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The French Alps are part of the biggest mountain range in Europe and is a region of great beauty. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Western Europe at over 4,800m and Briançon is the highest town in Europe at 1,350m. The area lends itself to a variety of outdoor activities: skiing, snowboarding, snow-shoe walking, mountaineering and in the summer, canoeing, kayaking, white water rafting and hydrospeed.
The French Alps have been host to the winter Olympic games on two occasions - in Grenoble in 1968 and Albertville in 1992. The area relies heavily on tourism and winter sports with major ski stations such as Val d’Isère, Tignes, Chamonix, Serre-Chevalier and Avoriaz attracting ski fanatics from around the world.
The city of Grenoble is famous for its Bastille, an important series of fortifications situated high above the city on the top of the mountain and also for its walnuts, which have an appellation of controlled origin. Grenoble is a major scientific centre, especially in the fields of physics, applied mathematics and computer science, and for this reason is renowned for its international community of foreign students and foreign researchers: after Paris it has the second largest population of English speaking inhabitants in France.
Acting Manager for AngloINFO French Alps is Fiona Aris. Fiona worked for many years in magazine publishing before moving abroad to live in Norway, Greece and Italy. On her return to the UK she worked in media recruitment and in business teaching before joining AngloINFO as Business Development Director. She has two teenage sons, James (18) and Nick (16) and spends much of her spare time trying to persuade them to get up and do some work or transporting them to and from rugby matches!
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