or attract a nominal fee).

“We do the class wearing ski clothing, directly on the snow,” says local instructor, Elodie Geles. “Because when do we get the chance, as adults, to play like children in the snow?” These weekly classes are free, taking place outside the tourist office (or in the local community centre in bad weather). “All the exercises are adapted to work around ski attire and they’re quite gentle,” Elodie continues. “Classes are open to all, and depend on how I feel, how the day is and what the moon and sun are doing at the time.” It’s a novel approach for a ski resort — enchanting some might say, but then again, we are in Oz.