A special 4-night New Year edition of our Gourmet Snowshoeing Short Break, combining beautiful guided snowshoe walks with an unforgettable New Year’s Eve celebration dinner, French style!
Location: Champsaur Valley
For similar foodie snowshoeing trips on other dates, check out our Snowshoeing for Foodies short breaks
Nestled on the edge of the Écrins National Park, the Champsaur Valley is a quietly spectacular corner of the Southern French Alps — a place of open ridgelines, snowy forests and peaceful valleys that feels a world away from the bustle of the ski resorts. This 4-night New Year Snowshoeing Retreat invites you to explore the best of winter on foot, then settle in each evening to enjoy warm hospitality and genuinely memorable food with cosy farmhouse comfort and a proper French New Year’s Eve feast that’s the true centrepiece of the week.
In France, New Year’s Eve is celebrated around the table, with a long, convivial réveillon-style dinner that unfolds course by course and lasts the whole evening. On this retreat, you’ll enjoy that tradition in the warm, intimate setting of our farmhouse, with a festive menu built around seasonal Alpine produce and plenty of time to savour it all.
In the kitchen is Meg, our talented and inventive Taiwanese chef, who adds a subtle Asian flair to Alpine classics — unexpected twists, beautifully balanced flavours, and a meal that feels both rooted in the mountains and wonderfully original. It’s the kind of evening you’ll remember: great food, a friendly small group, and the calm joy of welcoming the year ahead far from the crowds. The menu for 2026-2027 is a surprise, but here is the 2025-2026 menu to give you an idea!
Each day you’ll head out on snowshoes to discover a different side of the valley: wide panoramic viewpoints, sheltered woodland trails, riverside paths and gentle high points that offer big views without big crowds. Your qualified mountain guide will choose the best route for the day, adapting plans to match the snow conditions and the weather so the experience stays safe, relaxed and rewarding.
Back at your welcoming mountain farmhouse, the atmosphere is cosy and unhurried: time to warm up, share stories from the trail, and enjoy the simple pleasure of being looked after in the mountains.
Snowshoes let you wander where the lifts don’t go; into quieter spaces that feel wild and pristine. You might crunch through larch woods dusted in snow, cross a frozen stream, or pause on a sunny ridge with uninterrupted views of the surrounding peaks. Walks are typically 3–5 hours spread over the day with plenty of time to stop, take photos, and enjoy the calm.
Your Mountain Leader will follow a carefully planned programme, but will adapt each day according to conditions including snow cover, weather and avalanche risk so you can enjoy the mountains with confidence and peace of mind.
Snowshoeing is a wonderfully low-impact way to explore winter landscapes, and this retreat keeps it local: independent accommodation, regional produce, and quiet trails away from high-traffic resorts - a simple way to celebrate New Year while supporting the mountain community and treading lightly.
We have arranged a pick up and drop off transfer from the town of Gap which is well served by a variety of train and bus links from the major airports and TGV fast train services.
BY TRAIN / BUS:
Gap has a local SNCF train station. There are direct train links to Gap from Grenoble TGV station there is also an overnight sleeper train from Paris to Gap.
There is also a regular coach service which operates from Aix-en-Provence TGV directly to Gap.
You can plan your train journey using the Oui SNCF website. This works from all major European cities.
We offer a 3% discount to anyone travelling by train instead of plane (internationally). Just ask about this when you book.
BY PLANE:
The nearest airports are Marseilles (MRS) and Grenoble (GNB). From Marseille airport there is a regular coach service directly to Gap every two and a half hours. From Grenoble you would need to get the airport shuttle to the train station and then a train from Grenoble to Gap.
Please ask us about transport options when you enquire as we have become pros on getting people to this beautiful region!
