A winter holiday without skiing: snowshoes, sledges, thermal baths and a stove in the French Jura

The Nordic ski area of Foncine-le-Haut begins 10 min from us by our route calculation. It waymarks 17 snowshoe routes totalling about 60 km according to a ski-resort guide, through spruce forest and white pastures. Mouthe, across the plateau, adds 20 km of snowshoe routes. Without the car, the Voie du Tram, laid on a former tramway bed, leaves straight from the village: 11 km of gentle gradient under the firs, noticeably longer in snow than in summer. Snowshoes can be hired at Foncine-le-Haut; take poles too, which earn their keep on every climb and descent. For a slower way through the same forest, read forest bathing in the French Jura.

Speed without skis lives at Métabief, a 40 min drive: the Luge des Cimes, an alpine coaster that runs in winter and is open from age 3, according to the resort; children under 8, and anyone under 1.35 m, must ride with an adult. At Prémanon, a 35 min drive, the Espace des Mondes Polaires has an ice rink in winter, says Jura Tourisme, with a polar museum for the late afternoon. Many villages have a gentle field for free sledging, and a plastic sledge bought on the drive up keeps a child busy all week. None of this is booked in advance. You decide in the morning, by the sky.

A cold afternoon asks for hot water. The thermal baths of Salins-les-Bains, 45 min from the village, draw salt water from under the town; the caldarium is kept at 37 °C and there are 2 saunas, Jura Tourisme reports. The baths at Lons-le-Saunier, 1 hr away, offer a pool at 32 °C. Our comparison of the thermal baths weighs the two. The order that works: snowshoes in the morning, baths in the early afternoon, home before dark, which comes early.

Mouthe lies 20 min of driving away, by our route calculation. It holds the cold record of mainland France: -36.7 °C, measured on 13 January 1968, according to Météo-France. The Doubs rises there, a karst spring at the foot of a wooded cliff, a few minutes on foot from the car park. It is a short outing, ideal for a day of hard frost. Children remember the number; adults remember the blue light on the snow late in the afternoon.

In winter you spend more time indoors than out, and that is when the house counts. Jura 835 stands at 835 m on a single level, with 3 bedrooms for 6 to 8 guests, a large living room around the stove and a garden (400 m²) that becomes the evening playground under snow. The fibre connection (1 Gbit/s) carries the evening film or the working day of whoever could not get leave. The ritual of every winter week fits in a sentence: light the fire at dusk and do not go out again. For the quietest version of the same week, see a venue built for silence; for a long weekend with a spa afternoon, a wellness weekend in France.

Geneva airport takes 1 hr 20 min to reach from the village, by our route calculation. Between November and March, plateau drivers need winter tyres under the loi Montagne, or chains kept in the boot. From Paris, Frasne is 2 hr 48 min by the fastest train, then 40 min by road to the house; we can arrange the pick-up. The house is let whole, by the week during school holidays, from €4,200; outside holidays a long weekend is possible. Without lift passes, the budget of a winter week for a family is mostly the house and the shopping.

Give us your dates, how many you are, the ages of any children and what you want from the week. We will answer honestly about likely snow cover, the state of the roads and what the house can and cannot offer: no spa on site, no piste outside the door, but a forest, a stove and the silence of a village at 835 m.