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The Savoie department prefecture said 3,500 motorists spent the night in emergency shelters after the snow made the roads impassable.
A further 500 holiday-makers who landed at the airport in the city of Chambery also had to sleep in shelters.
The avalanche alert level in Savoie was at four on a scale of five, the national weather service said.
The mountain rescue service said a 22-year-old man died when an avalanche swept him away as he skied off-piste on Saturday in Val d'Isere, a resort popular with foreign visitors.