Veveyse

The TPF line from Palézieux to Bulle stops at Châtel-Saint-Denis, with train connections at Palézieux from Lausanne or Fribourg. A TPF bus then climbs from the station to Les Paccots in about fifteen minutes, running more often in season. By car, the A12 motorway serves the district at the Châtel-Saint-Denis exit, five minutes from the centre, and the road up to Les Paccots is steady rather than difficult.

Worth knowing: after fresh snow the car park at Les Paccots is full before 10am and the access road queues up. Taking the bus from the station avoids the problem entirely.

The recreation area at Les Paccots is the strongest card in the district under the age of six: flat ground, wooden play structures, a stream, sheltered tables and mountain cafés nearby. A standard pushchair copes with the main paths, and an all-terrain one opens up the surrounding trails. Down in the valley, the loop around Lac de Lussy is short, shaded and flat, which suits the end of a long day.

Les Paccots stays a small resort, and that matters for a first winter: wide gentle runs, short lift queues, mountain restaurants you can walk to. Sledging fills the days when skiing still feels too early, and the marked snowshoe routes make a family outing possible without complicated gear. When the valley sits under grey cloud, this plateau is often in the sun, and the Sirius cinema in Châtel-Saint-Denis is the fallback on genuinely bad days.