Skiing in the French Alps - by Van

My brother has a Ford Transit which is spacious and comfortable. Our plan is to drive from London to an as yet undetermined ski resort in the French Alps. We plan to pay for parking in one of the resorts (around 15 euros per day) and sleep in the van for two - three nights.

My question is - what is the best French alps resort for our purpose? The car park needs to be near the slopes, obviously, or there should be a free shuttle bus to take us from the car park to the slopes. Also, a drive not exceeding 12 hours would be great. Do we need to book the car park in advance?

Any suggestions, and does anyone see any flaw in our plan?

EDIT: Does anyone have any suggestions for places to take a shower either for free or cheaply? Perhaps the camp sites will accept a little bargaining and let us take a shower for a euro or two each?:-)

Best Answer

If you are prepared to pay €15/day, you might just as well stay at a proper campsite (with toilets, water, etc.) I don't think booking car parks in advance is generally possible (never noticed it in the resorts I went to but I usually stay away from the biggest, most popular resorts) but it might be a good idea for campsites.

Some potentially useful websites:

Full list of campsites in Savoie and Haute-Savoie by the local tourist board (in English)
First-hand info about camping outside of commercial campsites in ski resorts (in French, info seems a bit old in many cases)
Winter campsites or “caravaneige” in 2013-2014 (in French, the site also mentions many regular car parks where RV are accepted).

I have never done it myself but judging by these websites, it seems there are many options. I don't think the distance from London is going to help you choose either, most ski resorts in the Northern part of the French Alps should be reachable in 12 hours, the difference between the furthest and the nearest is probably not more than 1 or 2 hours.

Note that in France, municipalities can forbid camping or staying overnight on car parks if they see fit and I don't think than sleeping in a van instead of a RV makes a lot of difference.