tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30331885674447887002024-03-05T17:20:52.322+01:00Ski AdventuresMy company Ski Adventures is an independent chalet holiday company in Les Arcs Paradiski, in the French Alps. For over 15 years we have welcomed thousands of guests to the the magic mountains of Les Arcs. This blog contains my views and ideas about life here, in the resort and in the valley town of Bourg St Maurice, and wider views about the ski industry generally.
Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-4306609575285110762018-11-15T20:46:00.002+01:002018-11-23T10:50:38.468+01:00Valmorel: value-for-money skiing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKetpFBk42suinU0LrHUoTvfzR3BCVmn58UviPTLAKWpyM3cGHByn9Imw-DeU7LUFk37jLR3fY5IoQ8giH1iIvZZR0sFDsRjV90CNLJ7oZPhcR386-02HaxF0SokzFM0LRXCeakRqazI_x/s1600/valmo+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKetpFBk42suinU0LrHUoTvfzR3BCVmn58UviPTLAKWpyM3cGHByn9Imw-DeU7LUFk37jLR3fY5IoQ8giH1iIvZZR0sFDsRjV90CNLJ7oZPhcR386-02HaxF0SokzFM0LRXCeakRqazI_x/s1600/valmo+1.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">With the recent Brexit developments it looks likely that British skiers
are going to have to </span>p<span style="font-family: inherit;">ut </span>value<span style="font-family: inherit;"> for money higher up on their ski
holiday wish-lists. One destination to consider is Valmorel,
the first resort you get to in the Tarentaise valley after leaving
Albertville. Even though it has many of the facilities of it's
bigger, brasher neighbours, lift passes are cheaper and eating,
drinking and sleeping on the mountain are considerably less
expensive. Valmorel has 135km of pistes and 33 lifts, similar
to </span><span style="color: #4a4a4a; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">La
Rosière, and with a similar altitude spread of 1200m - 2600m.</span></span><br />
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAHRzpi7Aqt5r4dHybvh7hcyB7Z0dAPfowpN80B1TL2x5SMMpvUR4Cc225venPnEJ-swcRTcuKJyoNA4yojeUAUDfzt9o2TUK8e1yLwDzTDRFRW8GH6mRUg49lUgblt-fvfaYifAUujSeu/s1600/valmo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="550" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAHRzpi7Aqt5r4dHybvh7hcyB7Z0dAPfowpN80B1TL2x5SMMpvUR4Cc225venPnEJ-swcRTcuKJyoNA4yojeUAUDfzt9o2TUK8e1yLwDzTDRFRW8GH6mRUg49lUgblt-fvfaYifAUujSeu/s200/valmo+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le Bourg </td></tr>
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<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Valmorel
is best of France's '4th Generation' purpose-built ski resorts,
reflecting local Savoyard architecture with more intimacy than the
massive constructions of the 1960s found elsewhere. The central
village is laid out along a car-free 'Grande Rue', with a
surprisingly eclectic mix of bar, restaurants and shops. None of the
adjacent buildings are more than three or four stories high, and
local stone, wood and <i>lauze </i>(slate) being the
materials of choice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Like
many of the Tarentaise ski resorts, Valmorel was home-grown response
to the decline of traditional local economies in the middle of the
20th century: agriculture of course, but also the local mineral
industries. Despite the decline of these in the 1960s. caused by cheaper
imports and changing tax rules, two are still very much active at
the foot of the valley of the Morel. </span></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvloJqoVX27OV0gbIYZLBfbR2eITbANfLNjapILOiO5iArF_KkEOqsWFAL2z_qbhKO0yPphYQhGb9F9aBOx9kEA2HBEbqRddJlnRIr_gjZovnL4imGt2KMqYwNGUEd9ewzkFCw_ymhWj5e/s1600/Ferropem-LIVRE-interieur8-082-600x600+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvloJqoVX27OV0gbIYZLBfbR2eITbANfLNjapILOiO5iArF_KkEOqsWFAL2z_qbhKO0yPphYQhGb9F9aBOx9kEA2HBEbqRddJlnRIr_gjZovnL4imGt2KMqYwNGUEd9ewzkFCw_ymhWj5e/s200/Ferropem-LIVRE-interieur8-082-600x600+%25281%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FerroPEM furnace</td></tr>
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<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">You
can't miss FerroPEM as you drive by La Lech</span><span style="color: #4a4a4a;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">è</span></span><span style="background: #ffffff;">re,
its vast satanic furnaces turning rocks into rare silicium alloys,
and Carbone de Savoie at Aigueblanche, coated in black dust
from processing wood into the base material for everything from
aeroplane wings and mobile phone components. These industries
were originally attracted to Savoie by the availability of cheap
electricity from hydro-electric power. Both these factories have
their own generating systems; you can see their pipes snaking up to
hidden reservoirs high in the mountains. They are so efficient they
also make a sizeable contribution to France's national grid - the
original green energy.</span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRU5zvpI5L9lwPwMJ6yirTFgWS4PPlfb9FOFEqBcGGnFqIzLTAP9UWfPwWFvp_TGTmd9b_xXq06zcGrDPr9H1uvc_8y-IEwdFC88QF9CaOXOzIKwhPrd9GCZYsWWmu7J8pbhN-fNf_OTIX/s1600/v_000_michel_bezancon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRU5zvpI5L9lwPwMJ6yirTFgWS4PPlfb9FOFEqBcGGnFqIzLTAP9UWfPwWFvp_TGTmd9b_xXq06zcGrDPr9H1uvc_8y-IEwdFC88QF9CaOXOzIKwhPrd9GCZYsWWmu7J8pbhN-fNf_OTIX/s1600/v_000_michel_bezancon.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michel Besançon</td></tr>
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<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">So,
disturbed by the exile of young people from the valley, the two towns
got together to exploit the superb natural bowl below Le Cheval Noir
(2832m) , and employed the architect Michel Besançon to develop
plans for the new resort. Besançon had been involved with the
inception of La Plagne, where he had learnt a lot about the pros
and cons of tourist 'urbanisation' in virgin mountain pastures, and
the look and feel of Valmorel is very different to that of say Plagne
1800. But the integration of living facilities with the ski
area and a logical layout of pistes and lifts bear witness to his
expertise.</span></span></span></div>
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<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Valmorel
opened in 1976 with just 8500 beds, tiny by comparison the
the Paradiski or Trois Vall<span style="color: #4a4a4a;">é</span>es
resorts just down the road. It has grown steadily, but not
uncontrollably, and link across the Col de la Madeleine to the
Maurienne resort of St François-Longchamp which opened in 1983 doubled the size of the original ski area. In 2011 ClubMed chose Valmorel for its
first 4 trident holiday centre in the Alps, putting Valmorel and La
Grande Domaine firmly on the map for their predominantly French
client<span style="color: #4a4a4a;">è</span>le. </span></span></span></div>
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Although primarily a 'family-friendly' ski resort, with lots of easy and intermediate slopes at all levels, there are some notable off-piste adventures to be had: the all-day itinerary off the back of the Col de Mottet down to St Martin in the Belleville valley is stupendous, and the big steep-sided bowl below La Lauzière is often untracked for days. It's is certainly not Argentiere or Val d'Isère (although a major investor in Valmorel) but there's enough varied terrain to keep 90% of skiers happy for a week.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJYGmOWgmvkM5T7_FhgKaAx7swAICOsxetbLNbuP3f04kHgrG1opt48ltA6aNC95epX_KVgHEz-49E25NbTgVHaPv0uUCrOS918Q2M7dnYXcyfPSN4Lk0sYK1SAhd-59b9Jla5ZQfVfXw/s1600/valmo+col+de+mottet.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="620" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiJYGmOWgmvkM5T7_FhgKaAx7swAICOsxetbLNbuP3f04kHgrG1opt48ltA6aNC95epX_KVgHEz-49E25NbTgVHaPv0uUCrOS918Q2M7dnYXcyfPSN4Lk0sYK1SAhd-59b9Jla5ZQfVfXw/s320/valmo+col+de+mottet.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col de Mottet</td></tr>
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<div style="line-height: 0.34cm; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
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And value for money? A 6 day adult lift pass is just over €200 euros, drinks are about one euro less than in Les Arcs and you can find a pizza or a salad for about €5 - all in all about 25- 35% less than the mega-resorts. And if you want somewhere cosy and convenient to stay check out the Australian-owned<br />
<div>
<a href="https://www.chaletsdirect.com/valmorel/chalet_de_valmorel.htm" target="_blank">Chalet de Valmorel. </a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.valmorel.com/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Valmorel resort website: www.valmorel.com</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lwBcDgFf1wU/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lwBcDgFf1wU?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-20156059682440613262018-02-11T18:44:00.003+01:002018-02-11T18:51:24.827+01:00To link or not to link - La Grave sets a new trend?<span style="font-family: inherit;">Half-term is upon us once again, with bookings throughout the French ski resorts reaching record levels thanks to the extraordinary amount of snow that's fallen from the beginning of the season - and it's still snowing now! No real worries at Les Arcs about overcrowded pistes and lift queues: a new lift every season for the last 15 years means we now have one of the fastest and most modern lifts systems in the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6AU7qmccxzqFp6chyFcqgiMd8pOGh91rETKzMIiXsLDPGG-UhcLplOXprMGiMQjPP0qNwUn3piI7ts15zFwGs4Czzd4r1LxCtWB9mb7MvOi157-EpqfVnKRohEQ-FGdYJPEmtE5t0sv_/s1600/vanoise+express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="248" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6AU7qmccxzqFp6chyFcqgiMd8pOGh91rETKzMIiXsLDPGG-UhcLplOXprMGiMQjPP0qNwUn3piI7ts15zFwGs4Czzd4r1LxCtWB9mb7MvOi157-EpqfVnKRohEQ-FGdYJPEmtE5t0sv_/s200/vanoise+express.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Vanoise Express</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">No doubt the greatest lift achievement of this period was the Vanoise Express, the link between Les Arcs and La Plagne which in 2003 was the largest and fastest cable-car system in the world (the capacity was reduced slightly a few years ago with the installation of the spectacular glass floor in the lower of the double-deck cabins). From this was born Paradiski, now world famous as the 2nd largest ski area in France.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Vanoise Express was one of only a few projects that actually got built at a time when there were dozens of schemes, plans and proposals for connecting ski areas. Planning and environmental restrictions imposed in the 1980s and 1990s made it impossible to build (or substantially enlarge) new ski resorts in the Alps, so links and connections were seen as the only way to enhance and expand capacity, and to provide dramatic new marketing concepts in an increasingly competitive industry. The marketing effect of 'Paradiski' has been far greater than the actual usefulness of the Vanoise express link (which is generally under-used). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9GkscTMME2VmHfrOUpZvcGGCu7wDJd0f3K_7uDljuevZtzwf1JWfPKA9RnXZsiVpytidIDF293_hU6BOKaurojb8zpH9EJdt1c57YDgpaLbUHKwql_tzRGY4SDBjRXDz8uHlBkYP1FSAk/s1600/1590_snowimages_13_MJ02081.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="720" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9GkscTMME2VmHfrOUpZvcGGCu7wDJd0f3K_7uDljuevZtzwf1JWfPKA9RnXZsiVpytidIDF293_hU6BOKaurojb8zpH9EJdt1c57YDgpaLbUHKwql_tzRGY4SDBjRXDz8uHlBkYP1FSAk/s320/1590_snowimages_13_MJ02081.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">St Bernard pass between France and Italy</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Many of the links that did succeed have become so integrated in the identity of their ski areas that we almost take them for granted, despite the enormous financial, political and environmental struggles that preceded their construction: Here some examples from the Tarentaise area:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">La Rosiere - La Thuile (Italy), creating the <i>Espace San Bernardo</i> (1984)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Valmorel - St Francois de Longchamp: <i>'La Grande Domaine'</i> (1982) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Valmorel - Celliers (2008)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tignes-Val d'Isere (1971, in roughly its present form), '<i>Espace Killy'</i> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first skiable link between Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry was created in the 1980s</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bourg St Maurice to Les Arcs, initially a cable car opened in 1974 and replaced by the <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/01/funicular-fan.html" target="_blank">Funiculaire </a>in 1984.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However there were a number of ambitious schemes that never saw the light of day (although the ideas not necesarily abandoned):</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Champangy-en-Vanoise - Le Praz (via Bozel), to link La Plagne to Courchevel</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">La Rosiere - St. Foye-la-Tarentaise</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pralongon-en-Vanoise - Courchevel 1650</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Les Contamines - St Gervais/Megeve</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Morillion (Grand Massif) - Morzine </span></li>
<li><strong style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alpe d’Huez – Clavans/St Sorlin </span></span></strong></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Aime - La Roche (La Plagne)</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ZqgvMWbmBF1qd0M1dJqB0KZeNrNd3SZhcQTrSHubjY6KI7j80_X5zQ7X48guspykbDNFvnPsLfg2SPYlu2Sw-OkK4kITmqcVmFIvDpsFvLsjaQPEQ5NXtlZC_ipQA2NaRYpQ0TijUE2p/s1600/dome+de+la+lauze.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ZqgvMWbmBF1qd0M1dJqB0KZeNrNd3SZhcQTrSHubjY6KI7j80_X5zQ7X48guspykbDNFvnPsLfg2SPYlu2Sw-OkK4kITmqcVmFIvDpsFvLsjaQPEQ5NXtlZC_ipQA2NaRYpQ0TijUE2p/s200/dome+de+la+lauze.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Summit of Dome de la Lauze, 3600m</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was inspired to write all this after reading about a new link controversy between <a href="https://www.la-grave.com/winter/index.php" target="_blank">La Grave</a> and <a href="http://www.les2alpes.com/fr/" target="_blank">Les Deux Alpes</a>, in the Hautes-Alpes region south of here. The extreme, all off-piste ski area of La Grave, at the foot of the Meije Glacier, is one of the most distinctive ski areas in the world, a mecca for experienced off-piste skiers prepared to take risks in an hostile environment served by only a 40 year old cable-car. Les Deux Alpes, on the other hand is sprawling, popular ski resort focussed on the intermediate and family skier market.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrBnRI5FCz7MtYe7GDGZfZY4mRKBcF31hGKhkfFIAqLpIMloQZNp0AOXv4qzU4bbmEd4ZrnEGLtLi31_Chyxwm2otcjwyFL3Ymvir-kLsIR2Jg8Biq7rA-8J-pjy5RdoJiA95dnBD9okE/s1600/Denis+Creissels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNrBnRI5FCz7MtYe7GDGZfZY4mRKBcF31hGKhkfFIAqLpIMloQZNp0AOXv4qzU4bbmEd4ZrnEGLtLi31_Chyxwm2otcjwyFL3Ymvir-kLsIR2Jg8Biq7rA-8J-pjy5RdoJiA95dnBD9okE/s200/Denis+Creissels.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Denis Creissels</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">La Grave has effectively been under the control of one man since the 1970s, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;">Denis Creissels</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22px;">, </span><span style="line-height: 22px;"> who built the original cable-car virtually with his own hands! Evidently a strong character he has successfully resisted pressure from the local commune to enlarge or change La Grave into ski area with wider appeal. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">However in 1976 he did agree to build a drag lift to enable skiers from Les Deux Alpes to access the unforgiving terrain of La Grave. This link, which probably benefited Les Deux Alpes for marketing purposes above all, has always been problematic - </span><span style="line-height: 22px;">at 3600m, the highest surface lift in France,</span><span style="line-height: 22px;"> it's prone to snow and wind conditions, and is often closed for long periods and access to the lift involves a snowcat ride or a 20 minute walk. However the biggest headache for La Grave has been inexperienced 'leisure skiers' finding themselves deposited on the 'Mountain of Death' with no guides or means of navigation (there are no pistes and few markers and the upper slopes are notorious for their hidden crevasses).</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8NKTewi52dYKastqVDShYoE4vzgDBXnh4ZObFZSNV1WHmfGeJUhMP-TyjmmMBIqOBrQZGJXX544L2d4hTR78w3WvqwdB2VyxM0C8bcZxL1BYyEGn8D-vyWhwnGTRQBUKQ18epFib62Ye/s1600/plan-la-grave-la-meije-569x620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="620" data-original-width="569" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX8NKTewi52dYKastqVDShYoE4vzgDBXnh4ZObFZSNV1WHmfGeJUhMP-TyjmmMBIqOBrQZGJXX544L2d4hTR78w3WvqwdB2VyxM0C8bcZxL1BYyEGn8D-vyWhwnGTRQBUKQ18epFib62Ye/s320/plan-la-grave-la-meije-569x620.jpg" width="293" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Denis Creissels, who is now 84, always said he would go on until he was 100 to 'save' La Grave from development, but in the end various pressures led him to retire. Over the last few years various controversies have raged about the future of La Grave, ranging from its complete abandonment to a take-over by the theme-park orientated Compagnie des Alpes who control Les Deux Alpes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally a new 30 franchise has been granted by the commune to a start-up company SATA, who plan to invest €17 million to modernise and extend the cable-car to the top of the Dome de la Lauze (3560m), creating the 'Aiguille de Midi' of the southern alps.. But they are keen to point out that they will not be installing snowmaking or creating 'easy' pistes - La Grave will retain is unusual and distinctive character. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So much so that the ancient drag lift link to Les Deux Alpes will be dismantled and there will no longer be access to La Grave 'over the top'.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcdU3y-2ksOM6Ek9g4QstF1FX05T9vfz6gKC9vFbdKr_GnYeSyHLifhyaYTHQeGhtID2TB20_5uKFGl561LCpSQp0SGn3RAy9PeYz_jOrJebFA_w1AYN_1qBqYJIzTWVRYPhwDSLlrNWb/s1600/mille+8+plan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcdU3y-2ksOM6Ek9g4QstF1FX05T9vfz6gKC9vFbdKr_GnYeSyHLifhyaYTHQeGhtID2TB20_5uKFGl561LCpSQp0SGn3RAy9PeYz_jOrJebFA_w1AYN_1qBqYJIzTWVRYPhwDSLlrNWb/s200/mille+8+plan.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps in the future as the ski resort industry moves further towards 'core lifts' and the concentration of ski activities in compact, accessible areas (like <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2016/01/whats-mille-8.html" target="_blank">Mille 8</a> at Arc 1800) at the expense of more remote, high maintenance lifts and pistes more links might disappear. We do seem to be in phase of contraction and distillation at the moment, and I think it's safe to say there certainly won't be any new links between ski resorts in the foreseeable future...</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Links:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 22.4px;"><a href="http://www.ledauphine.com/environnement/2018/02/09/la-grave-veut-son-aiguille-du-midi-des-alpes-du-sud" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Full article about La Grave in 'Le Dauphiné (in French) </span></a></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.la-grave.com/winter/index.php" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">La Grave site</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.les2alpes.com/fr/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Les Deux Alpes</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "times";"><span style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span></div>
Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-30871753149726822712017-08-27T10:30:00.002+02:002017-08-27T21:21:07.532+02:00Heroic summer in Les Arcs!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqKtMOqDxUH1woHq9eUh8h36vB5kP9T0Qp1itpzGMNwd6AetIXAqxDpSWADNkTTyBTIbz6VOQRE3LSTirwGlrtOwcyn8dVfbehaWThXwUVXKd9NMXNrOleYWQ1xBC3qB13h8fEJ0eLCb82/s1600/residence-bellecote-36805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqKtMOqDxUH1woHq9eUh8h36vB5kP9T0Qp1itpzGMNwd6AetIXAqxDpSWADNkTTyBTIbz6VOQRE3LSTirwGlrtOwcyn8dVfbehaWThXwUVXKd9NMXNrOleYWQ1xBC3qB13h8fEJ0eLCb82/s320/residence-bellecote-36805.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arc 1800 in summer mode</td></tr>
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I have just returned from a week staying our chalet L'Aiguille Grive at Courbaton (Arc 1600) with my wife and children and another family. It's about ten years since I was last there in August, and I was really surprised to see how the summer offering has grown in that time.We had with us 7 children, aged from 6 to 14, so finding a range of interesting things to do was essential!<br />
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Les Arcs' summer activities now form part of an integrated programme, called 'Hero Les Arcs', which also includes the impressive range of mountain biking facilities on offer. The Hero programme covers all the Arcs' resorts and Bourg St Maurice, but the bulk of the activities are based around Arc 1800. This is logical, as the <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2016/01/whats-mille-8.html">Mille 8</a> swimming pool and 'wellness suite' are key features, with the impressive open-air pool and water slide in full swing. At the foot of Mille 8 there bungee-trampoline, mini-golf, pony-riding, a circus show and a bouncy castle, aimed mainly at the younger-end of the age range. The large climbing wall is popular with older children, but there's a 48 hour waiting list for the 1 1/2 hour supervised sessions.<br />
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With several lifts open to pedestrians and bikers, access to the <i>Col de La Chal </i>and the <i>Aiguille Rouge</i> is straightforward, with the possibility to walk down on marked trails separate from the vast web of mountain bike trails that now cover the mountains of Les Arcs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzp2DTBu3opJbuqpxbWG5I4HHpXL5JQwfEBe8NSzrXVT5MYltYyV5Sdtus2eFnkhtaM-WepfZ6YBORPhZWYET5U8bBoVZLy6-7vcEf580SJWX0L4p30lft1EHhD-0Zmi-h6Ajwx7jydEf/s1600/hero-camp-mini_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="504" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzp2DTBu3opJbuqpxbWG5I4HHpXL5JQwfEBe8NSzrXVT5MYltYyV5Sdtus2eFnkhtaM-WepfZ6YBORPhZWYET5U8bBoVZLy6-7vcEf580SJWX0L4p30lft1EHhD-0Zmi-h6Ajwx7jydEf/s200/hero-camp-mini_03.jpg" width="186" /></a></div>
The Hero progamme also offer fully-supervised and coached activities for children, from half a day to a full week, covering pursuits including kayaking, mountain-biking, rock climibing, archery, tennis and hiking. Its possible to pay a bit extra to sleep out in bivouac on the mountainside!<br />
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Golf seems to have taken on a new <i>élan </i>with the construction (as part of the Mille 8 project) of Le Lodge, at the centre of the golf course. This acts as a club-house, with a lounge, bar, restaurant, shop and the impressive life-size golf simulator which enables you to play on many of the worlds top greens in virtual reality. Several independent golf schools occupy the old stone huts and chalets which pre-date Les Arcs, but give it all an authentic Savoyard feel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88pS5mvS6bnoL4cfY5RpynPacmXIA2iOpRivDlvW9GtlcM4VbGnz64_jkaID1xEjEDcdIXhMrZ4UjdDVSdmdrCHYm5gul00O7Riavz39CQzIxQz14Dw8g6grSzS8tBoyowlJ9a9VeCOMn/s1600/rochefleur.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="899" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88pS5mvS6bnoL4cfY5RpynPacmXIA2iOpRivDlvW9GtlcM4VbGnz64_jkaID1xEjEDcdIXhMrZ4UjdDVSdmdrCHYm5gul00O7Riavz39CQzIxQz14Dw8g6grSzS8tBoyowlJ9a9VeCOMn/s320/rochefleur.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rochefleur, near Courbaton</td></tr>
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Les Arcs and Bourg St Maurice seem busier and much more active than I remember 10 years ago. The streets, shops and restaurants everywhere were bustling, the holiday atmosphere all pervasive. However, the natural splendour of the mountains and quiet verdure of the forest is never far away: Our group enjoyed trekking through the Malgovert Forest, around the vertiginous <i>Rochefleur </i>outcrop as well as simply admiring the summer scenery of the<i> masif de Beaufortain</i> from the balcony of L'Aiguille Grive - just as in winter Les Arcs in summer really does have something for everybody.<br />
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The Hero Pass, which gives access to these activities is available from €36 a week. As ever with Les Arcs there are a complicated range of options and prices, but it's well worth going for the Hero Premium pass (€89) which gives unlimited access to everything. Accommodation on the mountain is much cheaper than in winter, so start planning now for your 2018 summer holiday!<br />
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The Les Arcs season finishes on 2nd September. Click here for full details of <a href="https://en.lesarcs.com/hero.html">Hero Programme</a>Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-16822346978200449012017-07-17T20:22:00.001+02:002017-08-27T09:15:34.024+02:00Exciting new developments at Les Arcs for next season<span style="background-color: white; color: #6b6b6b; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 19px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
It might be the middle of summer, but preparations for the next winter season are well under way in Les Arcs.<br />
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The new 6 person Pré St Espirit chairlift is being built in the Arc valley, bringing to end those freezing 15 minute journeys on Les Arcs longest (nearly 2km) and probably slowest lift. Originally constructed in 1980, its aim was to improve the link between the then brand new Arc 2000 and the resorts on the other side of the Arpette ridge, Arc 1600 and 1800. The Comborcière lift (<a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/01/comborciere-bear-facts.html">about which I have written previously</a>) had been the first attempt to provide a quick route back to Arc 1600 and to avoid the long, flat and avalanche-prone return walk running parallel to the main road.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcArkaYecc86Ok8olhjT7hAVck0bFD4Y-_IEiMxDTgX-0Dx7x0QpVI30amPsQSQ8dUKtJdHG89_-LIGXkKG45D7QRH3u-MGceAvj0VLKmXti4F3ptPY5FlxnGZAwT9t1z07IBvPwuTQT2/s1600/Presaintesprit_05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkcArkaYecc86Ok8olhjT7hAVck0bFD4Y-_IEiMxDTgX-0Dx7x0QpVI30amPsQSQ8dUKtJdHG89_-LIGXkKG45D7QRH3u-MGceAvj0VLKmXti4F3ptPY5FlxnGZAwT9t1z07IBvPwuTQT2/s320/Presaintesprit_05.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It really was as cold and slow as it looks!</td></tr>
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The new lift, which will be in service the start of the 2017/18 season, has six places, heated seats and perspex <i>bulles</i> to keep the wind and snow out of our faces. It's 3 times faster, and the upper station will be located higher than at present, just above the Plagnettes lift. All this should help decrease the tiresome queues that have become a regular feature of the Arcabulle lift, however essential for access to the upper part of the valley clearly the ski schools' favourite. The lower station is a bit closer the restaurants and carpark, so the tartiflette-heavy trudge across the piste to start the afternoons skiing will be a thing of the past.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibdI-MuDpAaevmxQ4-XS3WaIo-DyYjEOQqGP-dOxEEi9aRch_H7rl8O2r5V15vZRrhzrJfQq6_l7_a4D7ruDR5kKyG_XvC-dufZfQ6Vu66YKqLtkySMqBYmCC-1J4ZSLYJnQRC28Y95eH7/s1600/new+pre_st_espirit+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="473" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibdI-MuDpAaevmxQ4-XS3WaIo-DyYjEOQqGP-dOxEEi9aRch_H7rl8O2r5V15vZRrhzrJfQq6_l7_a4D7ruDR5kKyG_XvC-dufZfQ6Vu66YKqLtkySMqBYmCC-1J4ZSLYJnQRC28Y95eH7/s320/new+pre_st_espirit+1.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Archects image of the new lift stations</td></tr>
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A second phase of the Pré St Espirit redevelopment is planned for next year (2018/19), with the replacement of the (also very slow) Comborcière lift and a new blue piste (Le Loup) beside the eponymous long bump run. The end result of all this will be much more fluid connections between Arc 1600/1800 and Arc 2000 and new lifts, while being expensive to construct (€6 million for the new Pré St Espirit lift), employ fewer people and require less maintenance, which can only be good for the ADS' balance sheet in the future.</div>
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However, perhaps there's a hidden agenda operating behind these major infrastucture developments. No one who comes to Les Arcs can fail to be impressed by the number of accommodation developments such as the massive Eden Arcs at Arc 1800 (increasing the bed capacity there by 30%), and the 5-star Tah-i-Maj hotel and several new '<i>Chalet des Neiges</i>' buildings that crowd over the <i>front de neige </i>at Arc 2000.<br />
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The owners of most the ski area, Bourg St Maurice commune, and the ADS company which has the franchise to exploit the ski area seem to have concurred in recent years on the need to maximise revenue from the their 'asset', by offering more and higher quality facilities, building 'brand loyalty' and providing for a less snow-sure future.<br />
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The <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2016/01/whats-mille-8.html">MilleHuit </a> fun park at Arc 1800 is a perfect embodiment of this objective. More beds may equal more lift passes sold, but it also equals more people on the piste and using the lifts. Crowds, queues and bottlenecks the enemy of this strategy, so new high speed lifts are essential if the ski area is to keep pace with the demands that are going to be made on it in the future, and shift people quickly to the resorts higher and more snow-reliable areas.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAORLCsF9fvsyivYGv5_6X-C0RCbmnuAE-Ey1sPhDox7H-Lg9-Hkip76SLZNVdGicky_fyYKyHIMOcX9bKq44v1iU8JQBazFhqWSEA_8d025VGuGxhWYZhaEDPEAooV1RI9zRCrg2czyeb/s1600/club+med+from+2+tetes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAORLCsF9fvsyivYGv5_6X-C0RCbmnuAE-Ey1sPhDox7H-Lg9-Hkip76SLZNVdGicky_fyYKyHIMOcX9bKq44v1iU8JQBazFhqWSEA_8d025VGuGxhWYZhaEDPEAooV1RI9zRCrg2czyeb/s200/club+med+from+2+tetes.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Club Med site from Les Deux Tetes</td></tr>
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Arc 1600 proudly announced a couple of years ago a new '4-trident' Club Med development at Arc 1600, with 900 beds and plenty of upscale facilties. It will open in December for the 2017/18 season. A large area of the ancient Malgovert forest has been cleared for the development, which is a bit higher than the main Arc 1600 village and will be mainly accessed using the Mont Blanc lift, which thanks to it's replacement a few years ago does seem to have some spare capacity. There's also a plan to build 50 new private chalets in this zone... more on that in the future.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibilqE11-iua2ewnW_0pEx9KWzmMMhuf451MHa5w-QkUliT2kxWZtLFYq3rjcQBaBBbqlThy0rEpfDAQ0hp6WQTcYC7Rxm6aQ46JiHSxo2dtaRN_e5Rrpsnsv8BUTuhef3i3aql3NnVlT1/s1600/new+club+med+Arc+1600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="487" data-original-width="900" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibilqE11-iua2ewnW_0pEx9KWzmMMhuf451MHa5w-QkUliT2kxWZtLFYq3rjcQBaBBbqlThy0rEpfDAQ0hp6WQTcYC7Rxm6aQ46JiHSxo2dtaRN_e5Rrpsnsv8BUTuhef3i3aql3NnVlT1/s320/new+club+med+Arc+1600.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Club Med at Arc 1600</td></tr>
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There's also talk of improving the ageing Cachette lift, but in the end there will be more people of all sorts of abilities on the already crowded and collision-prone pistes between the Arpette and Arc 1600. The new Pré St Espriit lift will play it's part in spreading the load, but it all makes me think it's time to get a helmet, even after skiing for 30 years without one!<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-40828109147122695092016-11-17T15:43:00.001+01:002016-11-17T19:52:02.017+01:00Learning to ski? 8 things you should do before you book a ski lesson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qxWrIumQrHEODJikrK9HXpjsgQ1ZFlWOad4yl4oCzgoioz_dVKDNicn0YkBbrZaNyTZ4TCJ9JMlGmYzqS_b5ScnEX26mxV0IKqwV6TcrQVNKazMFhT_dFAyIUBAYc438sIaDgqVY1v_v/s1600/ski+lesson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qxWrIumQrHEODJikrK9HXpjsgQ1ZFlWOad4yl4oCzgoioz_dVKDNicn0YkBbrZaNyTZ4TCJ9JMlGmYzqS_b5ScnEX26mxV0IKqwV6TcrQVNKazMFhT_dFAyIUBAYc438sIaDgqVY1v_v/s1600/ski+lesson.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With the new ski season just around the corner it's time to think about booking up ski school or a private instructor while there's still plenty of availability. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here' some expert advice from Nick Robinson, who runs a brilliant new web service enabling you to find easily the best choices in your chosen resort.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Choose your resort</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Different resorts are great for different levels of skier. Some resorts are built on less steep mountains, with lots of easy green and blue runs which gives beginners more terrain to explore and more of the mountain restaurants to try out!. They also have the chance to progress at a much more gradual rate. On the other hand, some resorts are geared more towards expert skiers, such as La Grave (France), with no pisted runs at all. But it's an off-piste wonderland for the backcountry lovers. Les Arcs is an example of a large ski resort which genuinely caters for skiers of all abilities.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Decide on your dates</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-sxCk5q_NQ5rMH8SBtTe0XkmlszytNtLFRsaUetK7p0TPNzhhfLLsU8euOG3nE44rgRUb4O9LWcfZ6lXc6r5PYYc7oBQ3Opr9f9cKhEMaywQiKyJN0GajRzcJVjimEOEBBl9gqBT0YyxS/s1600/children+skiing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-sxCk5q_NQ5rMH8SBtTe0XkmlszytNtLFRsaUetK7p0TPNzhhfLLsU8euOG3nE44rgRUb4O9LWcfZ6lXc6r5PYYc7oBQ3Opr9f9cKhEMaywQiKyJN0GajRzcJVjimEOEBBl9gqBT0YyxS/s1600/children+skiing.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">School holidays can be busy times...</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The choice of your holiday dates can be restricted by a school term dates, but if you don’t have children you can go skiing anytime during the season. The main advantage of this is price, and what a difference it can make! If you holiday during early season (Les Arcs for example opens on 10th December), Mid-January, early March or the end of the season you can almost halve the price of your holiday, and sometimes even more.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Book your accommodation and travel</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once you have chosen your resort and selected the dates the next step is to book your travel and accommodation . </span><a href="http://www.skyscanner.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Skyscanner.com</a><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> is great for checking the price of flights, Many ski resorts are easily accesible by train, including the direct </span><a href="http://www.eurostar.com/" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Eurostar </a><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">service from London to Bourg St Maurice. I would recommend going for an independent chalet company such as <a href="http://www.skiadventures.co.uk/">www.skiadventures.co.uk</a>, as they take great pride in holidays they offer and always add a nice personal touch. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Ask yourself what you want to achieve, what do you want out of your lesson?</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once you have booked your ski holiday and you decide you want to book lessons you should ask yourself what you want to get out of these lessons. You might be a complete beginner or you might be a nervous intermediate wanting to build confidence. It’s important you know what you want before you start looking for lessons, as this could have an impact on how many lessons an instructor suggests you have, as well as what time of day to have the lessons.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once you have decided on point number 4 you can then decide what days you would like lessons. For example, if you are a beginner you will probably want to get started on the first morning of your holiday. Sometimes leaving gaps between lessons can allow for more practice and to really help to consolidate what you have learnt.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ski lessons can be expensive and it's best to have a budget in mind. Group lessons are much cheaper and are therefore a tempting option. Inevitably with group lessons people progress at different speeds and you could find yourself in a group that is too advanced or too basic. Also you might find yourself in quite a large group not getting much individual attention. However some people really enjoy the 'social' aspect of group lessons and find it a great way to find friends and people to ski with. On the other hand private lessons are relatively expensive and more intensive, but you might prefer to be learning all day (or for a few hours each day) which could be beyond your budget with a private instructor. In the end it all comes back to what you want to achieve and when you want lessons. Private lessons can often be quite a bit cheaper during 'low' season weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Check out the options from ski schools to specialist instructor 'marketplaces'</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_9ofgELcngSsjU4_hGfz0cepxOjXjfk8ZmhLtgwqfGhOTVULR2vWo9HbQAKm5y1eQRZI-8qnWfQakNbb2byQ08pJh6SVgJbccEekEgSYkksMw_jx-n3z32wPsixpDyk1Uy_IUmub57jQ/s1600/instructors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_9ofgELcngSsjU4_hGfz0cepxOjXjfk8ZmhLtgwqfGhOTVULR2vWo9HbQAKm5y1eQRZI-8qnWfQakNbb2byQ08pJh6SVgJbccEekEgSYkksMw_jx-n3z32wPsixpDyk1Uy_IUmub57jQ/s1600/instructors.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of instructors to choose from!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ski schools offer various types of lessons at a range of times and for different prices, which can be complicated if you are planning a holiday with people of different abilities, budgets and aspirations. A good option is to check out <a href="http://www.maisonsport.com/">Maison Sport</a>, a website giving direct access to hundreds of independent instructors in France. Booking through Maison Sport cuts out the ski school 'middleman' so the prices are generally lower and you can compare different options before you make your choice.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many ski schools don’t give you the option to choose your individual instructor, so it can be ‘luck of the draw’ as to who you get. The most important decisions to make are language and the instructor’s key attributes, information which you should be able to request from most ski schools. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Alternatively, Maison Sport allows you to choose your instructor and communicate directly with them prior to booking to check they can fulfill your needs. You can also read previous customer’s reviews, which reduces the chance of any unpleasant surprises!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>And finally</b>: learning to ski is hard work but great fun. You can experience tremendous highs and devastating lows in a short space of time as a beginner. Even the most experienced skiers are still learning and improving, and there's never a time in ones skiing career when one couldn't benefit from being with an expert instructor. So don't overlook this important aspect of your holiday when budgeting, booking and planning - you'll get more out your time on the mountain and go further than you could ever hope to on your own!</span><br />
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Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-67092385399948072062016-11-17T12:59:00.001+01:002016-11-17T19:52:58.504+01:00Another season at Les Arcs...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6zmoJQHwNABBtjtn8wyyuyu6sIl4PSM_nV9yjE8LEr1pcBLroaUP7FFgK_Ic2PrFxC1fjn2xho1ffwH-CMihAQ6eGm-VR9JQ5Lh8291NtvLcJ9MYdEWGhbcHTL-7MLdC_aud7ujScJohh/s1600/coldelachalel1611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6zmoJQHwNABBtjtn8wyyuyu6sIl4PSM_nV9yjE8LEr1pcBLroaUP7FFgK_Ic2PrFxC1fjn2xho1ffwH-CMihAQ6eGm-VR9JQ5Lh8291NtvLcJ9MYdEWGhbcHTL-7MLdC_aud7ujScJohh/s320/coldelachalel1611.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col de La Chal yesterday morning</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #353535;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are only 22 days to go before the opening of the winter season at Les Arcs. Already there is a good metre of snow on the mountain, with more predicted to fall this weekend. The snow has fallen at just the right time - it's unlikely to melt before December as the air and ground are cold, and the magnificent Les Arcs snow-making infrastructure can run full-on to build up that all-important base layer on the pistes. Here's hoping we have a really good snowy start to the season to make up for the last few years!</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF1Iu3fF58AVHLMpIUEYLT_JTjYowhppotXd23qEwjThyIaM0_iP51L4M4937pMWYDGuem-ccxj4GE3RZc8YJA6AEXfGt8p4YOWaPsudmPHcvGGPx7jDoxA-pT0nbMgSFnEuFQzjbeBA4m/s1600/affiche_film_2016.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF1Iu3fF58AVHLMpIUEYLT_JTjYowhppotXd23qEwjThyIaM0_iP51L4M4937pMWYDGuem-ccxj4GE3RZc8YJA6AEXfGt8p4YOWaPsudmPHcvGGPx7jDoxA-pT0nbMgSFnEuFQzjbeBA4m/s320/affiche_film_2016.png" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Les Arcs 8th European Film Festival opens at the same time as the skiing this year, on the 10th December. With the theme of 'Women in Film' there will be 120 showing of movies from a dozen or more countries. The LA film festival is getting an international reputation for new and innovative work, in an unusual environment (quite the opposite of Cannes!).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It's been an interesting time for chalet bookings - the Brexit result seemed to have a bad effect on british skiers, mainly because of the big fall in the value of the pound. But every cloud has a silver lining and the extraordinary election of Mr. Trump in the USA has seen the value of sterling climb sharply and bookings are now back to their normal levels. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Possibly the Brexit process may turn out to be yet another nail in the coffin for british skiing (the numbers of regular UK skiers has virtually halved in the last 10 years) and this is putting some resorts under further economic pressure. Les Arcs has had a good look at it's lift pass pricing policy for this season and although it's more complicated with new options for 'Duo' and 'Tribu' (group) packs joining the existing 'Family' pack, everyone can expect to pay a bit less than last year. Also Les Arcs area passes now include a day in La Plagne, and Paradiski passes allow you to ski on the afternoon of arrival day for no extra charge.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With Christmas Day and New Year falling on Sundays this year the New Year week hasn't been as much in demand as usual (a lot of people go back to work or school on 2nd January). We still have availability for this period and it should be a lot quiter than usual! I'm offering a special 'Brexit Beater' offer for early season (10th - 24th December) based on £100 per night for catered chalet accommodation, lift pass and transfer. See the <a href="http://www.skiadventures.co.uk/">website</a> for details and conditions.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_fk_C517L52-O0yVNPpg6633ybmlBntTXt8XpbnP_XsuAzC8tYcwNWNEn2Hp2rSqNYHsUWnlT799Vt8IjUKSnxaQNLUB4-HkqcrYdSlzW0cNh6sPJYjzWcRUk6T3rziu0vo2HCwAZT-u/s1600/Taj_I_Mah_-_Exterieur_DS_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd_fk_C517L52-O0yVNPpg6633ybmlBntTXt8XpbnP_XsuAzC8tYcwNWNEn2Hp2rSqNYHsUWnlT799Vt8IjUKSnxaQNLUB4-HkqcrYdSlzW0cNh6sPJYjzWcRUk6T3rziu0vo2HCwAZT-u/s320/Taj_I_Mah_-_Exterieur_DS_.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tah-I-Mah: 5* white elephant?</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">New things to look out for in Les Arcs include the new 'Tah-I-Mah' hotel at Arc 2000, which claims to be Les Arcs first 5-star establishment. You can't miss it as it annoyingly occupies a large part of the 'front de neige', a large open area intended originally to be place for meeting and linking the skier to the non-skiing infrastructure around it. </span><span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wonder if the time is right for such a development, given that the stunning 4-star <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/01/aguille-grive-hotel-whats-happened.html">Aiguille Grive hotel </a>on the piste above Arc 1800 seems to have struggled a bit in the 4 years since it opened... </span></div>
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<span style="color: #353535; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bonne Saison a tous, come and enjoy the snow here at Les Arcs as soon as you can!</span></div>
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Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-43942991534217282272016-05-25T09:55:00.000+02:002016-05-25T10:08:30.498+02:00New summer mountain biking programme at Les Arcs<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQqSx4TWTXA-Iu5_ggmWAn-afXqejFCmF-2SPfR4uem4WiB4KLcs5h8rkri4Kv5cIcn_H5lTH4yTLQIm_Y0fuygb2bSFgNQXOw2DGcdifu46zR1o67C_5zw6Sz26_LLLdXfHXXbXQeeZW/s1600/INDEX_html_m4522d605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQqSx4TWTXA-Iu5_ggmWAn-afXqejFCmF-2SPfR4uem4WiB4KLcs5h8rkri4Kv5cIcn_H5lTH4yTLQIm_Y0fuygb2bSFgNQXOw2DGcdifu46zR1o67C_5zw6Sz26_LLLdXfHXXbXQeeZW/s320/INDEX_html_m4522d605.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Bike parc map</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Over the years I have realised that a lot our our chalet guests are also passionate about other sports and activities, and mountain biking often crops up as one the most popular summer pursuits. In the last 10 years Les Arcs has been making serious efforts to make the resort a real <i>Mecca</i> for all kinds of MTB enthusiasts, echoing the 'something for everyone' ethos of the winter programme. Now we have over 200km of trails, including some epic forest runs (the Malgovert forest beside our chalets has turned out to be ideal terrain in an otherwise largely un-visited environment), a couple of <i>parcs</i> and trails for families to enjoy. Several of the main lifts are adapted for the uplift of riders and their bikes, including Cachette, Transarc and the Aguille Rouge cable car - fancy riding a bike on a glacier!?</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ed2g0vu5i_ey8wisiunnIxFcR8zcbnFrqgg95UTt-yVkXpEiZ5BH4iECuYsp96f_GnxslDusm6SmHvz4no5bot2k9AcHfX9rabutrT8FXO8lNz9INDAoEvhFgqfm9j8dXWLMFPjoI-CL/s1600/LA+trail+from+guardian.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3ed2g0vu5i_ey8wisiunnIxFcR8zcbnFrqgg95UTt-yVkXpEiZ5BH4iECuYsp96f_GnxslDusm6SmHvz4no5bot2k9AcHfX9rabutrT8FXO8lNz9INDAoEvhFgqfm9j8dXWLMFPjoI-CL/s320/LA+trail+from+guardian.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Steep-sided single track at Arc 2000</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This year we decided to set-up a mountain biking holiday programme for the 8 weeks period when the lifts run, based at our chalet L'Aguille Grive at Courbaton (Arc1600). This chalet seems ideally placed, as it's virtually on the 'mythical' No.8 forest trail (8.2 km and 810m vertical), and only a few hundred metres from Cachette and the funicular, which is a vital cog in the MTB uplift network. The fabu</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">lous views across the massif de Beaufourtain, plenty of space for bikes and barbecues, the sunny hot-tub and comfortable en-suite rooms seem to be exactly what the biking fraternity need after a hard day in the saddle (or sometimes out of it!).</span><br />
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<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="73" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghFmzrQUpf5qw-jIe9IocixKnpaZOaSbFI2McnwHeyr1xYlANBgSu03ycrhyo3wbBNVhizhkBhyphenhyphenn5KK8dQ5em6ltfFXrC71Q0xDjuMMM8Ju3yIn-Ska_D_ZVu2Qz_Ew-HPBFeRSmtaR4Es/s320/arcabike-logo-web.jpg" width="320" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And so Arcabike.com was born, and we are taking bookings for the 8 week period from <span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); border: 0px; color: #6a6a6a; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saturday 2nd July to Saturday 27th August 2016. There are also plenty of other things to do in Les Arcs during the summer season, ranging from the chamber music festival to golf and archery. This was all part of the original thinking behind Les Arcs, but now as there seems to be increasing interest in activity-based alpine holidays the prescience of its founders is paying off. Les Arcs was recently features as one the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jun/18/top-10-mountain-bike-rides-alps-france-italy-switzerland" target="_blank">top 10 best resorts for mountain biking in the Alps<b>.</b></a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #6a6a6a;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;"><b>All the details are on <a href="http://www.arcbike.com/">www.arcbike.com</a> </b></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #6a6a6a;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23px;">and there's general information about summer in Les Arcs on </span></span><a href="http://en.lesarcs.com/cdsv2.htm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #3b009b; cursor: pointer; line-height: 23px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://en.lesarcs.com/activities/sport-activities-summer.html</a></span><br />
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Finally, a video of a descent of the No.8 trail in the Malgovert Forest:<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-1807852532134868992016-01-18T22:11:00.002+01:002016-01-19T22:16:48.991+01:00What's 'Mille 8'? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been asked the questions 'What's (a) Mille 8?' quite a few times since the season begun, and I realised I didn't really have an answer except to recite a list of the new features incorporated into Les Arcs new, much-hyped offspring: toboggan run, swimming pool, some odd wooden huts, a short bump run, and so on....<br />
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So I decided it was time to take a proper look and talk to some of the people involved in Mille 8 to try and understand not only the concept but what it brings to Les Arcs and its visitors. Is it really the 'new space for novel experiences' claimed by ADS, or is it an over-hyped attempt to stimulate a stagnating market?<br />
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The origins of the Mille 8 stem from the '4 'till 7' problem that many major ski resorts have tried tackle in the light of decreasing revenues from lift pass sales and ever increasing costs. The idea is that from the end of skiing until dinner time people don't have much to do, especially families who aren't likely to sit in bars or be interested in noisy <i>aprés-ski </i>(not that Les Arcs has much of that!). So rather than retreating to their apartments, get them out with memorable things to do and, most importantly, get them to spend more money. The increasing accommodation infrastructure at Arc 1800, including the massive <i>Alpage de Chantel </i>project (which will, when finished, increase the number of beds by 40%), justifies substantial improvement in piste-side equipment and will provide a large captive market for innovative new attractions.<br />
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Perhaps the most tangible benefits of Mille 8 have been the three new replacement lifts - <b>Villards</b>, which really only services the Mille Huit activities. <b>Dahu</b> provide pedestrian uplift to the new Chantel development and the new <b>Carreley</b> chairlift eases theVagere bottleneck with quick access to the Col de Frettes, once the destination of the old Arc 1600 'Arpette' lift. The old, slow Villards and Chantel chairlifts, which date back to the 1970s, have gone, and overall there has been a significant net increase in uplift.<br />
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Mille 8 occupies a formerly wooded area just above resort, which was deliberately left in tact when Arc 1800 was built in an attempt to integrate natural features of the mountain with the harsher 'urban' resort. This had been successfully achieved in Courchevel 1850 some years earlier (Roger Godino, co founder of Les Arcs, described the resort as the 'sister' of Courchevel). Some older pre-resort buildings have been pleasingly renovated and incorporated into the new infrastructure, mainly as golf schools (more about golf later..).<br />
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The main snow-accessed features are:<br />
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<b>Le Luge</b> - a 1 km tobbogan run<br />
<b>Le Cube</b> - beginners area at the top with covered moving carpet lift<br />
<b>Les Bosses</b> - a short bump run featuring and ingenious video system that allows you to receive a short film of your descent on your smartphone<br />
<b>Les Cabanes</b> - various nicely built huts and terraces, for star-gazing, barbecues, sun-bathing, etc. There's a misnamed musical instrument at the bottom called 'Le Xylophone' which is in fact a giant glockenspiel (metal not wood) which you can 'play' with your ski poles.<br />
There is also apparently a pedestrian path,<b> Les Sapins</b>, but I couldn't see any signs for it and I'd no idea where is started.<br />
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However, the most impressive features are the <b>'Le Piscine</b>' and <b>'Le Lodge'</b>, which could both be located anywhere and really have nothing to do with snow or snow-sports. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">La Piscine</td></tr>
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Access to <b>Le Piscine</b> is via a starkly impressive entrance tunnel and external lift tower. But, as with all of the Mille 8 attractions, it's necessary to trudge up the steep and icy slope in front of the Villards 'snow-front', and to cross a dangerously fast-flowing piste to reach the entrance. I absolutely fail to see why the lift couldn't have just descended another 5 to 6 metres to the same level as the snow-front, giving safe and level access. I'm sure this in itself would increase the numbers of Mille 8 evening visitors, looking for something more interesting to do than mooching around Sherpa...<br />
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<b>Le Piscine</b> contains a nice, but rather small leisure pool (although actual swimming is not possible) with an impressive rock tunnel as its centrepiece. There are a couple of short water-slides (set apart from the pool itself), and various jets, fountains and waves in the pool. Adjoining this is a suite of two saunas (one with a large window giving a great view of the setting sun), two large steam-rooms and a pleasant 'chill-out' room with free ginger flavoured mineral water on tap. It's all very nicely done and well thought-out, despite all being on rather a small-scale. What a pity the Mille 8 planners didn't think to include the pre-existing outside swimming pool, such as you can find at Plagne Bellecote, Morzine, Les Deux Alpes, etc. Swimming in the open air in a warm pool while it's snowing is a truly wonderful experience!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le Lodge, in true Arcadien style</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Putting the icing on the cakes....</td></tr>
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For me, the jewel in the crown of Mille 8 has to be<b> Le Lodge</b>, a stunning, curvaceous building truly in the 'Arcadien' style, with sloping roof, timber abutments, laminated cladding, and brilliant asymetrical windows - Bernard Taillefer would definitely be proud of this modern interpretation of his innovative style. Within Le Lodge there is a large (up to 600 places) rather up-scale restaurant, including a beautiful relaxation area with rather wacky sofas and cushions. A p<i>atissier </i>openly makes deserts to order, and there is in encyclopaedic wine list from a stroll-through cellar. The menu is fairly typical of many higher-end establishments in Les Arcs, and there are menus from €37 for three courses. It's worth it for the views alone, those almost entirely glass walls giving stunning views in all directions. The restaurant also has private dining rooms, with less enjoyable views across to the muddled and ugly buildings of the Chantel development. Below there is a large conference room and further dining space where concerts and entertainments take place several times a week.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">€13 burger savoyard, no cutlery...</td></tr>
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But <b>Le Lodge</b> contains more than its eponymous restaurant: at the other end of the gastronomic scale is the annoyingly cutlery-and-crockery-free 'Le Snack' (also referred to as 'Le Café') where everything is plastic and disposable (probably even the weird plastic stools which are the only seating available) but the 'Burger Savoyard' I ate was surprisingly good (just as well at €13!). It seems such a shame that the attention to environmental and aesthetic detail evident elsewhere in Mille 8 is seriously lacking in this rather grim spot.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Enticing hats hide the golf simulator...</td></tr>
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Upstairs there is an attractive showroom full of pretty hats - enticing it is, but just around the corner is a clue to another aspect of the rationale behind Mille 8. Golf is certainly not my game, but I couldn't fail to be impressed by the life-size golf simulator, enabling virtual play on any of the world's leading courses (not, sadly including the one all around us here at Arc 1800) whilst analysing and improving your stroke. It was explained to me by the charming and US-English fluent manager that in the summer this part of Le Lodge will be the golf 'clubhouse' and the restaurant will provide for the summer golfers' needs. This emphasis on golf makes the location of Le Lodge (and some of the other non-snow features of Mille 8) seem more logical: encouraging the summer market is obviously as important an aim as filling the '4 'till 7' gap.<br />
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However, I am interested in Mille 8 for what it brings to our world of snow and skiing. Will it really create those 'unmissable moments' claimed in the flyer to tired families prepared to fork out €6 euros per child for a three-minute fairly slow toboggan run, a further €8 per adult to visit the<b> Le Piscine </b>(sauna and steam room are extra) and a couple of hundred euros on a gastronomic meal in awesome surroundings? I certainly think more, if not all, of the attractions should be included in the lift pass: the extra expense is bound to put a lot of people off, along with the difficulty of access referred to earlier.<br />
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Mille 8 as a concept perhaps reveals something of the hidden agenda of ADS (the company that operates Les Arcs and has made most of this investment). The many millions of euros spent on Mille 8 could equally have been used to add or further improve the traditional skiing infrastructure (queuing for 45 minutes to get on the Arcabulle lift at Arc 2000 is certainly not an 'unmissable moment'!) and to encourage more and better skiing, and a wider appreciation of the unique environment we are in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9dRBSaK_Q24RkrdtRFMBClnK9jDOac_7FuHPo-jLG5H0RNsWxWJTNGhlFFe7_bRhj0S24eJaYtys0ahhOIJwVHXPRlpU4_1B9B-MNaf1p3IVLFDQZE4_8oM_j8b4uQvBkWFYuHfIEtRM/s1600/mille+8+plan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9dRBSaK_Q24RkrdtRFMBClnK9jDOac_7FuHPo-jLG5H0RNsWxWJTNGhlFFe7_bRhj0S24eJaYtys0ahhOIJwVHXPRlpU4_1B9B-MNaf1p3IVLFDQZE4_8oM_j8b4uQvBkWFYuHfIEtRM/s320/mille+8+plan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Mille 8 is something of the opposite, a kind of microcosmic theme-park-on-the-snow, with artificial features, impressive though many of them are, at its heart rather than any sense of harmony with the mountain it sits upon. The original publicity for Mille 8 described the project as something like the 'distillation of the spriit of Les Arcs'. I fear in fact the opposite my be true, but perhaps we have to accept the world had moved on from the guiding inspiration of Robert Blanc and Roger Godino all those years ago.<br />
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The friendly hat and golf simulator manager summed it up nicely, 'Mille 8 is all about leisure', she said. Leisure rather than adventure, perhaps.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Useful links:<br />
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Website:<a href="http://www.lesarcs.com/mille8.html" target="_blank"> http://www.lesarcs.com/mille8.html</a><br />
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Le Lodge has its own website: <a href="http://www.lelodge-lesarcs.com/">http://www.lelodge-lesarcs.com/</a><br />
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I wrote about the naissance of Mille 8 in 2014:<br />
<a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2014/03/arc-1800-dawn-of-new-area.html">http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2014/03/arc-1800-dawn-of-new-area.html</a><br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-89013025203068656212016-01-03T18:42:00.003+01:002016-01-03T18:44:09.666+01:00Happy Artificial New Year! <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWMrRWAyxwQMG9CtsdZAQj_tiO9IeuCsgSA2LMPI42Hl5vAaGXf3Qim3_IRrp1aUFHuiHkbOJ1h9sQypwSgWi_WFSkU58lJRFrv47qUVtxGkc1QTGRkkjN87a84KEUK3pEWJsZ2kyLZeS/s1600/NY+fireworks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZWMrRWAyxwQMG9CtsdZAQj_tiO9IeuCsgSA2LMPI42Hl5vAaGXf3Qim3_IRrp1aUFHuiHkbOJ1h9sQypwSgWi_WFSkU58lJRFrv47qUVtxGkc1QTGRkkjN87a84KEUK3pEWJsZ2kyLZeS/s320/NY+fireworks.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NY fireworks at Arc 1600</td></tr>
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I've made my New Year resolutions, and one of them is to re-start my blog after a rather patchy last two years. Spurred on by the 50,000 or so visits my scribblings have attracted I'm ready to start getting behind the scenes again here in our magnificent skiing factory called Les Arcs!<br />
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No one could have failed to notice that the start of the season has been less than perfect in terms of snow cover. Nowhere near as bad as last Christmas (2014) but still definitely a snow-drought and all that implies, especially for the lower alpine resorts. However I can safely say that all the guests we have had so far (including my own children) have been pleasantly surprised by the extent and quality of the terrain available. Much credit for this must go to the pisteurs for their hard and ingenious work spreading what snow there was into decent pistes and the ADS for managing the resort in a way that kept everyone happy.<br />
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Last week it seemed everybody wanted to be in Les Arcs, with our last few beds going to guests fleeing other resorts (such as Chamonix, Morzine, Chatel, etc) in search of a true taste of winter. However one thing was different this New Year - hardly a word of Russian to be heard anywhere, not even in Arc 1950. It seems the collapse of the rouble following the Great Bear's foreign policy and domestic woes has made us prohibitively expensive, and of course new and better winter sports offerings are coming on-stream all the time in Russia itself after the success of Sochi.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikV6-_2hH84XYU_HbJFlPG2cI7L7NM7Tm7ixOS7te9FqmqCRJg8T7POAA5edv9j2O2iN1BpKD16_QZbqCeol0ETSRG8Caq13E3iXsMtNWyfRWAgWAu8KvwQ515z32aI3AFpzmkepmS8OSj/s1600/cachette+tunnel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikV6-_2hH84XYU_HbJFlPG2cI7L7NM7Tm7ixOS7te9FqmqCRJg8T7POAA5edv9j2O2iN1BpKD16_QZbqCeol0ETSRG8Caq13E3iXsMtNWyfRWAgWAu8KvwQ515z32aI3AFpzmkepmS8OSj/s320/cachette+tunnel.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cachette tunnel</td></tr>
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The big news in Arc 1600 at the start of the season has been the redevelopment of the Cachette to make it Les Arcs only world-class competition piste. A key feature has been the building of 50 metre concrete tunnel under the piste to allow the passage of ski-school groups and beginners using the Combette lift without interupting the flow of slalom skiers training and competing on the Cachette piste.<br />
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The idea of upgrading Cachette to full FIS-homolgation (slalom and giant-slalom) has been around for at least 20 years. It was a key feature of the bungled 'CSNHN' scheme that would have seen a prestigious national ski academy based in Bourg, had it not been lost to Albertville because of political dithering ( <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/03/flagship-ski-academy-project-cancelled.html" target="_blank">click here for the full story</a>). There were originally going to be two tunnels, the other would have allowed the 'Arpette' blue piste to pass beneath Cachette: now that piste will be closed or diverted on competition days.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDEMmhVxQMtRFlvHxqF_iXEXW1Us4du37nM1f8ENLveYtg7hcet6gL_9AAl6mc71BvRjJQppzWaU4_HEQa2qXOk9-hZwc07f4aJicsiC3daIjhtKMXgwKLA4k4lFN-dqdAmxli3Jn48-gp/s1600/snowcannon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDEMmhVxQMtRFlvHxqF_iXEXW1Us4du37nM1f8ENLveYtg7hcet6gL_9AAl6mc71BvRjJQppzWaU4_HEQa2qXOk9-hZwc07f4aJicsiC3daIjhtKMXgwKLA4k4lFN-dqdAmxli3Jn48-gp/s320/snowcannon.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monster snow cannon</td></tr>
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A further aspect of the Cachette scheme is plainly visible in the photo above - snowmaking. It was already the best equipped piste in Les Arcs, with something like 40,000 cubic metres of the man-made white stuff being applied each season. The snow-making capacity has now been virtually doubled, and the equipment re-spaced to reduce the amount of piste-bashing necessary to spread it evenly. A small concession to the environmental impact of all this energy-guzzling <i>eneigement</i>, perhaps. Les Arcs, like most large ski resorts now uses as much energy on snow-making as it does for powering the lifts. <br />
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The lift company ADS proudly showed of its new TechnoAlpin TL6 snow cannons, the 1000th produced being among those deployed. These monsters are capable of making 20 cubic metres an hour (a double-decker bus?), and other 'lower pressure' jets can double that in the right conditions - it has to be between -2.5 and -5c.<br />
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There's no doubt that Les Arcs massive investment in snow-making has really paid of this season. Not only did it allow the resort to open more skiing than most of its rivals, but the deep, compacted layer will be an excellent base for the natural snow now falling in abundance. This will also be beneficial at the other end of the season as the spring temperatures begin to rise.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDu1i-LnnNGXreVGwQvcCJ91wAN3IMf9XZIBu-qmvFSEP1U4FR_DozPhmNoU6L3OZOv8KznO6hyVrJy-c2OiBvql2z7zktVQ1gky6vg7OGux8ir66GDLHud5ChAMlT6KgFSux7OGS8FDnV/s1600/cachette+piste.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDu1i-LnnNGXreVGwQvcCJ91wAN3IMf9XZIBu-qmvFSEP1U4FR_DozPhmNoU6L3OZOv8KznO6hyVrJy-c2OiBvql2z7zktVQ1gky6vg7OGux8ir66GDLHud5ChAMlT6KgFSux7OGS8FDnV/s320/cachette+piste.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cachette piste before the tunnel</td></tr>
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But there are plenty of elephants in the corner of Cachette, as it were. Is this the reality of global warming; are we going to have to accept that most of the snow under-ski will be artificially made in the future? Are we going to see the 'core-lift policy' (take out two lifts, build one more-efficient one, such as Arpette) turn into a core-piste policy? (put all the energy into creating one or two good main pistes with less diversity of terrain).<br />
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If energy prices were to rise substantially some resorts might well struggle to pay their electricity bills without adding to the vicious circle of decline created by ever-increasing lift pass prices. But At least a higher oil price would make the Russians able to afford Les Arcs again!<br />
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See also my post on the history of the <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.com/2013/03/catch-cachette.html" target="_blank">Cachette piste and lift</a><br />
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Coming next: <i>Mille8 - skiing dumbed-down or is this the future?</i><br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-61548710857244174072015-01-29T09:25:00.001+01:002015-01-29T09:26:29.751+01:00Ski Republic is no more, but the revolution lives onI'm sitting here waiting for the long-promised snow storm to hit us; we have been promised 50cm in the next 24 hours and the possibility of a <i>'semaine de blanc</i>' after that. The last time we have a really big downfall was the 27th December (although there's been a fair amount of snow but in small quantities), and the chaos that ensued was well documented by the British and French press. Perhaps it's only going to snow seriously on the 27th of the month this season! In any case, we could really do with it to get Les Arcs up tip-top condition for the school holiday, which in France start in two weeks time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOw_6tINTGWBYVcMK34SjK17Nskhs91kRvbuqHoW1Tlt5cYz63UbK5US70sm_UKveGPiI89uqf-y-wjDHrawP8cyU1lREhYbQCKoZHnQ16dovswcVeQkndr-o2HHSp1Eh74D3L_uwN_5MT/s1600/SR+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOw_6tINTGWBYVcMK34SjK17Nskhs91kRvbuqHoW1Tlt5cYz63UbK5US70sm_UKveGPiI89uqf-y-wjDHrawP8cyU1lREhYbQCKoZHnQ16dovswcVeQkndr-o2HHSp1Eh74D3L_uwN_5MT/s1600/SR+logo.jpg" /></a></div>
In today's <i><a href="http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2015/01/28/ca-farte-toujours-aussi-bien-sur-le-marche-de-la-location-de-ski" target="_blank">Dauphiné </a></i>I read that the beleaguered 'low-cost' ski hire business <a href="http://www.ski-republic.com/" target="_blank">Ski Republic</a> has finally be sold off to <a href="http://www.danisports.fr/" target="_blank">Danisports</a> (already owners of the Precision Ski franchises and brands). Ski Republic was a brilliant idea, stared by Lionel Favre in 2006. Impressed by business approach of Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of EasyJet, Favre realised that the complacent, overpriced and frequently monopolistic hire shops to be found in every european ski resort could produce even more profit if their costs were carefully controlled and they were more 'marketing driven'.<br />
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The main idea was stunningly simple: instead of holding large stocks of equipment in expensive resort retail premises the skis, board and boots etc. were warehoused in a cheap industrial unit in the valley (in fact just outside Bourg St Maurice). Servicing and preparation of the equipment was thus done centrally, making the best use of expensive machines and technicians, and the <i>materiel </i>delivered to tiny retail shops (hardly more than kiosks) by garishly-coloured eye-catching vans. In addition all the marketing and order-taking was done via a well-designed website. Unlike 'traditional' ski hire shops with their extortionate mark-ups, incomprehensible and randomly-applied <i>tarifs </i>you knew how much you were going to pay as you paid it 'up-front'. This was good for Ski Republic's cashflow, enabling them to keep their prices low and to offer their famous 'hire one get one free' deal.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHWv3OXGvLtvq4eD0Kuz3V2eaZQkPPICrDPPPvhpzCy3gSx6-sVZcMGqfPWnG9bxdzX3Sr9uYIu2uNJ-oMxbfKIdTY7BMgmEAUwSq9T-sjhcLTvjeTltmwtGyadlFY-G_GhwGCWrHEwGU/s1600/SR+poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHWv3OXGvLtvq4eD0Kuz3V2eaZQkPPICrDPPPvhpzCy3gSx6-sVZcMGqfPWnG9bxdzX3Sr9uYIu2uNJ-oMxbfKIdTY7BMgmEAUwSq9T-sjhcLTvjeTltmwtGyadlFY-G_GhwGCWrHEwGU/s1600/SR+poster.png" height="226" width="320" /></a></div>
Many traditional ski shops were owned by local families whose community standing pre-dated the coming of industrialised skiing in the 1960s and 70s, and they were incensed with the threat to their perceived right to exploit and abuse tourists to the full. Consequently several Ski Republic shops were set alight, vandalised or had their door locks super-glued, tyres were slashed and SR staff threatened and abused. But the newcomer really did cause a revolution in ski hire - eventually prices were forced down generally, price lists simplified and large discounts promised to skiers who pre-booked their equipment on the shops (often hastily and badly designed) websites. Transparency and competition led to a better and cheaper service for everyone, but also led to the domination of a few large franchises such as InterSport, Precision Ski and SkiSet. Sadly, some quality independent operations like Twinner Sports disappeared completely.<br />
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But it all went badly wrong for Ski Republic a couple of years later. Despite quickly capturing an impressive share of the market with 150,000 pairs of skis and a turnover of nearly 5 million euros it didn't make a profit in its first two years of operation. With the 2008 'credit-crunch' banks panicked over backing even slightly unconventional businesses, and SR suddenly found its line of credit broken and unable to pay its bills. The french commercial legal processes of '<i>cessation des paiments</i>' and '<i>redressment judiciare</i>' ensued (designed to give a struggling business protection from its creditors while it tries to pull itself together) and M. Favre was forced to liquidate all his other assets (which included the Precison Ski brand) to keep the business going. Since then it's struggled on, with various owners and backers invloved. Finally the <i>Tribunal de Commerce</i> at Chambéry pulled the plug, forcing the sale and/or closure of the remanents of Ski Republic.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaL3kxw-IEPSurHfJuSq2p-TlWecSgA_0gCT55gb_cpw5F8P65zhmOGyMif5Hc3ocpmMyyElHeQJaTjY6if509nOl9hyXN-A8Ul9GLxmSHcVJ4YgQHm7FSW1ZtjalnTYFNc5mC50VFxIZO/s1600/saulire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaL3kxw-IEPSurHfJuSq2p-TlWecSgA_0gCT55gb_cpw5F8P65zhmOGyMif5Hc3ocpmMyyElHeQJaTjY6if509nOl9hyXN-A8Ul9GLxmSHcVJ4YgQHm7FSW1ZtjalnTYFNc5mC50VFxIZO/s1600/saulire.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saulire with La Grand Casse (3855m)</td></tr>
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A personal ski-hire anecdote: I remember how, as a relatively inexperienced skier, I had hired a pair of skis at Courchevel 1650. After a day or so I realised that the bindings were wrongly adjusted for my weight and ability (the skis kept coming off) and the braking mechanism on one of them was faulty and never descended to stop the ski sliding away when the binding was open. </blockquote>
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Predictably, as I was tackling the difficult, bumpy '<i>M</i>' black piste below <i>La Saulire</i>, the ski came of on a bump and slid away, under the netting at the side of piste and fell 100m or so into the ravine below. I had to complete the remainder of '<i>M</i>' on one ski and my backside, and take a series of lifts in the wrong direction to get back to the ski hire shop (closed of course, at 12). When it finally opened at 4.30pm I explained my predicament, tired and annoyed at having lost half a day on the mountain. The response: '<i>You lost ze ski? So you have to go and find it!</i>' After pointing out the impossibility of this I was told '<i>OK, so you 've to pay for a new PAIR of skis</i>'. </blockquote>
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Too exhausted to argue I returned the next day to be told by the manager, '<i>Oh it's no problem, we give you another pair. I expect the pisteurs will find it in the Spring...</i>' I was relieved, but also confused.</blockquote>
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I'm pretty sure the new owner Danisports will soon abandon the Ski Republic brand and the business model in order to build its other interests and improve its margins. Although the name may soon be forgotten, Ski Republic was responsible for revolutionising and important facet of the modern ski industry, formerly famed for its inefficiency, lack of customer service and ludicrous over-pricing. I wonder what they's do with all those pink and yellow caravans?<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-17821985757946609232014-11-19T11:35:00.000+01:002014-11-19T11:43:15.019+01:00Cyprus - a threat to Les Arcs?<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Everything's gearing up nicely for the winter season at Les Arcs: 40cm of snow above 1600m, and a fair amount of excitement about the <a href="http://www.lesarcs.com/mille8.html" target="_blank">Mille 8</a> project at Arc 1800. It includes a new fun piste in the trees, toboggan run, obstacle courses and the most important part, the new Centre Aqualudique, with several pools, water features and relaxation/spa facilities. Les Arcs, like other large ski resorts is trying hard to cash in on the '4 - 7' period after skiing at the end of the afternoon and to enhance overall the tourists' experience in the hope they'll keep coming back! More about all this once it's all open after the beginning of the season on 13th December.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYoXhCPahp8bOwdzn5AZb7WWf4ch5Ae3pw0DUohb0ZD9UbhCGVqFks9XHNIuW3R1k92gUuPni_LF40EvseFwQRRIvLiuUmwgqTNNlyFagpSTQi6KHO0Z3VMP_LOi1A_04Jwio-FCJAW5e/s1600/mille8-plan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNYoXhCPahp8bOwdzn5AZb7WWf4ch5Ae3pw0DUohb0ZD9UbhCGVqFks9XHNIuW3R1k92gUuPni_LF40EvseFwQRRIvLiuUmwgqTNNlyFagpSTQi6KHO0Z3VMP_LOi1A_04Jwio-FCJAW5e/s1600/mille8-plan.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plan of Mille 8</td></tr>
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However, I do think there's a small cloud over Les Arcs dazzling plans. Lift pass prices are up again, by about 5% as far as I can work out. Last year saw a drop in lift pass sales, accommodation occupancy and 'skier days' of around 2% - that doesn't sound like much when you remember that in previous years that figure has been closer to a 4% drop and multiply that over 10 years you're basically looking into a financial abyss.... Why not freeze lift pass prices (at least) to build some client fidelity rather than grandiose investments, I wonder. To top it all, entry to the new Centre Aqualudique or the<i> piste de luge</i> is NOT included in the lift pass, you have to pay between <a href="http://www.lesarcs.com/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Mille_8/TarifsMille8.pdf" target="_blank">€5 and €15 euros per visit </a>depending on which facilities you use. Mille 8 had better be good!</div>
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After my <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2014/08/discovering-kazakhstan.html" target="_blank">visit to Kazakhstan</a> earlier this summer and the impressive Shymbulak ski area (perhaps one day it will become an alternative to Europe's crowded and increasingly expensive resorts?) I was intrigued to discover that you don't have to go that far to find cheap, family friendly skiing.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6hEZS-g_k3cYk9s6KhonCaxewb7HZ7_YYUuKxMhdmKtVy4hsTi-bdLjWQk-5K9ezHfPxaEmPvLK81ecZsrO8yaiFuaHQyUulVMCADePMKADUOcvwfxcm4BIPvngITSofB5gzSHptUeCL6/s1600/TroodosFISslope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6hEZS-g_k3cYk9s6KhonCaxewb7HZ7_YYUuKxMhdmKtVy4hsTi-bdLjWQk-5K9ezHfPxaEmPvLK81ecZsrO8yaiFuaHQyUulVMCADePMKADUOcvwfxcm4BIPvngITSofB5gzSHptUeCL6/s1600/TroodosFISslope.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">FFS piste et Troodos</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Experienced snow-boarder and travel writer Holly Mantle has been telling me about skiing in Cyprus. It isn’t yet famous as
a skiing hotspot, and doesn't feature on any top 'ten
list' of skiing locations in Europe. But, because it's still relatively unknown you can expect to find deserted
slopes, untouched snow and no skittle-run pistes crowded with snakes of ski school learners. At Troodos, the main resort, prices are much lower than big european ski factories, and it retains some of the atmosphere and elegance of the
Swiss Alps of yesteryear; they’ve still got cosy cafes whipping up hot chocolates
and refined skiers in salopettes gracing the slopes in style.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There is a good range
of skiing, especially for those looking to progress. The different
runs are all named after Greek gods which makes the experience more
fun - telling people you’ve tamed Zeus (the big one) for example,
will be sure to impress back at home. Holly points out that there aren’t too many flat sections that will force boarders to hop across the snow as you attempt to make it towards the next drop.</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RseQzAOyjPgMYbAOwu0kx0DbK86_3JMwnO9qqKI7-m9qAJkhMImmP9doqPCgtB5q9HtkzlruxCENGYvG_W7XrkEzpjmkSqjSSWp50fqUpcQjR_fhbj57WctMKsXL7478QlHUXltueH78/s1600/troodos_trailmap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9RseQzAOyjPgMYbAOwu0kx0DbK86_3JMwnO9qqKI7-m9qAJkhMImmP9doqPCgtB5q9HtkzlruxCENGYvG_W7XrkEzpjmkSqjSSWp50fqUpcQjR_fhbj57WctMKsXL7478QlHUXltueH78/s1600/troodos_trailmap.jpg" height="282" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Troodos piste map</td></tr>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Skiing at Troodos, which is located in the northern slopes of Mt. Olympus (1951m), dates back to some portable lift installations set up by the British Army in the 1960s, presumably to keep the largely idle 'green line' soldiers and their families occupied. Steady development of the facilities and a new breed of local skiers led to Cyprus' participation in the 1980 Winter Olympics, and they're still going strong in several events. Troodos has 4 main lifts and dozen or so slopes of for all levels. The longest piste is nearly 1km long, and most of the skiing is above 1800m. The season runs from December to March, but expect the best snow in January and February. It gets pretty warm in March!</div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
You can rent ski and board gear from the
Cyprus Ski Club – they have a mixed range of equipment from the
latest models to the ancient. Snowboards are a little harder to get hold of than skis,
so if this is the main reason you’re travelling to Cyprus then it’s
better to bring your own gear (especially if you’re a snowboarder
or skier who likes to look good on the slopes). There are three main schools offering lessons and guiding.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="sd-abs-pos" style="left: 9.94cm; position: absolute; top: 4.23cm; width: 236px;"></span>Larnaca
airport is the closest to Mt Olympus and its slopes. Flights from London take around 4 hours 40 minutes. Cyprus Airways fly into Larnaca, or
Easyjet will speed you over to Paphos. In order to get up to the
mountain, a 4x4 with snow chains would be the recommended option. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbABSeXt3dHZUCsXdMg1DLs9vbuuiJQZztjor1soyiz5NNN55zWJqUiv8iwJ9SJ2JOIeadpxmG8lnAP-ucs2HLv6q2wv2laVFRDzR4SnPiTrmMyYcnQVyzx1B0aWc31gZw8As267NsoIs6/s1600/Archaeological_park2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbABSeXt3dHZUCsXdMg1DLs9vbuuiJQZztjor1soyiz5NNN55zWJqUiv8iwJ9SJ2JOIeadpxmG8lnAP-ucs2HLv6q2wv2laVFRDzR4SnPiTrmMyYcnQVyzx1B0aWc31gZw8As267NsoIs6/s1600/Archaeological_park2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paphos Archaeologial Park</td></tr>
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Consider combining your ski trip to Cyprus with further exploration of this fascinating island: The <span style="color: #0563c1;"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.visitpafos.org.cy/archaeological_park.aspx">Paphos
Archaeological Site</a></u></span> is easy to get lost in for a day
and has lots of ancient relics, mosaics and monuments dating back
from prehistoric, Roman and medieval times. It’s just 4.5 euros to
get in, and the mosaics in particular have been receiving rave
reviews from tourists since the area became listed as a UNESCO world
heritage site.</div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There’s no need to
stay at resorts close to the ski slopes, which can be expensive. The island is very
small, so you can easily travel between hotels in other areas of the
island by bus or car. For a taste of the ancient civilisation of Cyprus go to the tiny village of <span style="color: #0563c1;"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.holidaycheck.com/dh/3cbc3fb8-a19c-3f7c-8275-17f1c6c8111d">Agros</a></u></span>
(which only has four hotels) and is famous for its rose festival and
sweets cured in syrup. There are some great nature trails around that
area through the mountains.</div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If you’d prefer more modern ciivilization, then <span style="color: #0563c1;"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.paphos.com/v/attractions/">Paphos</a></u></span>
is the best place in terms of things to do. Bars, restaurants and
cafés there cater to a year-round tourist influx so you won’t be
left cold and hungry, even if you’re heading out in the midst of
winter.
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Lift Pass Prices</b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Ski Lift Pass: Afternoon 12,00 euros , Full day 20,00 euros</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Ski Equipment Rental: Adults Daily 12,00 euros, afternoon 9,00 euros</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Cross Country Skis – Boots: Daily 8,00</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Snowboards – Boots: Daily 18,00</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
All a bit cheaper than Les Arcs, but perhaps you really do pay for what you get when if comes to skiing.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Many thanks to Holly Mantle who supplied most of the information about Cyprus and some of the text.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
More information: <a href="http://www.skicyprus.com/">http://www.skicyprus.com/</a></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><br /></div>
Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-48839216797428514722014-08-12T10:31:00.002+02:002014-08-12T11:39:22.125+02:00Discovering Kazakhstan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_8rZeb-DEO2_2UlQl1nRybTdrRzy0i0Xx4TZ6GAVf91cRVrAhyrbiPewvNh3_O-jQknxYULceW5Q-aq6pcDcNSpWjf3v5NPlC-vAkb74i0jRBt3VBcWZNRBpNI7dDsG9HJNfxf_wwThD/s1600/map_kazakhstan.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS_8rZeb-DEO2_2UlQl1nRybTdrRzy0i0Xx4TZ6GAVf91cRVrAhyrbiPewvNh3_O-jQknxYULceW5Q-aq6pcDcNSpWjf3v5NPlC-vAkb74i0jRBt3VBcWZNRBpNI7dDsG9HJNfxf_wwThD/s1600/map_kazakhstan.gif" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
Running a ski holiday business in the French alps can lead to some unexpected adventures: I was most generously invited to visit Kazakhstan by our regular chalet guests from that country (and Russia) for a 10 day tour of this vast, largely unknown Asian territory stretching from the Urals to China.<br />
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First, a few facts and figures about Kazakhstan. It's the largest land-locked country in the world (9th largest overall), roughly the same area as Western Europe but with a population of under 17 million. So it's possible travel hundreds of kilometres without seeing anyone, or indeed any trace of human activity.<br />
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The southern part of the country is mainly desert, and in the east the Altai and Tien Shan mountains form the borders with China, Mongolia and Russia.The central areas in known as the 'steppe', a vast grassy plain which was home to the nomadic Kazakh tribes before they were mostly forced to settle under Tsarist and Soviet regimes.. Kazakhstan became independent in 1991, after the collapse of the USSR.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupaZtmQTkLYv_KAbybMZcL-W1fA26023Wca72Pnbuq5joio3NH0cE0bEhEt6NyJzKmMyebgdtzslZsD1tmkWtnyfk9FLswK0jZN53YQvtfT9iS9f-aj29w6e0GDCcdpd9LkCCDIwhDllS/s1600/astana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupaZtmQTkLYv_KAbybMZcL-W1fA26023Wca72Pnbuq5joio3NH0cE0bEhEt6NyJzKmMyebgdtzslZsD1tmkWtnyfk9FLswK0jZN53YQvtfT9iS9f-aj29w6e0GDCcdpd9LkCCDIwhDllS/s1600/astana.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Astana - the new capital</td></tr>
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<div>
The capital of Kazakhstan is the glittering new city of Astana, more or less in the centre of the country and in the oil-producing region (KZ is set to become the world's 8th largest oil exporter). However, my destination was the historic city (and former capital) of Almaty in the south-eastern corner at the foot of the Tien Shan mountains. It's in area once famed for apple production, hence the name translates as 'Apple-like'; indeed it is claimed that apples were first found here.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOtO8h7LOFgAenBlOOgTN2LQ2wFQa8bRLgT-w-SR85e6yH-WNKwqCByvzux0IuT3hEcPFMdfqgk7jPBonHODlO3e5TA82uaTcNLiCpaR2tqOkkj-rIdgeXm3u46G7TsWFlugqHAmJosxc/s1600/chkalov+glaciers+3892m.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEOtO8h7LOFgAenBlOOgTN2LQ2wFQa8bRLgT-w-SR85e6yH-WNKwqCByvzux0IuT3hEcPFMdfqgk7jPBonHODlO3e5TA82uaTcNLiCpaR2tqOkkj-rIdgeXm3u46G7TsWFlugqHAmJosxc/s1600/chkalov+glaciers+3892m.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glaciers on Mt. Chklov from top of Shymbulak ski area</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2rEN0uHol2zP3MJs2Zcl_0rkPJUVnwKvLlpnA6HFPYbtPArUXBYZx6BWh84-3wYa_Zj_UqHUf7snkBI4lrozNvMzvMtK9HZ14ZljTq6a2T9xkoq5uWIJUU3Jdu_Our8IetAAoAjaDvSQ/s1600/Kazhak+alpine+club.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI2rEN0uHol2zP3MJs2Zcl_0rkPJUVnwKvLlpnA6HFPYbtPArUXBYZx6BWh84-3wYa_Zj_UqHUf7snkBI4lrozNvMzvMtK9HZ14ZljTq6a2T9xkoq5uWIJUU3Jdu_Our8IetAAoAjaDvSQ/s1600/Kazhak+alpine+club.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a>First on the agenda was a visit <a href="http://www.shymbulak.com/en" target="_blank">Shymbulak Ski Resort</a>, half-an-hour from the centre of the city. Built for the 2011 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Winter_Games" target="_blank">Asian Winter Games</a>, it rises up the Medeu valley to the Tagar Pass (3180m), under the glaciated peaks of Mt. Chklov. With 7 modern lifts and over 20km of pistes it's a popular weekend choice for the burgeoning middle classes of Almaty. Facilities are being constantly improved: I noticed recently installed snow-canons and plenty of smart eating-places and accommodation. You can even see two enormous ski jumps from the centre of Almaty, also built for the Asian games.<br />
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<div>
Back in down-town Almaty it was time for a beer at the soviet-style pleasure gardens of Kok-Tobe, with its own rustic 1950s cable car, amusements, small zoo and, surprisingly, a life-size statue of the Beatles, whom are apparently venerated by the country's young people.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiviIdml_IU9UoOkkSL5H9vVHghU8S2Oi0BL5bHEb5UzM-j4q2ji5TeKCKbi4cLX5D1vqCFD-671iWv20TszBpwCANNv-kfS6o3Nj6SSzKNIZqDga0W-RYDS0nkT2EQG-AksCZF_L6qOgsu/s1600/IMG_0349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiviIdml_IU9UoOkkSL5H9vVHghU8S2Oi0BL5bHEb5UzM-j4q2ji5TeKCKbi4cLX5D1vqCFD-671iWv20TszBpwCANNv-kfS6o3Nj6SSzKNIZqDga0W-RYDS0nkT2EQG-AksCZF_L6qOgsu/s1600/IMG_0349.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kazahk Beatles in Almaty park</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXjNO1ijQhO0GlpdcO53DCHMMqNW_O9eAWITcmTv6e6K_SWz7LTrPW67qSAEzxeHvZ8nmQ7HQSlGnwyi1dS19zbC2VOOHfzmMTpaMx5Plrq4bvWPzscw-K-7DX138BeLN0uxe3ZqTJntYr/s1600/dancing+girls.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXjNO1ijQhO0GlpdcO53DCHMMqNW_O9eAWITcmTv6e6K_SWz7LTrPW67qSAEzxeHvZ8nmQ7HQSlGnwyi1dS19zbC2VOOHfzmMTpaMx5Plrq4bvWPzscw-K-7DX138BeLN0uxe3ZqTJntYr/s1600/dancing+girls.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Uzbek dancing girls</td></tr>
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The evening was spent in an out-door<a href="http://alasha.kz/" target="_blank"> Alasha </a>Uzbek restaurant, with a cabaret of Kazakh and Uzbek traditional dancing and an acrobatic display. The food wasn't bad either, with my first chance to try <i>besharmak</i> (lamb slow-cooked with pasta and onions with its stock an accompanying drink) and the central Asian favourite of <i>plov</i> (stir-fried lamb, vegetables and rice).</div>
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Next day, and time to visit my hosts' flagship store - their business <a href="http://www.meloman.kz/" target="_blank">meloman.kz </a>operates 40 multi-media shops around Kazakhstan, together with a a chain of cinemas and D-I-Y stores. They also stock toys and children's goods, so currently they have a big 'Back to School' promotion, advertised in English, Russian and Kazakh. The government wants all three languages to be spoken, although the majority of the population is Russian-speaking.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl8kNpsFYoh-gEwyVH6gqnV6HynEJlv0VJC7krUqLqIlMkv7X_hHexJlP7h39xdOMkWQm8SKK2FJikCt51yx_Ho5_Soley4glEPgcUJiDTcmPYwtqAfcv3FHn_XFbaIm8_b3p6p3i-HZZG/s1600/zenkov+cathedral.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl8kNpsFYoh-gEwyVH6gqnV6HynEJlv0VJC7krUqLqIlMkv7X_hHexJlP7h39xdOMkWQm8SKK2FJikCt51yx_Ho5_Soley4glEPgcUJiDTcmPYwtqAfcv3FHn_XFbaIm8_b3p6p3i-HZZG/s1600/zenkov+cathedral.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zenkov Cathedral Almaty</td></tr>
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Nearby is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_Cathedral,_Almaty" target="_blank">Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension</a>, built in the dying years of Tsarist imperialism (1905), and stunningly restored during the more liberal Soviet period of the 1970/80s. KZ is not a highly religious country, but two-thirds of the population claims allegiance to Islam, the remainder mostly to the Orthodox church.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oUbQA_i_gBEw0QY2PR8g_pIuxHam-Q-T6dlStf_mLHeo31kYQoUF6v9OO-pKvNye7A3HF_4UQRfP-1n8n39wkZxrX-Mqn4dI6nIyyu_AfVOaLjAKs7IjOk7Q7021aKiJXf9g0op8oIMb/s1600/oskamen+hydro+dam.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oUbQA_i_gBEw0QY2PR8g_pIuxHam-Q-T6dlStf_mLHeo31kYQoUF6v9OO-pKvNye7A3HF_4UQRfP-1n8n39wkZxrX-Mqn4dI6nIyyu_AfVOaLjAKs7IjOk7Q7021aKiJXf9g0op8oIMb/s1600/oskamen+hydro+dam.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hydro-electric dam</td></tr>
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In the afternoon we flew 1000km north, to the mining and metallurgy town of Oskomen (formerly Ust-Kammenogorsk), which was quite a contrast to the fast-growing lavishness of Almaty. A short taxi and motorboat ride took us to my hosts' lakeside guest-house, on the southern shores of the virtual lake created by the damming of the Iyrtush river for hydro-electric power in the 1950s. It was here, looking over the hills and moutains surrounding the lake that I began to get a sense of the size of Kazakhstan and its vast swathes of virtually uninhabited and (as yet) unspoilt terrain. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Azia-Auto helicopter</td></tr>
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Among the vital industrial and mining industries of Oskemen (uranium, lead, zinc, beryllium etc). new enterprises are emerging to satisfy the growing consumer hunger. Notable among these is <a href="http://www.aziaavto.kz/index_eng.htm" target="_blank">Azia-Auto</a> car assembly plant, which is producing 120,000 vehicles every year. The amiable owner of Azia-Auto, Anatoly Balushkin had kindly offered my hosts his 15 seat helicopter to fly, the next day, to Rahkmany Springs, 1000km east towards the Chinese border.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View towards Altai Mountains</td></tr>
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Rahkmany Springs (1800m) has been renowned since the 18th century for the supposed health-giving qualities of it's radon-rich springs. It was developed in Soviet times as a kind of health farm, with guests (or patients perhaps) staying in wooden cabins near the large, wonderfully fresh water lake. Meals are still provided in a communal canteen, which according to my hosts, serves authentic Soviet-style meals: large portions of stodgy but tasty food, with no choices and unsmiling waitresses, all washed-down with endless cups of strong tea.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rahkmany Springs lake</td></tr>
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Since the wholesale privatisation of state assets in the early years of Kazakhstan's independence the Rakhmany Springs 'resort' was bought by Mr. Balushkin for redevelopment as a wider tourist centre. The log cabins have been improved or replaced with more luxurious 'chalets', and spa/health facilities upgraded, a bar and amenities for children introduced. But much remains the same and overall it has the comfortable feel of a USSR holiday camp in the 1970s.</div>
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The lake itself has been stocked for leisure fishing, but sadly this has resulted in the further decline of the 'singing frog' <i>gracixalus quangi</i>, a rare species threatened by the non-native fish who devour the frogs' eggs and tadpoles. This is a national park area, but there is little evidence of the kind of environmental sensitivity and awareness you'd expect to find in an equivalent European or American location.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mertvoe river</td></tr>
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However, it is a beautiful and unspoilt place, with treks around the lake and into the mountains and forests on foot, with horses or on mountain bikes, all of which can be hired locally.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AA rides out!</td></tr>
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I rode a horse for a few hours (for the first time in my life!) to visit a nearby scenic waterfall.<br />
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Mr. Balushkin kindly laid on a helicopter trip the next day, in the esteemed company of the local Orthodox bishop (they are planning to build a church at Rahkmany to complement the existing small mosque) to fly over the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belukha_Mountain" target="_blank"> Belukha (white) Mountain</a>, rising to 4500m near the point where the Russian, Chinese, <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glaciers on Mt. Belukha</td></tr>
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Mongolian and Kazakh border meet (known to some as the '4 corners of the world'). It is heavily glaciated and highly dramatic, the glaciers being among the oldest in the world (up to 5000 years old). The surrounding foothills reveal more gentle countryside, with meandering streams and herds of wild horses - but few villages, roads or other traces of human civilisation. </div>
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The route back from Rahkamany to Oskamen took 12 hours by 4-wheel drive down a rough track, strewn with boulders and swimming-pool size pot-holes. Until recently ambitions to modernise and improve the road have been resisted by the government in order to preserve the environment, but I have read that a large sum of money has now been allocated to this project. Let's hope a consequent influx of tourists doesn't ruin the pristine environment that attracted them in the first place.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My 'chalet' at Rahkany springs</td></tr>
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The route, along the Berel river, is stunningly scenic, marred only by the derelict industrial and agricultural buildings that seem to so surround each village on the way. Relics of the Soviet times, it seems, but being such a spacious county no-one seems to renovate or knock anything down: they just build something new alongside. Planning control seems to be an unknown concept in Kazahkstan, so architectural 'style' is extremely random. Perhaps this also stems from the nomadic instincts of the people, where permanence is not regarded as an attribute for survival. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dispensing the <i>kumis</i></td></tr>
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We made a brief halt at a group of roadside <i>yurts</i> (portable nomadic tent shelters made from felt) , where local honey and <i>kumis</i>, fermented mares' milk, is available for sale on on-the-spot consumption. Our Landcruiser also needed refreshment, but all the petrol station around Katon-Karagy (the only town on the 950km route) seemed to have run out of fuel. Eventually our resourceful driver pleaded that he had an "important French delegation" on board. Apparently right on cue, without knowing what was going on, I got out of the car speaking a 'strange' language, which convinced the <i>garagiste </i>to supply us from the reserves that have to be kept for government vehicles.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bukhtarma lake</td></tr>
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Katon-Karagy is at the confluence of the White Berel and the Black Berel rivers, which then become the Irtysh, which meanders east towards China. In the 1950s the Soviet government constructed three large hydroelectric plants and dams on the river around Oskomen to provide power for the fast developing metallurgy industry.<br />
This resulted the huge Bukhtarma Reservoir, which is 500km long and up to 35km wide, more or less the size of Wales!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My hosts' vessels and former Pioneer camp in background</td></tr>
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My next destination was my hosts' riverside house at Clear Springs, once the site of a Soviet Pioneer camp but sold of to private owners in the early years of Kazakhstans' independence. The old camp buildings are still there, surrounded by new holiday homes of varying degrees of luxuriousness.<br />
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The terrain around the lake (which reminded me of the Scottish islands) contains some of the oldest rocks in Kazakhstan, beaten and weathered by the capricious continental climate in to weird and wonderful shapes and formations. Much of Bukhtarma freezes over in the winters (they can expect 3m of snow here) but in the summer it's pleasantly warm with frequent thundery storms. In front of their new and spacious house thrives a vegetable garden, with tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, fruit trees and bushes, grown for the consumption of visitors. The Bukhtarma is teeming with fish, I even had a go at fishing myself! We had plenty of delicious meals, with freshly-caught carp and bream from the sparkling clear waters of the river.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My hosts' house at Clear Springs</td></tr>
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It was a long, bumpy ride to get to Clear Springs, so travelling by water is a much better option. My hosts' ex-soviet patrol vessel, which was formerly used to keep an eye on the Chinese border a few hundred kilometers upstream, proved to be an excellent way to get around. We visited several isolated beaches in beautiful settings, but almost everywhere there were piles of litter and old bottles from previous picnics. I spent my last morning there helping collecting and burning rubbish on one particularly nice beach, doing my bit for the Kazak environment.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almaty - growing fast!</td></tr>
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Later that day we flew back to Almaty, arriving late but still able to visit a highly-westernised 24 hour deli-supermarket full of sumptuous imported Italian and French food and wine. Everything was written in English and obviously aimed at the emerging affluent middle class, quite a contrast to the rain-soaked stalls and soviet-era shops of Katon-Karagy. But the Kazakhstan is a country of contrasts and transition, and the President Nazarbayev's aim to make put it in the top 30 richest countries by 2050 seems highly achievable given the richness of its resources and the openness and energy of the people.<br />
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On the flight back to London I realised that more than half of its 8h hour duration was over Kazakhstan itself. I could gaze down at the vast steppe, straining to spot the rare traces of human habitaiton or activity. What a contrast to the visibly crowded territories of Germany, Denmark and Holland. Europe's development is complete, it's gone as far as it can go, perhaps. Certainly that is not the case for Kazakhstan and, I imagine, the other dynamic new countries of central Asia.<br />
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<i>Many thanks for my hosts, Igor and Alexander Deriglazova and their families and especially to Arseny Deriglazova for interpreting, and Dualet Yermagambetov, my guide in Almaty.</i><br />
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Links:</div>
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<a href="http://eurasia.travel/kazakhstan/cities_towns_places/eastern_kazakhstan/altay_mountains/rakhmanovskie_klyuchi/" target="_blank">More in Rahkmany Springs from Eurasia Travel</a></div>
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<a href="http://visitkazakhstan.kz/en/" target="_blank">Visit Kazahkstan (official tourist site)</a></div>
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Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-81665399487614389292014-04-19T22:25:00.002+02:002014-10-01T09:43:53.455+02:00Tignes Semper Vivens part 2 - visit to the old village<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBfWrr7lReADJUT1gZ_J5smclnJ4CR3rP4EzB10-_vVUEU2HqrRWYrwkbhBV96Kxv3k96wAeS6D3f6bM5mDhUfXhCL0Xt0ue_giXElRFsQQwr_bvYRuci0iU05MdbrmBhzMi-p4XtJZ1Yn/s1600/general.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">General view toward the barrage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Good
Friday seemed like a good day to descend into the ruins of the old
village of Tignes. </span>Sixty years
ago the thriving community, with its ancient traditions of agriculture
and its modern vocation as a ski resort was engulfed under 180m of water, sacrificed for electricity and the greater good of the French nation. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxgpLZbrosutSRG-fI-UKsKIjQFPAiWv4ekB1VI9CKLoABkn1if3c6X2ECSVofPxykoyJH_Yl3k4H8Rl2AtkPWL92aTKH3yNb5zKA7utLjn6t-a-xYIPTHmF4Lfor3gnVjwQUcCDqYcoiF/s1600/bridge2.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pont de Chevril (1924)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We
set off from the hamlet of La Reclusaz, at the Val d'Isere end of the
lake. From there we followed the old road, still clearly defined with
much of its tarmac surface in tact. Below was the dramatic Pont de
Chevril, spanning the Isere gorge 60m below.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkiQFJ3Jyw_C9vxQiMmM6e3tI4MI1lGbmt-NGA5LQ-MjDsBs4wsu2s2w4VyS0du9AE1nsfHUNwpzToRF5-iKtz1YBiQ9yiISHrreGEzNx795o9aaM-IjHJ7z09Ay-9F1rUS0VvGEY7OCw/s1600/tree+stumps.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkiQFJ3Jyw_C9vxQiMmM6e3tI4MI1lGbmt-NGA5LQ-MjDsBs4wsu2s2w4VyS0du9AE1nsfHUNwpzToRF5-iKtz1YBiQ9yiISHrreGEzNx795o9aaM-IjHJ7z09Ay-9F1rUS0VvGEY7OCw/s1600/tree+stumps.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eroded landscape</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">From
here one can clearly see the layout of the Vallon de Lac, with the
remains of the hamlets of La Raie, Villard-Strassiaz, La Chaudanne
and Tignes itself discernable under a deep layer of uniform grey
sludge. Decades of underwater erosion has left the roots of hundreds
of trees (felled for timber as the waters rose) on the
sides of the basin, twisted and gnarled into un-natural shapes.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbsTPLO6_uE_UkLtx_nLAFYOiNUGwLsIN7yOw_7gYQ0JeWYrBTmdoNRfCmCpoKDXWKkkPsF0N0KYtGgY9j_YxfkQK_vIa-NEyNJVZ4piWzl2gSTKCL0_155x7ZYeMz08K_G47UI7g7mR8/s1600/meteor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbsTPLO6_uE_UkLtx_nLAFYOiNUGwLsIN7yOw_7gYQ0JeWYrBTmdoNRfCmCpoKDXWKkkPsF0N0KYtGgY9j_YxfkQK_vIa-NEyNJVZ4piWzl2gSTKCL0_155x7ZYeMz08K_G47UI7g7mR8/s1600/meteor.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meteorite or other alien object?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One large piece of rock catches our attention – it's like nothing else
here and I wonder if could have been a meteorite or something? It
wouldn't seem surprising to find such a thing in this silent, alien
landscape</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg1i3r0qtnqAe6eDEODVH5FawEyGFyXA5UbhxlfG7ZTjQR_BHyS5MQBFMBakAPVbL77QcaQL4UbwcgERu0EK8tIf1kZoeYZVi5LmxGsROv4FWxyLl3E2Wd5npKef1FMp71WasUkmZvl7wp/s1600/bridge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg1i3r0qtnqAe6eDEODVH5FawEyGFyXA5UbhxlfG7ZTjQR_BHyS5MQBFMBakAPVbL77QcaQL4UbwcgERu0EK8tIf1kZoeYZVi5LmxGsROv4FWxyLl3E2Wd5npKef1FMp71WasUkmZvl7wp/s1600/bridge.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No sign of life...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I was
struck by the total lack of any life here. not a single plant, bird
or animal could been seen giving the scene a moon-like quality. I struggle to imagine how there had once been fertile meadows
beside the Isére, with dozens of cows and sheep grazing peacefully
while the steep sides were rich with pines, firs and wild fruit
trees.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIObGl2NdzJjrw4LfAYggDXm9FXjy7FqItz8TlHZnKbTzqONBP6REoCjb5RIac9opqxx3Cn6bOun7Qau_SHLmSOCuk5a6xgdhr6hsUQCg8S9wCJOFv23to_DpEzJMnX6KaC_3aYV09sAM1/s1600/doorway.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIObGl2NdzJjrw4LfAYggDXm9FXjy7FqItz8TlHZnKbTzqONBP6REoCjb5RIac9opqxx3Cn6bOun7Qau_SHLmSOCuk5a6xgdhr6hsUQCg8S9wCJOFv23to_DpEzJMnX6KaC_3aYV09sAM1/s1600/doorway.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old house remains</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">From
a distance the ruins of the dynamited, bulldozed and burnt buildings
just looked like muddy humps, but on getting closer I could see that
the lower parts of many were still relatively unscathed. We pushed open the
thick wooden door of one, entering a cellar room lined with hooks and
brackets for shelves of cheese and drying hams. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSLheYdP3PcUNwiz6SuX4yTgopUE04rIcaXbu_cWA1xsDFKA__ffLs1_g4_fu5D0qiCohob5Yiw-b2ZmdzmQKdBEfvBGdaLZOAKNY156e5xTzaTUav5ALYHHMMYp4m9M8xM5jO1q9K9D4s/s1600/building+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSLheYdP3PcUNwiz6SuX4yTgopUE04rIcaXbu_cWA1xsDFKA__ffLs1_g4_fu5D0qiCohob5Yiw-b2ZmdzmQKdBEfvBGdaLZOAKNY156e5xTzaTUav5ALYHHMMYp4m9M8xM5jO1q9K9D4s/s1600/building+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSLheYdP3PcUNwiz6SuX4yTgopUE04rIcaXbu_cWA1xsDFKA__ffLs1_g4_fu5D0qiCohob5Yiw-b2ZmdzmQKdBEfvBGdaLZOAKNY156e5xTzaTUav5ALYHHMMYp4m9M8xM5jO1q9K9D4s/s1600/building+2.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Through the plain grill of the window you could for a moment share the view that those
villagers once saw daily; the soaring mountains above and the powerful
river beside.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfZNe6YQzysKZuuDf_Qblme73QwpV9elXqJiFGFc0mEHVMcscZb8OC1DiMYXLACS9fZJiFx5PFo_BaS7Fzygl0Dc1bXsYnjCaRXsrfj0JidaLVjud9aCveABM1aC47sr5tDaCoC0Nt8kz/s1600/small+bridge.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span></a></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNfZNe6YQzysKZuuDf_Qblme73QwpV9elXqJiFGFc0mEHVMcscZb8OC1DiMYXLACS9fZJiFx5PFo_BaS7Fzygl0Dc1bXsYnjCaRXsrfj0JidaLVjud9aCveABM1aC47sr5tDaCoC0Nt8kz/s1600/small+bridge.JPG" height="150" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Passerelle</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Further
on we crossed small bridge across the stream flowing down from
Villard-Strassiaz, which in the 1930s a saw-mill owner called Planton
had used to generate electricity for his machines and to illuminate
the village – the community's first taste of the new energy that
gave it its place in history. </span>
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSu7ZwkFr9fMMol_OsTM1nSbIfndRLDS2VxJhTLyJNTSwdpxcVjyrxOGrCOMiokAY0R-7LQzFSqO2aSJPfI14-9gjS_5NeM6-dJ5JhKfENfJDGT-1pCBROedG7tenOjQfyv8ezutT1k-yR/s1600/ruins+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span></a></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSu7ZwkFr9fMMol_OsTM1nSbIfndRLDS2VxJhTLyJNTSwdpxcVjyrxOGrCOMiokAY0R-7LQzFSqO2aSJPfI14-9gjS_5NeM6-dJ5JhKfENfJDGT-1pCBROedG7tenOjQfyv8ezutT1k-yR/s1600/ruins+1.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruins</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The
density of the ruins multiplies as we got closer to the centre of the
<i>le bourg</i>, where several hotels and a restaurant used to
flourish, products of the village's reluctant acceptance of tourism
as its future as the ancient, inefficient agricultural practices
yielded to the post-war world.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUGzf-oLaWM7gF2wqLEZHWc0s8bwQ6VpV5o58SzZAQZw8mgnkeB397QNB9KqJCbpt-qCEsocl21-l1DQMstaE3QBLyXAqWNShJGX0jgQTYjgj29kjyqxXIpLhfg6PoM99Um546tHqH0vjo/s1600/water+butt.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aubrevoir - still full of water</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The
<i>abreuvoir</i>, where once animals drank and women washed clothes
still sits proudly at the heart of the village. A section of iron
railing marks the edge, perhaps, of one of the flourishing vegetable
gardens slotted between the old chalets.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIzJC9TfJDUwv2xHD7C0Ad6X5Y7VY-EQnH3y-gfc4oMHN3PUmEMo9aZOytEbzM9snylH5VcClb90s6XPtqmctZ0pczffnrmWRDW3ju_phKb-kwdxUTdsPXMAXtVyyhgKxYWs3nP0qEX5m0/s1600/church+ruins.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span></a></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIzJC9TfJDUwv2xHD7C0Ad6X5Y7VY-EQnH3y-gfc4oMHN3PUmEMo9aZOytEbzM9snylH5VcClb90s6XPtqmctZ0pczffnrmWRDW3ju_phKb-kwdxUTdsPXMAXtVyyhgKxYWs3nP0qEX5m0/s1600/church+ruins.JPG" height="240" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Remains of Church of St Jacques</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Soon
we came upon the largest ruin, that of the 17<sup>th</sup> century
church of Saint-Jacques-de-Tarentaise. Sections of its thick
walls lie jumbled upon each other, perhaps here and there are chunks
of the old tower that once soared above the valley. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRecMEQJrPSjoFAzvGIPZv4DSkSq2p0HNG3FQAPcHb4_ED214aIEV9_L4EQac74cQxW2CQeqOsKGq7rRs7LRJQNKoDoqW4kadD_VJBuVfFSmvE-JaIu6LQbqfYY5BI9HfydSPhsITP2ZSM/s1600/eglise+tignes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRecMEQJrPSjoFAzvGIPZv4DSkSq2p0HNG3FQAPcHb4_ED214aIEV9_L4EQac74cQxW2CQeqOsKGq7rRs7LRJQNKoDoqW4kadD_VJBuVfFSmvE-JaIu6LQbqfYY5BI9HfydSPhsITP2ZSM/s1600/eglise+tignes.jpg" height="200" width="132" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The church was was the
last building to be destroyed, straight after the last Mass was said here on 20<sup>th</sup> April 1952. On the same day Mass was
celebrated for the first time in the new church replicated at Les
Boisses, at the heart of the new community that rose from the lake.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">A
little further on we reached the ruins of a large building, of which
the lower floor was still intact. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1VbSimks-Aa4NlvQHJDSeYOyAiNorfOlxzqtiTPOegmflAP-ogQYulzwiipyaM8XwDQ_b-l463c5cPWP-wN1gyn-LXAGrzR8zaFcOo1Lhm5OejCadPCQjaYWrLswbMkUKIJ3zhwaZDkrU/s1600/inside.JPG" height="150" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rooms and corridors...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8L7DXXU4TahNiJL81Cr8JVwVvQ_iEbCFchJtI_pTpQGN42uHcE8sNm0ATCzrlk48MgHdjVYhSXBhBxh_ARqdcU7wavD_dntj2o_CXhPscuhZsTcgEF0_F7MnA_Ff4-Jkt0l88iwJjKv7x/s1600/basin.JPG" height="150" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stone sinks</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtL-_E7KFYHa9INPjpigov9Sdi7KuhGOMsJrDdLcTGZR94M2vhSB-9cfzL6ZDaAc_OsSyCWTBTAwD4_qrHERKXF7RcR5hwY9Nae7z09ow5woZbwhEf-iFC_3BIKLr4e9nWSZV341P7HsCP/s1600/inside+2.JPG" height="150" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Workplace<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The network of rooms and corridors could be accessed through the muddy doorway, still furnished with large stone sinks and a stone-slabbed bench, perhaps for some kind of food preparation.</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolOoSgQX6IFAStqLOCnlcywt0YrAA8W2N0cLZEcePW5YdRHY0MmrORybcasixj7yN0ZhOe3PnoP8_RdVW4ibYF3plw1dDy_obGChnmGVXO2cyKgb-GOWUGhjy1jLyPYx6AcOysyz1Ziio/s1600/barrage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolOoSgQX6IFAStqLOCnlcywt0YrAA8W2N0cLZEcePW5YdRHY0MmrORybcasixj7yN0ZhOe3PnoP8_RdVW4ibYF3plw1dDy_obGChnmGVXO2cyKgb-GOWUGhjy1jLyPYx6AcOysyz1Ziio/s1600/barrage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiolOoSgQX6IFAStqLOCnlcywt0YrAA8W2N0cLZEcePW5YdRHY0MmrORybcasixj7yN0ZhOe3PnoP8_RdVW4ibYF3plw1dDy_obGChnmGVXO2cyKgb-GOWUGhjy1jLyPYx6AcOysyz1Ziio/s1600/barrage.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Le Mur'</td></tr>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Now
we are at the end of village, as close to the huge wall of the barrage
as one can get. The hum of the turbines in the power station above
and its rushing out-flow waterfall coupled with the strange but
peaceful atmosphere make conversation difficult. Much has been said
about the drowning of Tignes, then and even now there's still much being
written and discussed...</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbob-5Ab8uRnm9lR63rTCtMp1wrVPP9kBqkI-hlHdHwi0etLScSWAELd7QDZTMkuCpeTWyr1YPfBM3YaSMFmqVOat8QvbJ5EOK0WE7yQKx8GJtsXFzDZz9yJaYIW8MEJCKHr2XoM71blTR/s1600/old+tignes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbob-5Ab8uRnm9lR63rTCtMp1wrVPP9kBqkI-hlHdHwi0etLScSWAELd7QDZTMkuCpeTWyr1YPfBM3YaSMFmqVOat8QvbJ5EOK0WE7yQKx8GJtsXFzDZz9yJaYIW8MEJCKHr2XoM71blTR/s1600/old+tignes.jpg" height="288" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">Soon
the waters will retake its remains and spirit once more, and the
lingering generation will pass on. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In
this age of global warming and 'energy security' worries we should
all be grateful for the reluctant sacrifice made this community and
the astonishing achievements that this sacrifice led to.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i>Tignes Semper Vivens</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Many thanks to Rob and Liz for coming with me and taking the photographs.</div>
</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5eVwk7HTHhif3frDG5_ckO8UrbqRTfVeO6a0gQiVQpMs3qCyKQA5-9X9jKiGnx0uWS256oG8ZqZ3HS-FNCWuNs90D1a3ZaZlKFPOwh7-tNgmjSRx22YLz-sf1uTa4n0HYJyd_kzRDEuO/s1600/1erskieural9+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5eVwk7HTHhif3frDG5_ckO8UrbqRTfVeO6a0gQiVQpMs3qCyKQA5-9X9jKiGnx0uWS256oG8ZqZ3HS-FNCWuNs90D1a3ZaZlKFPOwh7-tNgmjSRx22YLz-sf1uTa4n0HYJyd_kzRDEuO/s1600/1erskieural9+(1).jpg" height="137" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tignes in 1950</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For a number of reasons I decided to pay a visit to Tignes yesterday: I'd been reading Cédric Broet's excellent new book <b style="font-style: italic;">Tignes, histoire d'une station de sports d'hiver 1946 - 2000 </b>(in French), and a friend had alerted me to the fact that the <i>Lac de Chevril </i>has<i> </i>been completely drained.<br />
<br />
Although the snow's still pretty good in Les Arcs and La Plagne for this stage in the season (and more snow is expected this weekend) I had heard conditions in Tignes were especially good and worth making the journey for.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBP2WxhG450iZmOB0upXQ66XTliRDkr7TVwAj-LQUN-IbSQaogcEXusNpJ8VmrXclNt1BVDdQUj-3-iz7Qz3pq41ThtWlruPO-vxJUh7lNeUTvJQkSt4ljqrmNGoWZy8EmjC72KcONq-GE/s1600/75014612aiguille-percee-jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBP2WxhG450iZmOB0upXQ66XTliRDkr7TVwAj-LQUN-IbSQaogcEXusNpJ8VmrXclNt1BVDdQUj-3-iz7Qz3pq41ThtWlruPO-vxJUh7lNeUTvJQkSt4ljqrmNGoWZy8EmjC72KcONq-GE/s1600/75014612aiguille-percee-jpg.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L'aguille Percée - yet another photo!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My trip exceeded my expectation in every way! Firstly the snow was good, the glacier hard and fast and the plenty of (rather grainy) untracked fresh snow around the Col de Ves. The pistes back to Val Claret and Le Lac all seem to be wide and smooth, and even the sun-exposed <i>Vallon de la Sache</i> black run from the Aguille Percée (is this the most photographed piece of rock in the world, I wonder?) to Les Brevières only presented a few slush and gravel difficulties on the steep section above the village.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPbzrK6tnIoaQSH5VnmvrnAcpMzF9dHr7FRorVzEAVZNRpjA8927bIc5EJSRJRKbsZ-rEJt0Yx31Mvzm-zI1Cq86k_rpVrJDzL-M6V_uwCw3-vk9DJJHfv5Qv1-JHFoeIFan9ijjPOra-/s1600/tignes+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJPbzrK6tnIoaQSH5VnmvrnAcpMzF9dHr7FRorVzEAVZNRpjA8927bIc5EJSRJRKbsZ-rEJt0Yx31Mvzm-zI1Cq86k_rpVrJDzL-M6V_uwCw3-vk9DJJHfv5Qv1-JHFoeIFan9ijjPOra-/s1600/tignes+2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isère bridge clearly visible</td></tr>
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Secondly, I had noticed when crossing the top of the dam that the Lac de Chevril is indeed very empty, I think with even less water in it than during the 'official' inspection <i>vidange </i>in 2000. The old Isère bridge, the village streets and the dynamited remains of various buildings including the church can be clearly seen, and people were once again strolling there in the brilliant sunshine as they might have back in 1952!<br />
<br />
As I sat enjoying my Salade Savoyarde at the excellent <i>La Sachette</i> restuarant in Les Brevières I found myself thinking over the remarkable story of the village of Tignes. Its destruction and subsequent renaissance bear witness to two of the 20th century's greatest industrial achievements, electricity and tourism.<br />
<br />
By the 1930s the agricultural community of Tignes had already begun to reap the benefits of the newly emerging winter sports industry; Val d'Isère, a few kilometres further up the valley had already a number of hotels and ski lifts and Tignes begun to follow suit. The Great War had disrupted centuries-old traditions of subsistence farming (based on domestic production of milk, cheese, pork and cereal) as young men sent to fight had seen more of the world and were exposed to new influences.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiwHRt9Ld5zGBCGUSU5yFnqTy1NVzewcr1QbzMA6Q_NoA8ZOBXnvTcA08kPRR7oOd_7r4oMTGlM8QNDeLpV5O4jH96c5wvAr7mQdCfT_-nEpCYXtM0ZNoivP9RRrLgeXExf_fW1uAEBWx/s1600/barrag10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiwHRt9Ld5zGBCGUSU5yFnqTy1NVzewcr1QbzMA6Q_NoA8ZOBXnvTcA08kPRR7oOd_7r4oMTGlM8QNDeLpV5O4jH96c5wvAr7mQdCfT_-nEpCYXtM0ZNoivP9RRrLgeXExf_fW1uAEBWx/s1600/barrag10.jpg" height="237" width="320" /></a></div>
However, it was probably the Second World War that crystallised Tignes' future. As France rebuilt its industries and cities there was a desperate need for energy, in the form of electricity. A plan to build an hydro-electric scheme at Tignes had been around since 1920, but ironically it was shelved as the cost of the obtaining the required land through compulsory purchase was seen as to high in relation the price of electricity. However, the scheme was revived and expanded in the late 1940s, with the aim of building the world's largest hydro-scheme by damming the Isère downstream from Tignes, thereby putting the village under 180m of water.<br />
<br />
The outflow from the new reservoir, which was to be fed by a number of diverted mountain streams, would power generators at Les Brevières and Viclaire before emerging from the a tunnel 350m above Bourg St Maurice in two gigantic <i>conduit forcée</i> feeding 5 turbines in the Malgovert power plant. Overall the scheme would produce nearly a thousand megawatts, enough electricity for 150,000 homes (such as city the size of Grenoble).<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-4d3QHmfWJb_OazXLbjFlx5TchwiZfzPJSSJkiY_FQ05pEwuRVnhxr0ttmokgBCWGeSaRV7Zl0TCVnU_ErzIdtJBsHWRf2og5sHshxsQeRowiS6qKbXlwkcWrjpVMMAHZrdggliU5yn_/s1600/location-maeva-tignes-le-lac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-4d3QHmfWJb_OazXLbjFlx5TchwiZfzPJSSJkiY_FQ05pEwuRVnhxr0ttmokgBCWGeSaRV7Zl0TCVnU_ErzIdtJBsHWRf2og5sHshxsQeRowiS6qKbXlwkcWrjpVMMAHZrdggliU5yn_/s1600/location-maeva-tignes-le-lac.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tignes Le Lac</td></tr>
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Understandably there was much opposition from the people of Tignes, which in 1950 was home to 76 families, several farms and a handful of hotels, shops and restaurants. At a national level there was much debate about the whether it was right to sacrifice an ancient community in the name of progress and the greater good of the state. In compensation the EDF (Electricité de France) planned to rebuild Tignes above the lake at Les Boisses, including an exact copy of the church and a new cemetery for those exhumed from their original final resting place. The package of compensation and redevelopment sowed the seeds for the ski resort as we know it today, starting with the new 'hamlets' of Le Rosset and L'Aune which became part of 'Tignes Le Lac'. The higher part, Val Claret, was not really foreseen at this time, and didn't happen until the 1970s.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_4fxjWZWwvprUHylja7XVeHQrn-MN-7C8U1ZR3WNjgj7gy1HING2xoJbAnKd84oTEgLQS6InxDNBgDcvoJ-X2maDiuQbUiRLM9_ufWbi9FYGLhP_Wp__8I7LQdQbaDNjikPy9eI25Ngc/s1600/tignes+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx_4fxjWZWwvprUHylja7XVeHQrn-MN-7C8U1ZR3WNjgj7gy1HING2xoJbAnKd84oTEgLQS6InxDNBgDcvoJ-X2maDiuQbUiRLM9_ufWbi9FYGLhP_Wp__8I7LQdQbaDNjikPy9eI25Ngc/s1600/tignes+3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anti-EDF graffiti -' rape and pillage'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
However, a few stalwart Tignards resisted until the end, even as the water was lapping around their houses. In the end the prefect called in the CRS (kind of riot police) to dynamite and set of fire the whole village while literally dragging the last few from their homes. Distressing scenes indeed, and there is still much bitterness in the local communities about how this was handled (although now it is hard to see how it could have been done differently).<span id="goog_714021187"></span><span id="goog_714021188"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
<br />
Many of those families who were displaced but chose to stay in the new Tignes have since prospered with the development of the truly world-class ski resort. In the end, when one thinks as all the 'carbon-free' electricity being produced and what a great place it is to ski perhaps that sacrifice was justified.<br />
<br />
I'm taking my team to do a<a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2014/04/tignes-semper-vivens-part-2-visit-to.html" target="_blank"> 'photographic essay' there tomorrow</a>, as I think this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the old village of Tignes. Hence this is part 1, part 2 will deal with the growth of the ski resort in the 1960s and 70s in comparison to the development of Les Arcs... coming soon.<br />
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Meanwhile, here's an excellent short video of the last days of Tignes: <a href="http://www.ina.fr/video/AFE85004524" target="_blank">TIGNES, L'EAU MONTE</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGo3thO0AqHJijEfmS2J3fAhrg_2fExxo85m8iTlvTrFXOe23Q6GAx2GhYgxc02kJ1ro4UfGSH2hFHEfEHJidNQj9pfCf_IcZZ5deqinXy2yWmBFVtahcj8Xl_pQD2d0WfNO4QNkCVLEHS/s1600/41R-xxFQLAL._.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGo3thO0AqHJijEfmS2J3fAhrg_2fExxo85m8iTlvTrFXOe23Q6GAx2GhYgxc02kJ1ro4UfGSH2hFHEfEHJidNQj9pfCf_IcZZ5deqinXy2yWmBFVtahcj8Xl_pQD2d0WfNO4QNkCVLEHS/s1600/41R-xxFQLAL._.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a></div>
Also highly recommended: <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Tignes-naissance-g%C3%A9ant-Denis-Varaschin/dp/B008L0E6QK/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397801635&sr=1-9&keywords=tignes" target="_blank">Tignes, la naissance d'un géant [Broché] by</a><br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Tignes-naissance-g%C3%A9ant-Denis-Varaschin/dp/B008L0E6QK/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397801635&sr=1-9&keywords=tignes" target="_blank">Denis Varaschin</a><br />
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A detailled account of the construction of the barrage and associated works. Strong on technical detail and historical accuracy.<br />
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<a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2014/04/tignes-semper-vivens-part-2-visit-to.html" target="_blank"><b>See part 2 of this blog post for an account of my descent into the ruined village</b></a>Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-26245118128243102002014-04-14T20:49:00.000+02:002014-05-06T08:52:26.968+02:00ZAC des Alpins (the old barracks): future or fiction?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPq7M9aTPRUrUNjNy0xtIql2jhAmSCvY4S0UwQ9OHSO8slgxxU1eBdv7DpibFudYcge5TTVt0UD2lMwwLTzlj5JF6QjMRSkIG-b_ZVeaXF9rKZnNawOB-lrO79M_CMEVpCDnufyjEoTDn/s1600/giraudy_contacts.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPq7M9aTPRUrUNjNy0xtIql2jhAmSCvY4S0UwQ9OHSO8slgxxU1eBdv7DpibFudYcge5TTVt0UD2lMwwLTzlj5JF6QjMRSkIG-b_ZVeaXF9rKZnNawOB-lrO79M_CMEVpCDnufyjEoTDn/s1600/giraudy_contacts.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michel Giraudy, new mayor of Bourg</td></tr>
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Congratulations to M. Michel Giraudy and his team of councillors elected from the 'Agir pour l'avenir' group, on becoming the new mayor of Bourg St Maurice. Giraudy is a genuine tourism professional, having been head of the Val d'Isere and Courchevel tourist offices for many years and now running his own <a href="http://giraudy-conseil.com/" target="_blank">consultancy business</a>. He also worked at Club Med and was involved in organising the 1992 Albertville Olympics.<br />
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I think M. Giraudy is going to be glad of all this valuable experience when he tackles his mayoral in-tray. Top item will be the '<b>ZAC des Alpins</b>' project, upon which, we are led to believe the future prosperity of Bourg St Maurice largely depends. This huge scheme to redevelop the old Barracks on the southern edge of the town is likely to provoke much controversy and need a huge amount of imagination, commitment and acuity if it's to succeed, qualities which have been lamentably lacking in dealing with recent failed projects such as the Centre for National Ski Studies, the <i>Renoveau </i>fiasco and the mineral water bottling plant farce.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrGpOlTKzge6BcleJUBX4Zlinqz5swicqb0CRsNmxPtUEfvMdmQZFgQREL9126mOBDz60ii-aJA8VqZmVUXr6rzIumhNkHXd2-VLe98yMAq0NBJYwHsadZUyxkxXycaLyrZ1HMC2YNSLuA/s1600/quartier+bulle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrGpOlTKzge6BcleJUBX4Zlinqz5swicqb0CRsNmxPtUEfvMdmQZFgQREL9126mOBDz60ii-aJA8VqZmVUXr6rzIumhNkHXd2-VLe98yMAq0NBJYwHsadZUyxkxXycaLyrZ1HMC2YNSLuA/s1600/quartier+bulle.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le Quartier Bulle, now ZAC des Alpins</td></tr>
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To recap, in 2011 the 7th Brigade of <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/01/theres-no-7-in-bourg-st-maurice-anymore.html" target="_blank">Chasseurs Alpins departed the barracks</a>, which they had occupied since before the First World War. <br />
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The soldiers were highly respected by the town community, and contributed greatly to the economy, and social and sporting activities. Bourg suddenly lost nearly a third of its population (1500 out of 5000), but gained a sprawling complex of hangars, yards and <i>logements </i>spread over 7 hectares. This was 'sold' to the town for €1 euro by the Ministry of Defence, perhaps anxious not to have to find the €400,000 per year needed just to maintain and secure the site while empty! <br />
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At the time Bourg was expecting to host a new National Centre for High Level Skiing Studies (CSNHN, a kind of ski university - <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/03/flagship-ski-academy-project-cancelled.html" target="_blank">see previous blogs</a>), and the old barracks were to be its home. However, owing to spectacular bungling and vaccillation by the council under the then-mayor Damien Perry, the FFS changed its mind and chose Albertville instead. So, the old barracks became a bit of a white elephant.<br />
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Detailed proposals of the new '<b>UTN ZAC des Alpins</b>' project have recently been made public and presented to the councillors. The scheme involves retaining some of the more interesting (and older) buildings, demolishing the ugly ones and building some new ones. . The aim is to construct a 'Development Zone' in which will be the following:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKog82vO7xXB6ujVSbNoIqY-bI4PAXifxHvQQXC2xeoZXpItP9jMiyLIuwvnB2cz-lTxMFiwjG86s6BdbXBqEUYdZzBANgMxzmDt0tCrDi2J78UrNPLjTg55Zq7YZG3ZNaWUgKakecmL3/s1600/ZAC+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYKog82vO7xXB6ujVSbNoIqY-bI4PAXifxHvQQXC2xeoZXpItP9jMiyLIuwvnB2cz-lTxMFiwjG86s6BdbXBqEUYdZzBANgMxzmDt0tCrDi2J78UrNPLjTg55Zq7YZG3ZNaWUgKakecmL3/s1600/ZAC+3.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Architect's impression</td></tr>
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<ul>
<li>Four star hotel, luxury tourist accommodation and short-term tourist lodgings totalling 1500 new beds</li>
<li>Conference centre</li>
<li>'Wellness' health centre with spa, fun-pool etc.</li>
<li>Shops, cafés, etc. and an entertainment venue</li>
<li>Craft village</li>
<li>Memorial to the 7th BCA regiment</li>
</ul>
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In addition there will be new housing for <i>saisonaires </i>and 'parkland' within the complex. A striking feature is the proposed series of waterfalls fed by the adjacent Arbonne river. But, remember this is Bourg St Maurice, so there has to be the obligatory 300 new car parking spaces and two new access roundabouts on the main road! </div>
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Acknowledging that the ZAC des Alpins is on the 'wrong side' of the town as far the transport/mountain access/commercial infrastructure is concerned, the proposal includes the provisions of 2 shuttle bus services (reaching the funicular in 2 minutes, apparently) and a possible new walkway to the station </div>
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The proposals, which have been put together the <i>Society for the Development of Savoie</i> details the benefits to the town: eventually the local economy will enjoy an extra 20m euros of income per annum from a mixture of increased lift-pass sales (2.4m), accommodation (10 - 14m) and spending in bars, shops, restaurants etc ( 5 - 7m). The project would create about 500 new jobs, about half of which would be permanent and the rest seasonal (winter I assume).<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbIWEw3Mw1cankjt0K50WP_DMX_M-U3D8rt2jRvsJNz932PlSxxOjhjYBPag_QkNKdF1nDpRLfJsY3Cy4vFY4YSwhp7WIxC12WHzfHLVya3dn1OinSjmlFv1JoNVyvWA9f_VYuq18xEO0/s1600/ZAC+alpins+1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkbIWEw3Mw1cankjt0K50WP_DMX_M-U3D8rt2jRvsJNz932PlSxxOjhjYBPag_QkNKdF1nDpRLfJsY3Cy4vFY4YSwhp7WIxC12WHzfHLVya3dn1OinSjmlFv1JoNVyvWA9f_VYuq18xEO0/s1600/ZAC+alpins+1.PNG" /></a><br />
It all looks very slick and impressive, but there are obviously quite a few question marks about Bourg's ability to bring off a project like this. Firstly, the town is going to have to find 12 million euros to fund the project, spread over a period of 3 or 4 years. The government is expected to pitch in another 3 million, but it will take 10 years for the cashflow to become positive and half the money the town will provide will be borrowed. This is on top of the its current debts of around 40 million, but SAS reckon that initial interest repayments on all these loans can be made by making cuts to services and 'management savings'. This all sounds rather risky for a number of reasons.<br />
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The<i> location, location, location</i> of the site is undoubtedly a problem. Who would be prepared to pay to stay in a sumptuous 4 star hotel which then involves a bus ride and then the funicular to get to the snow? The SAS figures quote an average annual occupancy rate of 75%, whereas in the last few years the figure generally in Bourg St Maurice has been 46% (from <a href="http://www.vivrentarentaise.fr/dossiers/tourisme-et-amenagements/21-gestion-de-lespace/108-plu-de-bourg-saint-maurice" target="_blank">Vivre en Tarentaise</a>). It's strange that the Dutch hotel group Valk are mentioned a possible exploiter of the new hotel: they have dozens of 'resort' hotels in Holland, a few in France and Spain but none in Alpine or mountainous environments. I hope this doesn't mean some of hotel groups active in the Alps haven't already shunned the idea!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDmeYn7OvXQlyx-WL6VzYdjcKh8I8xYBvg8N5n8QEOVBk_pup65wRGSJaCGQmEPVO75pZHPoQcQyfFhGslW9lx4Hd3dIsD9xHnoZ4K11ZWdpevbtIDZzAAXLMsZttxZ761u0gWIpVAowud/s1600/high+street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDmeYn7OvXQlyx-WL6VzYdjcKh8I8xYBvg8N5n8QEOVBk_pup65wRGSJaCGQmEPVO75pZHPoQcQyfFhGslW9lx4Hd3dIsD9xHnoZ4K11ZWdpevbtIDZzAAXLMsZttxZ761u0gWIpVAowud/s1600/high+street.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another threat to the high street?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Secondly, the plan to put in shops and craft workshops can only detract from the struggling town centre, and make it a less attractive proposition for casual visitors from the Arcs resorts. It contradicts much of the councils policy and actions to try and 'redynamise' the town centre - there is already enough pressure from the supermarket end of town, with all its parking, cafés and choice of large shops. Even if the proposed commerces within the ZAC were well patronised by the new <i>clientele</i>, this would hardly have any positive effect for the town centre: it's too far away for people to want to stroll down to the Rue Pietonné if they have shops etc. on hand in the ZAC.<br />
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Thirdly, I can't really see how the a conference centre in a fairly inaccessible town like Bourg is going to do well when there is already an abundance of such facilities in all the local cities, and the increasing use of virtual and internet based systems will make 'real' conference events increasingly redundant.</div>
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I think its a sign of the desperation of the local politicians that some of these questions were barely raised at the presentation of the plan, except by Councillor Bocianowksi, to her credit. The SAS presentation offers no exit strategies or worse-case scenarios, only a rose-tinted view of increasing prosperity despite the multiple challenges faced by the tourist industry here (visitors to <a href="http://www.vivrentarentaise.fr/dossiers/tourisme-et-amenagements/117-projet-d-ecolodge-aux-arcs" target="_blank">Les Arcs fell by 9,3% between 2009-2012</a>), and in particular skiing which whether you like it or not is main motor of the local economy.<br />
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It is, I realise, easy to criticise a new project like this, and if it does go ahead I really hope it will succeed and not become a nightmarish drain on the town's finances. But I am pretty sure no council would have chosen to buy a site like this for redevelopment, rather it's been thrust upon as and something has to be done with it. Let's hope M. Giraudy's the man for the job!<br />
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You can see full details of the proposals<a href="http://www.bourgsaintmaurice.fr/uploads/tx_dklikdossier2014/Synthese_Dossier__UTN.pdf" target="_blank"> here (in french but mainly pictures and diagrams)</a>:<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-9798124426217296242014-03-26T19:21:00.004+01:002014-03-26T19:26:40.391+01:00Municipal elections 2: Roger's out, big plans unveiled<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vHPgxrUz7GuVGjRgL-KhNB-lqkTvDlBsDltF2OYDhNsJKWMxHxeoWfkDn89QIutVo1252iOTyBlHfIlxpN9-7p7He0KxaHgcpFBTM0vL1XXL33z5ncPUGEaAZXaco49_Ytpbk40Zlw0j/s1600/rogert+pugin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vHPgxrUz7GuVGjRgL-KhNB-lqkTvDlBsDltF2OYDhNsJKWMxHxeoWfkDn89QIutVo1252iOTyBlHfIlxpN9-7p7He0KxaHgcpFBTM0vL1XXL33z5ncPUGEaAZXaco49_Ytpbk40Zlw0j/s1600/rogert+pugin.jpg" height="200" width="165" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roger Pugin - pulled out</td></tr>
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Roger Pugin's list (Mieux Vivre) have pulled out of the municipal elections, even thought they had 11% of the vote and were eligible for the 2nd round.<br />
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The <b>AGIR </b>group did particularly well in the polling booths in Les Arcs, with 51%.This would have been enough for an outright win if it had been reflected across the commune. <br />
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My money's on them to win at the moment, but I expect Pugin's supporters will vote for the Garnier list, which could make things interesting... (I wonder if the last minute appearance of previous mayor Damien Perry on Pugin's last may have done some damage; he's still a deeply unpopular figure in the town....)<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDUZ-GNUtQG-4iAjnVElcxFPy_xIpRcp2D-7rIaAeoSqmNivVsozm3kL0Lu2BxSG1Uu3OSxOcSj9AxzOdLBPbZf7xG3meuNMKdgSVTeSXaNJ7VL_o82WxIl5RgfWr0kKWFVuQQd1_7thf/s1600/Annexe-dossier-UTN---Plan-de-vue-generale.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDUZ-GNUtQG-4iAjnVElcxFPy_xIpRcp2D-7rIaAeoSqmNivVsozm3kL0Lu2BxSG1Uu3OSxOcSj9AxzOdLBPbZf7xG3meuNMKdgSVTeSXaNJ7VL_o82WxIl5RgfWr0kKWFVuQQd1_7thf/s1600/Annexe-dossier-UTN---Plan-de-vue-generale.png" height="226" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quartiers des Alpins: artist's impression</td></tr>
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In the middle of all this, an important meeting of the Municipal Council will take place tomorrow, at which will be discussed the initial proposition for the redevelepment of the old baracks, now called the Quartier des Alpins.<br />
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This is perhaps the most important current issue for the incoming administration.<br />
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I'll be writing more about this soon, but here's a sneak preview of the plans:<br />
<a href="http://www.bourgsaintmaurice.fr/vie-municipale/actualites/projet-zac-des-alpins.html" target="_blank"> http://www.bourgsaintmaurice.fr/vie-municipale/actualites/projet-zac-des-alpins.html</a>Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-23396107461552356022014-03-24T20:18:00.002+01:002014-03-26T20:32:28.324+01:00Municipal Elections 1: They could lead to a real down-hill slide!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaw6BMM4oh4NeAfhjXmsk_p8laPdmu_e0kR6cdQXrVwSdmdt9IsY1VH9MyTgZI_BOUZVkGfBXnBB7Jlpt4hlOLXrhXELgoRQ6_gbc3Z6NkFvqFGNUWq2sqghTVCZPx1Xut6CojvonxB2ob/s1600/elections+municpales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaw6BMM4oh4NeAfhjXmsk_p8laPdmu_e0kR6cdQXrVwSdmdt9IsY1VH9MyTgZI_BOUZVkGfBXnBB7Jlpt4hlOLXrhXELgoRQ6_gbc3Z6NkFvqFGNUWq2sqghTVCZPx1Xut6CojvonxB2ob/s1600/elections+municpales.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yesterday (Sunday 24th March) was the national French Municipal Elections, which take place every 6 years and appoint municipal counsellors to run their commune through the 'conseil municipal'. The Mayor is then elected from within the majority group.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of my chalet guests were quite interested to know how this might affect Bourg St Maurice and the future of Les Arcs, so I have broken my promise to myself not to write about local politics (apparently I sound too negative, some say!) and explain the results of the elections here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But first, a quick explanation of how this part of the electoral system works: </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The number of councillors is set according to the number of electors in the commune. Bourg St Maurice has 5092 and the council has 29 places. In communes of over 1000 electors the candidates are allowed present themselves as 'listes', which are like political parties but not necessarily aligned with the national parties. A kind of proportional representation system is used, whereby unless one 'list' gets more than 50% of the vote there is a second round, with any 'list' gaining less than 10% of the vote being automatically excluded. Electors are only now allowed to vote for candidates from one list (the practice of '</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">panachage</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">', picking random candidates from any list has been controversially banned since the last election). Once the second round has taken place, the councillors are appointed in proportion the size of the vote gained by their 'list'. It sounds complicated, and it is! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So here in Bourg there have been 4 lists fighting it out. The gap between the first three is very narrow, and the fourth got more than 10%, so the second round will be a re-run of the first unless one of the lists pulls out or joins forces with another.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyjtd30uxwHr0yGF-Cfx34AoSubc7eaSg2fz3LUgQAri_pByCdyIheHdm8D2MkKMr1U5YhBCUmVdoEKogeAjpi6aernJAX6vGrUmcCYb2HqAxMiPZW2k5xerRatx3RuR7xeRb4froJM2zh/s1600/co_73054_69_resultat_geolocalise_bourg_saint_maurice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyjtd30uxwHr0yGF-Cfx34AoSubc7eaSg2fz3LUgQAri_pByCdyIheHdm8D2MkKMr1U5YhBCUmVdoEKogeAjpi6aernJAX6vGrUmcCYb2HqAxMiPZW2k5xerRatx3RuR7xeRb4froJM2zh/s1600/co_73054_69_resultat_geolocalise_bourg_saint_maurice.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Which one will be the next mayor of Bourg St Maurice?</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In first place was the 'ruling party', <span class="liste" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.agirdanslacontinuite.fr/" target="_blank">Agir dans la continuité</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;">(Action through continuity, right of centre), headed by Michel Giraudy (he has serious background in ski resort and tourism managment), with 911 (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; text-align: right;">30,97%) of the votes. This list includes Mde. Poletti, who has been mayor since 2011 and collapse of the previously elected adminstration headed by pisteur Damien Perry). The list contains experienced and focussed individuals, many being already councillors including Claudie Blanc-Eberhert, daughter of Robert Blanc.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; text-align: right;">In second place, but only just, was</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666; text-align: right;"> </span><span style="color: #666666;"><a href="http://groupelouisgarnier.over-blog.com/" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Trait d'Union</a> (Link)</span><span style="color: #666666; font-weight: bold;">, </span><span style="color: #666666;">led by retired hairdresser Louis Garnier. Predictably, many of list are shop owners in Bourg, but there doesn't seem to me to much representation from 'the mountain' and certainly no exciting policies in his manifesto. They got 53 voted fewer than <b>Agir</b>, with 29.16% (858 votes).</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Third place was taken by Eric Minoret's list, <b><a href="http://ericminoret2014.canalblog.com/pages/eric-minoret/29169055.html" target="_blank">Servir Ensemble pour construire Demain</a></b> (Serving together to build tomorrow). They got 821 votes (27.91%), narrowing the gap still further. This list seems to have a large number of retired people on it, even though at 52 Minoret is the youngest 'tete de liste'. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #666666;">Finally, with 352 votes (11.96%) comes ex-teacher Roger Pugin and his </span></span><span style="color: #666666;"><b><a href="http://www.rogerpugin.com/" target="_blank">Mieux vivre à Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs Hauteville-Gondon</a></b> (A better life in Bourg St Maurice and Hauteville-Gondon). Roger appears to be focussed on the town and surrounding villages, perhaps as he comes from an agricultural family. Parking and better law enforcement are favourite themes.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK69hvQNjSYsubqS6KkdGNNgaEwzQ_Ea2A8VtYBPx7h9lYZKvV6HaXFyH8cqiS_6Dioykl5coQddLeXatn2JlTMoDvYDP9Y__pVKN3RUKd4NdAA27ii-z-nPoksZJ5PyAlgIPW54q-cGCk/s1600/bonneval.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK69hvQNjSYsubqS6KkdGNNgaEwzQ_Ea2A8VtYBPx7h9lYZKvV6HaXFyH8cqiS_6Dioykl5coQddLeXatn2JlTMoDvYDP9Y__pVKN3RUKd4NdAA27ii-z-nPoksZJ5PyAlgIPW54q-cGCk/s1600/bonneval.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muddying the issues: Source of Eau de Bonneval</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #666666;">Frankly, I think there's a lack of inspiration and an absence of a vision for the future in all the lists' manifestos. People who don't know about Bourg politics find it astonishing that Car Parking is such a big issue, while vital issues like the future of the old barracks (now called the 'Quartier des Alpins') hardly get a mention. For example: two of the 'lists' want to revive the recently abandoned plans for a mineral water bottling factory under the station (<a href="http://lesarcs.typepad.fr/arc1800/2012/01/et-l%C3%A0-coule-la-source-de-bonneval-les-bains-commune-de-bourg-saint-maurice-savoie-notice-historique-les-eaux-therm.html" target="_blank">Eau de Bonneval</a>), the idea being the the picture of Bourg on the label will encourage people to visit the town in the summer....</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;">The <b>Agir </b>list have given a detailed table of achievements, failings and aspirations in their manifesto which does make them stand out as the only group with any good ideas and a real understanding of the importance of Les Arcs to the commune (not least 2500 jobs created). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;">Buried in there is something that caught my eye and could be a really exciting and tangible link between Les Arcs and the town: between now and 2016 <b>Agir </b>wants to study the possibility of building a<b> 'Luge d'éte' </b>(Tobbagan track) from Arc 1600 to the town . What a brilliant idea, 1000 vertical meters over 3 km, with the funicular used as uplift. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7hyvDMo_ONgALT1PAYp3qdF8C6EOUVKpLws6gDOCblQOMgez4dHe7pmP7dwd_rdfusDA_NMD_D3327YNYLH6ZxG2is8O9r7Lqeg2gMiffKAJJNwFUnUfD75bLcewzIK0BSGPqnH_X46i/s1600/luge+dete.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7hyvDMo_ONgALT1PAYp3qdF8C6EOUVKpLws6gDOCblQOMgez4dHe7pmP7dwd_rdfusDA_NMD_D3327YNYLH6ZxG2is8O9r7Lqeg2gMiffKAJJNwFUnUfD75bLcewzIK0BSGPqnH_X46i/s1600/luge+dete.jpg" height="260" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luge d'eté: Morzine can do it, so can Bourg!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;">Great for the summer market, but what about at the same time re-instating the old 'Piste de Bouleaux', the trace of which is still skiable from Les Granges to Montrigon and down to Bourg via the little <i>oratoire </i>of Our Lady of Good Hope and back to the funicular (the road bridges at La Ville and Montrigon were removed in the 1980s). The snow holds well enough on that pitch of the mountain, and with a snow-making network (water from the Isere) it could make Bourg a real 'ski in' resort for most of the season (you can already often ski down in January and February). Why not widen the new piste out as it crosses the river for demonstration events and competitions? It would certainly help revitalise the rather desolate area around the funicular, with new bars, restaurants and shops. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-B8y96l5z4y8pCrB53899yUOM4XH_b2krIlQMgoBhJAAsH8Frs7s3zjvWoXlcyE7Yii0CAoeJLhFHmbJQZ8ZxvhwJ5AmeDowSZGkqvKxGxnNfLkN_fPj8m9Zi0fGqyPs9_Yy7dmb3ild/s1600/quartier+bulle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-B8y96l5z4y8pCrB53899yUOM4XH_b2krIlQMgoBhJAAsH8Frs7s3zjvWoXlcyE7Yii0CAoeJLhFHmbJQZ8ZxvhwJ5AmeDowSZGkqvKxGxnNfLkN_fPj8m9Zi0fGqyPs9_Yy7dmb3ild/s1600/quartier+bulle.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Old barrack: costly white elephant.</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #666666;">Also, abandon the 'Quartier des Alpins', try to sell it or mothball it. The site is too big, ugly and complicated and in totally the wrong end of the town to be anything other than a costly white-elephant. Forget about mineral water, but DO get the Coeur d'Or multiscreen cinema open! Rent out the old Renoveau buildings as dirt-cheap seasonaires accommodation (no one is ever going to buy it for 6 million euros). Run the funicular and the Arcs navettes until well past midnight, so people from the resorts can spend money in the town, and people from the town can get to jobs up here... I'd stand for mayor myself but you have to be a French citizen!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;">In the past Bourg has been led out of crises by individuals with inspiration and imagination, not afraid to confront realities and with a real belief in the future. Let's hope M. Giraudy, </span><span style="color: #666666;">M. Minoret or M. Garnier provide such leadership after the second round of elections on March 30th. Vote if you can!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.ledauphine.com/politique/elections-municipales-2014-tour-1?action=TownResults&localisationkey=e168f84e-c6dc-49f4-aeb8-cee5c6eb7fe1&communekey=9d655770-6e2f-4d3d-bad2-0510bf4bc614" target="_blank">Full election statistics for Bourg St Maurice </a><br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-10843703379849517602014-03-11T22:12:00.002+01:002014-03-11T22:12:42.625+01:00Pierre Novat, inventor of the piste map: deception, deformity and truth<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MXyAj7M1j_uvo42sZ1qRkwyYoCUK88dkK91H56kFD_Nk4nYNh2AdPelb86ijAsId9f3ffy0OpBCzpcyZHRpyybIn9cHpfFoySnYs5kVrdW92vRegAA-kDL7F-z53F-sdyHozDz7W_f-h/s1600/paradiski.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7MXyAj7M1j_uvo42sZ1qRkwyYoCUK88dkK91H56kFD_Nk4nYNh2AdPelb86ijAsId9f3ffy0OpBCzpcyZHRpyybIn9cHpfFoySnYs5kVrdW92vRegAA-kDL7F-z53F-sdyHozDz7W_f-h/s1600/paradiski.jpg" height="228" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Novat's Paradiski panorama - "sharpens the skier's appetite"</td></tr>
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The piste map still occupies an important place in the paraphernalia of a skiing holiday: an object that can excite the imagination, be spread before friends to share their mountain experiences and become a lasting souvenir of a wonderful skiing holiday. I don't think any amount of 'apps' and websites will ever replace the paper piste map - a communal item rather than an individualised experience.<br />
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The local Savoie paper, <i>Le Dauphiné</i>, carried and<a href="http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2014/03/10/pierre-novat-l-art-du-faux-pour-faire-plus-vrai" target="_blank"> interesting article yesterday</a> about the man who invented the piste map, Pierre Novat. Before that they were really just one dimensional diagrams rather than the elaborate 'virtual reality' effect that Novat used to bring the mountains alive on paper.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENVUa-RtruMsftahm_LbnoL7j-DKIEVgJYUzUpRmVZJY2IQcjnhD5y557tj6PQuXnuCMZZ-bDPqqpq7REQ0rO3WlGhMKF4pPmx9ab_QY6P72704yqUaeF2eRTs4jskcsywiWwObZaWfG8/s1600/pierre+novat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgENVUa-RtruMsftahm_LbnoL7j-DKIEVgJYUzUpRmVZJY2IQcjnhD5y557tj6PQuXnuCMZZ-bDPqqpq7REQ0rO3WlGhMKF4pPmx9ab_QY6P72704yqUaeF2eRTs4jskcsywiWwObZaWfG8/s1600/pierre+novat.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pierre Novat: truth through deception</td></tr>
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Pierre Novat came from Lyon, studied interior design and fine art, and was a passionate skier. It was while spending a season in Val d'Isere in 1961 that got himself the job of drawing the first piste map to include the newly built resort of Tignes. <br />
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He looked hard at the topology of the mountains and valleys before tracing the new pistes and lifts, and played freely with perspective to achieve his hallmark two-dimensional effect. And the maps were incredibly detailed "down to the smallest chalet", his daughter Frederique is quoted as saying, "he had no hesitation in deforming a mountain so that you could see behind it. It's all false, but it's also all true". <br />
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Novat wanted the skier to be able to visualise a piste in the context of the whole sector, valley or mountain. He was interested in showing the relationship between things rather their actual nature, echoing the structuralist philosophies of Levi-Strauss, Sassure and Jakobsen that were in vogue at the time. Novat had formidable intuition and <i>savoir-faire</i>, and made it possible for anyone to immediately 'read' the resorts' mountains and pistes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-czZ2v034Uywscq5nR7Jv68qZLKAlAPU8lP0y-KE74cGtR6HlXEe7dDFn1HYgqNmXH1DtM_Avf8ZaofhOD8Ib5yTZYmEGQGT_d5pLB_6Gt-Qn7gQduiD8Y-PHWBnMIOEQWA_HpJCxNlWw/s1600/fred+novat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-czZ2v034Uywscq5nR7Jv68qZLKAlAPU8lP0y-KE74cGtR6HlXEe7dDFn1HYgqNmXH1DtM_Avf8ZaofhOD8Ib5yTZYmEGQGT_d5pLB_6Gt-Qn7gQduiD8Y-PHWBnMIOEQWA_HpJCxNlWw/s1600/fred+novat.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frederique Novat at work</td></tr>
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Novat's work at Tignes-Val d'Isere impressed Courchevel's resort director Jean Cattelin, and he was asked to create a map of the 'Trois Valleés', a dauntingly large and complex terrain even then.<br />
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Over the next 35 years Novat created over 250 piste maps, covering most of the France's burgeoning ski areas. When he died in 2007 his work was taken over by his children Arthur and Frederique, now working under the auspices of the 'Atelier Pierre Novat, Panoramistes'. They produce three or four new maps a year, always starting by over-flying the area in a helicopter to get a feel for the topology. Then the first sketches are made using coloured crayons on tracing paper. Then comes a painstaking process of adding details and skewing, stretching and deforming the image to get the notorious 'Novat' style. At every stage the design is checked the the commisioning ski resort, as it would be impossible to undo these radical modifications of reality once formed on paper.<br />
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Novat's greatest project was the huge panoramic map showing, in detail, all the resorts in Savoie involved in the 1992 Albertville Winter Olypmics, now a collector's item.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMvN6exwoPKsrUFDi6anxrX424P794X52oiF_r0IWIlalXOfhl8IiwnRnEnWan68SZ_mjjUzVUgyJ8OwiADL0ZZhrTncYRhKlyeKDn1f6QK3bPwzNtBwtmj1gRpVI2DyjW1pz-rJQxwnVj/s1600/286639_exposition-georges-braque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMvN6exwoPKsrUFDi6anxrX424P794X52oiF_r0IWIlalXOfhl8IiwnRnEnWan68SZ_mjjUzVUgyJ8OwiADL0ZZhrTncYRhKlyeKDn1f6QK3bPwzNtBwtmj1gRpVI2DyjW1pz-rJQxwnVj/s1600/286639_exposition-georges-braque.jpg" height="265" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: start;">Braque - Le Port de l'Estaque</span></td></tr>
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Novat regarded himself as an artist (he also painted) , not a cartographer, and admired greatly the work of the cubist painter Georges Braque who was also played with perspective and proportion to stunning effect.<br />
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Like all great artist Novat shows us that imagination and flair count for more in the eyes of the viewer than accuracy and pedanticsm. Novat interpreted the mountains for us, made them readable, in the same we a great artist like Braque decodes the world we live in through shape, colour and contrast.<br />
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There is currently an exhibition on in La Plagne (Salle des Omnisports in Plagne Centre) with over 60 of Novat's canvases on display. If you can't make that, have a look at this diaporama of Novat's work.<a href="http://tropfragile.free.fr/galerie/Photos.html#grid" target="_blank"> http://tropfragile.free.fr/galerie/Photos.html#grid</a><br />
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A book has also been published recently with many examples and explanations of Novat's work.<a href="http://montagne.glenatlivres.com/livre/plans-des-pistes-9782723495431.htm" target="_blank"> Plan des Pistes is published by Glénat Livres</a>. I'm hoping if my wife reads this she'll buy it for my birthday! Please buy it direct from the publishers, not from Amazon.<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-15412702461959270872014-03-10T20:29:00.000+01:002014-03-11T12:44:29.225+01:00Arc 1800: The Dawn of a New Area?<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Lovely day on the mountain today: glorious sunshine and plenty of snow everywhere after the blizzard conditions at the beginning of the week. Everything is open, even the mythical 'hidden piste' from 1600 to Les Granges (properly called <i> Violettes</i>). A clue for finding the start of it: don't miss the bottle banks behind the Arpette Restuarant!</div>
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There's an almost feverish level of excitement at the ADS (Les Arcs lift company) over the newly announced plans for the redevelopment of the Charvet/Chantel area of Arc 1800. In fact a number of the main planks of the project were planned and announced some time ago, but the ADS is putting a bit of a spin on the whole thing and calling it '<b>The Dawn of A New Area</b>' which I thinks quite a clever pun compared to there normal rather flat-footed attempts at translation.</div>
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For me Arc 1800 has always been the most unsatisfactory part of the Arcs resorts. It is sprawling and unfocussed, like a kind 1960s new town ribbon development, with no real centre or character. The 'fingers of the glove' theory behind it, where you move between discrete areas of different activities (skiers, pedestrians, shops, trees, etc) fails here; in effect you have a highly inconvenient layout, with all the lifts bunched at one end. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheVYj0eaKt99NLy93SgIZHytqo2QR9HAqLAzv_8BkO7go6EDkgxSwRqWNqVAmU1_968Sx0xLRJtE6LyIiXco51HaA3dmUqL16bITvA1S5gaWyYfC4pt0egxBLqdXD_gy4hdZEouEL67d-2/s1600/1800+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheVYj0eaKt99NLy93SgIZHytqo2QR9HAqLAzv_8BkO7go6EDkgxSwRqWNqVAmU1_968Sx0xLRJtE6LyIiXco51HaA3dmUqL16bITvA1S5gaWyYfC4pt0egxBLqdXD_gy4hdZEouEL67d-2/s1600/1800+front.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big drop to the front de neige!</td></tr>
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But surely the worst feature (in my opinion one of the '<i>5 greatest architectural failures of Les Arcs</i>') is the steep slope between the shops, restaurants, childrens' play area and ski schools along front of the Villards area and the Vagère, Chantel and Villard lifts and ski school meeting area (and the location of the TransArc isn't much better). It's no fun trying to coax a handful of children 100m up a 50% icy slope to get to their lessons, and its a tiring trudge for most adults trying to get back up after a spot of lunch or a cup of coffee in one of the many cafés and restuarants. Surely it wouldn't have been that difficult to create a level <i>'front de neige'</i> back in 1974 when Arc 1800 was built!<br />
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The new developments in the Chantel area ( a large flatish area above the Charvet area) have already created hundreds of new beds in this highly overcrowded zone (you should have seen the queues for Vagère last week!), and more development is planned there. </div>
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So the <b>Dawn of a New Area</b> scheme will be a welcome and logical step towards making Arc 1800 more coherent and 'better suited to the expectations of the clients', to quote the ADS. The main points are:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfbFIApsMtJFBH__x02QT4CWmTuTpfELICLFTyqvofomz8k4kTJK2ddpUDwBZN7cnHg9b34w3CQulB9JIDdjexCNuJmzCIV1CKWw2EAxk1bN8GrE6KLLJ4XiSTL0_dUQx-_XxdDs-OrVM/s1600/la-nouvelle-piscine-d-arc-1800-devrait-ouvrir-en-decembre-2014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfbFIApsMtJFBH__x02QT4CWmTuTpfELICLFTyqvofomz8k4kTJK2ddpUDwBZN7cnHg9b34w3CQulB9JIDdjexCNuJmzCIV1CKWw2EAxk1bN8GrE6KLLJ4XiSTL0_dUQx-_XxdDs-OrVM/s1600/la-nouvelle-piscine-d-arc-1800-devrait-ouvrir-en-decembre-2014.jpg" height="135" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Espace Aqualudique</td></tr>
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<li>Redevelopment of the swimming pool next to Vagère into an <i>Espace Aqualudique</i>, adding a large enclosed pool with artificial waterfalls, caverns and flumes to the existing outdoor pool. There will also be a sauna, jacuzzi, massage tables and an underground access passage from Villards. There's also a plan for some kind of 'people mover' from Vagère, but I can't quite see the logic of that (swimming in ski-boots?). Definitely going ahead, will open in December 2014.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Dismantling of the exisiting Chantel (hooray!) and Villards lift, to be replaced by a new funicular-type system to carry people up to Chantel, to be called 'Le Dahu', apparently modelled on the Cabriolet lift between Arc 1950 and 2000. A new gondola (telécabine) will replace Villards, and this too will be built before next season. That really should take some of the strain off TransArc and Vagère.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Between Chantel and Villards/Charvet various zones will be developed for toboganing, beginners ski area, tubing, children's playground etc. Later they plan to construct a restaurant complex there as well, but that seems all a bit vague at present.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The icing on the cake: a brand new 6 person chairlift from Chantel (top of the new Dahu lift) to the Col de Frettes (to be called Carroley, as the old lift of that name will be taken out), which will give quick access to 2000 and 1600 (and a better route to the SnowPark). This is slated for completion on 2015, but as its going to be funded in part by the commune of Bourg St Maurice it maybe affected by the outcome of municipal elections in March.</li>
</ul>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ7naPAb_l2Tqcozje_gvfnPyLMSG45FL47C7gCd0BBKp8p_krHUy6dZ-MUdgrAer5lUEd-PJWDJJXhPQSeG9DbQC9B0nINRgAX1FCVpRIxviuvoELpWC5gsUnrPd9GMQ7rFq87Az6mgiM/s1600/alpage+de+charvet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ7naPAb_l2Tqcozje_gvfnPyLMSG45FL47C7gCd0BBKp8p_krHUy6dZ-MUdgrAer5lUEd-PJWDJJXhPQSeG9DbQC9B0nINRgAX1FCVpRIxviuvoELpWC5gsUnrPd9GMQ7rFq87Az6mgiM/s1600/alpage+de+charvet.jpg" height="131" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of new Charvet development</td></tr>
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Building on the 'Alpage de Charvet' was always part of the Les Arcs master-plan, but Roger Godino (the business brain behind the resort and its first chief executive) saw the development of Chantel as the <i>grand finale </i>of the Les Arcs project:<br />
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<i>"I have seen at least 20 architectural projects for Chantel, and I threw them all in the bin (including one from Charlotte Perriand which is now in a museum!). I have never come across a worthwhile project for Chantel, and now when I see random buildings being constructed one after the other, and when I think that there's still 40,000 m2 to go (two thirds the size of Arc 1950) I say to myself, then I didn't know what to do, so I saved it for the end. How mistaken I was." </i><span style="text-align: right;">(Roger Godino, 2009, quoted in </span><i style="text-align: right;">Reve de Bergers</i><span style="text-align: right;"> by Claudie Eberhart-Blanc).</span></div>
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Let's hope this 60 million euro investment proves Godino wrong, and that the result will make Arc 1800 and more attractive, better organised and less crowded resort, and truly and new area will dawn.<br />
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The ADS flyer (in french): <a href="http://mespagesamoi.free.fr/Documents/ADS_Reamenagement%20site%20Chantel.pdf" target="_blank"> <span style="text-align: center;">http://mespagesamoi.free.fr/Documents/ADS_Reamenagement%20site%20Chantel.pdf</span></a></div>
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-60455047309109110532014-02-21T18:44:00.001+01:002014-02-21T18:49:22.803+01:00Les Arcs, l'espirit pionner: review of seminal new documentary film<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11iu2p_les-arcs-l-esprit-pionnier-la-bande-annonce_travel" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt=" Click to see trailer" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7qd-Vhu1vD43RU0NCh3BnOra9WmxeXxzNU79tHSvelOj2pEo6uN5CnvVqovmYi9N0lcKxMCUe3SMR8b-ny1hmaeJep7ydF2235eHSgZFq0rpEKfH7orfEm3eTviotVSNCju0uQFEvcDM/s1600/pioneers+dvd_.jpg" height="320" width="222" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click the image for trailer...</td></tr>
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Anyone who's at all interested in Les Arcs and how if came to be here must see this excellent new DVD, <b>Les Arcs, the pioneering spirit. </b> This 2013 production (with english subtitles) by Sophie Bosquet and Guillame Calop takes the form of interviews with many of the still-surviving pioneers, coupled with astonishing and highly entertaining contemporaneous film/video clips.<br />
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Roger Godino (his french is very easy to follow) carefully and clearly explains the challenges faced by the new project, from bringing about the 'fusion' of Bourg St Maurice and Hauteville-Gondon (one had the land, the other the financial clout) to the painful process of expropriation whereby 300 land owners were relieved of their chalets and <i>montagnettes </i>in return for tiny amounts of money.<br />
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Sadly Godino's principal co-pioneer <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11iu2p_les-arcs-l-esprit-pionnier-la-bande-annonce_travel" target="_blank">Robert Blanc was killed in 1980</a>, but the glowing personality of his brother Yvon and some charming film footage (see him ski in powder - brilliant) make his presence felt throughout the production. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimncQJ6_PkJx5l8JhFJIOzpghKtBbnRyiVX7h6vFqg2Es5e0cYuLGMx4baBB_Xr_RHCHYmSuem7dVRISewInG-ODiFd-55G4n1U1KGvkgX9kLgoQu-lPo6_ejZnd93BVonyGJePMYiLFAV/s1600/2012-02-11-Les-Arcs-a-l-epoque-des-pionniers-08.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimncQJ6_PkJx5l8JhFJIOzpghKtBbnRyiVX7h6vFqg2Es5e0cYuLGMx4baBB_Xr_RHCHYmSuem7dVRISewInG-ODiFd-55G4n1U1KGvkgX9kLgoQu-lPo6_ejZnd93BVonyGJePMYiLFAV/s1600/2012-02-11-Les-Arcs-a-l-epoque-des-pionniers-08.png" height="112" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Blanc 1933 - 1980</td></tr>
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Godino also clarifies the frequently misunderstood concept of 'total integration' whereby the resort should have control of every aspect of its exploitation, from the lifts and hotels to the bars and grocery shops. Profitable activities like ski hire would in effect subsidise loss-making operations like the lifts themselves, the original provision of which was deliberately over-scaled in relation to the number of beds (5000 at opening) in order to allow constant expansion toward the planned 40,000 beds to be spread between the 1600 and the future resorts of 1800 and 2000. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosazgY9NXM0oj6rqGjizrHbgK58-_mi62OQh-XzXXG2Qwh6cqXRLjC9WYKGuu678a9BGM9yMzwLHrmoLN3BMUEkwvtGcthpMCNalsLcXdJSie0Ztq_Jbrjp1DZ38dgLjJbOIWOBSUI-rs/s1600/taillfer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosazgY9NXM0oj6rqGjizrHbgK58-_mi62OQh-XzXXG2Qwh6cqXRLjC9WYKGuu678a9BGM9yMzwLHrmoLN3BMUEkwvtGcthpMCNalsLcXdJSie0Ztq_Jbrjp1DZ38dgLjJbOIWOBSUI-rs/s1600/taillfer.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bernard Taillfer building Arc 1800</td></tr>
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Gaston Regauirez narrates the astonishing architectural tale, and the involvement of the luminary Charlotte Perriand and local carpenter Bernard Taillefer (both appear in the film). The huge intellectual, creative and financial effort required to turn virgin forests and fields into a world class ski resort is clearly charted. The determination and utter commitments of the pioneers comes across and nicely balanced by their tremendous sense of enjoyment and passion for the environment they were working in. Plus their love for the white stuff, of course!<br />
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The fun and fizz of this film is infectious, and for one made me long to go back in time and to join the red-pullovered moniteurs as they leap (on skis) one after the other in the Cuopole swimming pool! The cameo appearance of Elizabeth Chenal at the start of the film, with the words 'Nature is beautiful!' as she emerges from her home, the only surviving 'original' chalet on the pistes, is a touching reminder of the roots of Les Arcs and Blanc's origins as a simple shepherd.<br />
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The disc contains many 'bonus' items, including a selection of hilarious 1970s publicity films for Les Arcs, and a set of interviews with other key players in birth of the resort. Fascinating stuff for anyone who can follow the french and wants to know more about the antecedent 'Courbaton 1750' ski area and how that might have developed instead of the Arcs.<br />
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Apart from some badly-written english subtitles (and a few fairly elementary translation mistakes) this is a first class publication; no <i>Acardien </i>or <i>Arcadienne </i>should miss it!<br />
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Available from many shops in Les Arcs and Bourg St Maurice,or from <a href="http://www.amazon.fr/Arcs-lesprit-pionnier-Roger-Godino/dp/B00DQ86JL2/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393004633&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=les+arcs+espirit" target="_blank">Amazon</a>.<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-89097364211996211162014-02-17T20:54:00.001+01:002014-02-17T22:35:41.748+01:00From the Sony Walkman to the Pistenbully 600-E; 30 years of piste-bashing history <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3LhqL5ixfy56oHIwt6DT_Xu9v6kgS4M1049l-dnwNf_87_g5e4gQxrrRyB2pB6FQ5FauhLepvpjSX7Hke3qK-_HKHusNcwxcZLonuuDrWlhJ7boctroISoeG0yqgyyiNmb0CzoblF4UE/s1600/1798752_463250683786996_1014515397_n%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3LhqL5ixfy56oHIwt6DT_Xu9v6kgS4M1049l-dnwNf_87_g5e4gQxrrRyB2pB6FQ5FauhLepvpjSX7Hke3qK-_HKHusNcwxcZLonuuDrWlhJ7boctroISoeG0yqgyyiNmb0CzoblF4UE/s1600/1798752_463250683786996_1014515397_n%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a></div>
I went out for a ski this afternoon - brilliant sunshine after 24 hours of snowfall, and a few hours on the mountain were obligatory for everyone. But although it wasn't too crowded for half-term I could see that a lot of younger and less experienced skiers were struggling with the mix of loose bumps and scraped hard-packed bits on almost all the pistes, even relatively flat blue runs. What seems to have happened is that the snow had continued to fall even after the pistes have been <i>damées </i>or 'bashed' last night.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsSuOqZ2-b46JHtoEU9bPw8WVFxVVN0TL_eM4zjBtUu3n2DlnH5ghtSG4x2aQeH3BI6LjmVr5Xi6SuS6nS_zPDlxn8rC38xio3PvesWKo0lAbPeKZe9MgEbYS5vlbNJ_bl56y3cT0ggaO/s1600/sony-walkman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsSuOqZ2-b46JHtoEU9bPw8WVFxVVN0TL_eM4zjBtUu3n2DlnH5ghtSG4x2aQeH3BI6LjmVr5Xi6SuS6nS_zPDlxn8rC38xio3PvesWKo0lAbPeKZe9MgEbYS5vlbNJ_bl56y3cT0ggaO/s1600/sony-walkman.jpg" height="191" width="200" /></a></div>
Some of the guests were wondering why they hadn't re-done the pistes during the day, and I found myself reminded of the that 1980s wonder the Sony Walkman. For those too young to remember, this was a compact, portable music cassette player with headphones, and was the fore-runner of the Discman, the Ipod and other digital music players now largely usurped by the Smartphone. Before this personal music device existed it was common to see, and hear, powerful <i>dameurs </i>(piste bashers) at work at all times during the skiing day, even on open and crowded pistes. But soon a string of nasty, sometimes fatal accidents caused by skiiers not hearing the approaching <i>engins </i>because of their Sony Walkmans blasting Dire Straights and Kate Bush straight into their ear-holes was to change all this.<br />
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I remember one such tragic incident in Meribel in the early 1990s, involving an ESF instructor relaxing with his music after finishing an afternoon of teaching. The <i>dameuse </i>was left in position, surrounded by police tape, for several months until the judicial enquiry was completed. It also became a kind of monument in the resort to a new and potentially dangerous phenomenon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5cX4DlQSAVzyzwWH2qBnf3ATEfw_pBF4CzBtM0PUPUt7BZHdtmKdpwb-vsvmbbqH2pACdFI3LfZRlNnZgVo_04LB5ayFa8LeepaeVhr88psxFXXVVEYMnBx1UTqBspu3dq5op2_Gf-DFp/s1600/piste+bashers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5cX4DlQSAVzyzwWH2qBnf3ATEfw_pBF4CzBtM0PUPUt7BZHdtmKdpwb-vsvmbbqH2pACdFI3LfZRlNnZgVo_04LB5ayFa8LeepaeVhr88psxFXXVVEYMnBx1UTqBspu3dq5op2_Gf-DFp/s1600/piste+bashers.jpg" height="126" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No longer seen....</td></tr>
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It was therefore only a matter of time before the all the rules changed, and normally piste grooming now only takes place at night and in the early morning, while the pistes are closed to skiers. Here are at Les Arcs the <i>dameurs </i>work in two shifts, from 4 - 12 pm and 12pm - 6am. With the advent of nocturnal grooming, the design of the machines themselves changed and developed. It was also around this time that environmental issues rose to the top of ski resorts' agendas, so the noise, pollution and ground damage became an issue.<br />
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Various new technologies have been introduced to make the machines safer and more eco-friendly. About 10 years ago Les Arcs proudly announced that it was from then on only going to use biodegradable fuel and engine oils. GPS navigation systems started to be employed to guide the machines more accurately (they often work in pairs or even trios), so they don't wastefully go over the same bit more than once. With night usage it was important that noise was reduced, and the many powerful spot lights needed could be controlled and focussed away from nearby chalet bedroom windows. The cabs are luxurious, with sprung seats, music and communication systems, computer controlled heating and air-conditioning, 360 degree view windows and TV monitors for the rear view.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTuPh9T55npMAW6ACdal4qAfQjlEzDJwYtXBLJdMjOds3xtsyo9Dd5oz6xJHXhyphenhyphenI58P1er371-c8NgCCj_DSTqpHF4ZR2Xg9hyLx7dFdo3YD_45JDrPpSgdRgxG3ZtJdBDgJYlMn-jyde/s1600/600e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTuPh9T55npMAW6ACdal4qAfQjlEzDJwYtXBLJdMjOds3xtsyo9Dd5oz6xJHXhyphenhyphenI58P1er371-c8NgCCj_DSTqpHF4ZR2Xg9hyLx7dFdo3YD_45JDrPpSgdRgxG3ZtJdBDgJYlMn-jyde/s1600/600e.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PistenBully 600e</td></tr>
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The latest incarnation of the modern piste basher is the<a href="http://www.pistenbully.com/en/products/pistenbully-600/e.html" target="_blank"> PistenBully 600-E</a>, the first ever diesel-electric hybrid which, the manufactures claim, uses 20% less fuel, creates 20% less pollution (including noise) and 99% less diesel particulates. It does this by using its 12 litre Mercedes-Benz diesel engine to produce electricity to power its motors rather producing direct motive power. This means the engine can run at optimum speed (no revving up and down!) and on the down-hill sections it actually generates electricity from gravity to power its various attachments and devices. These include the 'tiller', which lays down those nice corduroy stripes on the snow for you to smudge first thing in the morning! Obviously it's an expensive item (about €250,000 euros) but the 600-E is already in use in Courchevel and Alpe d'Huez, and I doubt it will be long before Les Arcs gets it's hands on one (the ADS announced last November it was investing 150 million euros in Les Arcs over the next 10 years, so they should be able to afford a couple at least...<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7nVuI7EuQHIpY53o5OZKUhY0Pauh3ESobdwTdMlxJgNQ6hjDu19uDYXeh76wMNTS5d5P58LYB89SPcFwoDXbUuOZMHhmzJTbnRmq2q9RmI045HfBfgfBC8N2FGwSR4qQrTu3IJgvgaOL/s1600/558111_10152637725585118_1311857939_n%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ7nVuI7EuQHIpY53o5OZKUhY0Pauh3ESobdwTdMlxJgNQ6hjDu19uDYXeh76wMNTS5d5P58LYB89SPcFwoDXbUuOZMHhmzJTbnRmq2q9RmI045HfBfgfBC8N2FGwSR4qQrTu3IJgvgaOL/s1600/558111_10152637725585118_1311857939_n%5B1%5D.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karen, Jessica, Tommy and Alice getting ready for work</td></tr>
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As a family we are fortunate to be friends with Les Arcs only female <i>chauffeuse de dameuse, </i>who kindly allowed my wife and children to sit in on the grooming of the <i>Mont Blanc</i> piste last season. It was the highlight of their year! The pictures were amazing, seeing the Deux Tetes in the setting sun...<br />
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However, although things are safer than ever on the <i>pistes de ski</i>, accidents to still happen although rarely. In March 2012 two children <a href="http://alpes.france3.fr/info/deux-enfants-percutent-une-dameuse--l-enquete-72775989.html" target="_blank">collided with a </a><i><a href="http://alpes.france3.fr/info/deux-enfants-percutent-une-dameuse--l-enquete-72775989.html" target="_blank">dameuse</a> </i>in Les Gets and were seriously injured (but survived OK). They were tobogganing on a piste after closing time, on the first day of their holiday. The driver was arrested and found to be slightly below the car driving alcohol limit, but sadly it was the parents who were to blame for allowing their children to play out-of-hours on the piste. I've noticed at Les Arcs more visible warning signs have been erected at the foot of the pistes warning people of this danger, but <i>don't ever allow your children to do that, parents!</i><br />
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You can have a go at driving a <i>dameuse </i>yourself at La Plagne - €60 euros for half an hour or 10 minutes for €20 euros for children. <a href="http://www.la-plagne.com/en/winter/guide/activities/the-unsual/snow-grooming-machine-186806.html" target="_blank">Click here for details</a>, but best to leave your Walkman at home....<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-62732848787464281202014-02-05T21:49:00.001+01:002014-02-06T07:23:16.333+01:00Skiing and faith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benediction of the skis</td></tr>
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Today, St Agathe's day, sees a remarkable village festival taking place at Montchavin, the northern-most village of the La Plagne ski area. Even the smallest of the Tarentaise villages has a chapel, or <i>oratoire</i>; here in Les Granges we have a tiny baroque chapel dedicated to St Blaise, patron saint of barbers!. The annual patronal festival would be an opportunity for the hard-pressed villagers to let their hair down and enjoy some of the fruits of their arduous labours.<br />
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When winter sports started taking over from agriculture in Montchavin in the 1930s the locals (luckily their saints' day fell in the middle of the winter season!) used the occasion to raise money from the tourists for a hardship fund for sick or injured ski instructors. This tradition continues, and today there will be ski displays, a torch-lit descent, fireworks and of course the customary giant tartiflette. The celebrations will however be preceded by the moving 'Benediction of the Skis', given by the Abbé Petit, with prayers for safety, courage, humility and plenty of snow!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ski benediction at Les Avanchers</td></tr>
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Similar Christian rituals of blessing are not unusual in Savoie. A similar event which began in 1934 in Les Avanchers, the village from which grew the resort of Valmorel, attracted people from all over the valley. Many priests were quite progressive in embracing the new skiing industry as an alternative to the dying agricultural economies which their flocks were deserting for<i> les grands villes. </i>The 7 days-a-week nature of the new tourist activities made it difficult for those involved to attend Mass regularly. Priests had to become more flexible with the timetables and location of their services, as few of the new wave of purpose-built resorts had chapels. The <i>Cupole </i>building at Arc 1600 was built partly with this function in mind, and services continue to be held there every week.<br />
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A defrocked priest, L'Abbé Borrel was however on of the most bitter opponents of Les Arcs in the 1960s. He formed a vocal opposition group in Bourg St Maurice that did everything it could to undermine Blanc and Godino's plans for the new ski area. The basis of his objection was that there was no way the town could raise the money to build it and it would become and abandoned white elephant! Perhaps his motivation was also to do with his ownership of a small building within what was to become Arc 1600 (bequeathed to him a member of his congregation). It was one of the first to be compulsorily-purchased, and turned later into the base for the Les Arcs ski club (Still is today). A touch of spite perhaps on the part of Roger Godino, perhaps annoyed that Abbé Borrel's supporters tried blow up his office in Bourg with dynamite!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7yxAnFkp5d91YsIlsfpbFvJNaYyNq6vCRNEEE8BvPcSMMlSLj0AU4RV61SpKGmlWd_wEVDoOBfEcK-0H8YR4AziqHix-ZF8z0tpha41nPYq1nRmI0cozpzXU8W3O0dwd5uUA6N-xsuK2V/s1600/chapelle+st+espirit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7yxAnFkp5d91YsIlsfpbFvJNaYyNq6vCRNEEE8BvPcSMMlSLj0AU4RV61SpKGmlWd_wEVDoOBfEcK-0H8YR4AziqHix-ZF8z0tpha41nPYq1nRmI0cozpzXU8W3O0dwd5uUA6N-xsuK2V/s1600/chapelle+st+espirit.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chapel of St Esprit under construction, Arc 1800</td></tr>
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Robert Blanc himself was a committed catholic and church-goer. In 1979, shortly before his death, he told his daughter Claudie that there was still one more thing to do in Les Arcs, and that was to build a chapel. She and others have been campaigning and fund-raising (including donating the proceed of her book, <i>Reve de Bergers</i>, mentioned in previous blog) for several years to fullfil his wish. <a href="http://www.chapellelesarcs.fr/" target="_blank">La Chapelle du Saint Espirit</a> is being built by the pedestrian path between 1600 and 1800, with stunning contributions from local artists and artisans.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdut06QqLucqcP5C7xptVqDFHtZ0e9rTxf1oND3rO90Wyg6SDQC8nSVk5nE8qDyEtkC18Lu9hgmLioGvm5bOXqeWebJGrN8XGrYuKkiTO077Ja4KFDx4v58ggTfrQSIIWJbsn08QDDVxsI/s1600/bernard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdut06QqLucqcP5C7xptVqDFHtZ0e9rTxf1oND3rO90Wyg6SDQC8nSVk5nE8qDyEtkC18Lu9hgmLioGvm5bOXqeWebJGrN8XGrYuKkiTO077Ja4KFDx4v58ggTfrQSIIWJbsn08QDDVxsI/s1600/bernard.jpg" height="200" width="145" /></a>From the elevated site of the new chapel there are wonderful views of the massif de Beaufortain, the Haute-Tarentaise and north to St. Bernard pass and the Italian border. St Bernard of Menthon established a monastic order high above the valley in the 11th century to aid pilgrims heading for Rome and other travellers crossing the wild and dangerous high-mountain plateau. The famous St Bernard dogs were trained by the saint and his monks to deliver tea (not rum or brandy!) to those lost or stranded, and to guide them back to the safety of the monastery. The last eight monks finally left about 10 years ago, and today the building is museum. St Bernard is the patron saint of skiing and snowboarding, for as bishop of Lombardia he would use skis and sledges to visit the isolated mountain communities within is diocese.</div>
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The Christian has faith provided great comfort and hope for the mountain communities of the past, under constant threat from natural elements which they could barely comprehend. Science and human progress have largely vitiated the need for simple faith, but these magnificent mountains we inhabit constantly remind me that there's another dimension to our existence which perhaps only a belief in higher things can begin to explain:</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span class="text Ps-121-1" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,</span></i></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Ps-121-1" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">from whence cometh my help.</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Ps-121-2" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">My help cometh from the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Ps-121-2" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">who made heaven and earth.</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text Ps-121-2" style="background-color: white; position: relative;">Psalm 121</span></span><br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-53555495222120261782014-02-04T10:31:00.001+01:002018-02-15T18:32:38.382+01:00In memoriam Robert Blanc, the man who imagined Les Arcs<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Blanc 1933 - 1980</td></tr>
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Exactly 34 years ago (4th February 1980) Robert Blanc was killed in an avalanche. He was an extraordinary man who led an extraordinary life and died in an extraordinary way.<br />
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Born into a family of shepherds, Blanc and his four brothers discovered the joys of skiing in the snowy pastures above their native village of Hauteville-Gondon. During the summers they would live out on the mountains while tending their animals, moving higher as the snow melted until they reached the tiny group of chalets in the Arc valley, nowadays occupied by the Chalets des Arcs restaurant just above Arc 2000.<br />
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After military service Robert Blanc became a ski instructor at Courchevel. Seeing the success and excitement of this shiny new post-war resort, Robert began to imagine a vast ski area spread across the valleys, forests and pastures above his home village, which which he and his brothers new so well. A chance meeting with the social entrepreneur and business guru Roger Godino (Robert taught him to ski) led to a life-long partnership between the two men, the fruit of which was Les Arcs as we know it today.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vallée de l'Arc before Les Arcs</td></tr>
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Robert had an incredible passion for skiing (he was an Olympian and made many 'first ever' extreme descents all over the world). His charismatic, motivating personality coupled with Godino's astuteness, financial prowess, political contacts and love of things new, led to their conception of a vast, integrated network of skiing infrastructure and <i>avant-garde</i> building construction. They brought in a 'dream team' of architects, designers and artisans ranging from Le Corbusier's protégé Charolotte Perriand to local carpenter Bernard Taillefer.<br />
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From the start it was planned that Les Arcs would open in stages, with Arc 1600 (then called 'Arc Pierre Blanche') in 1968, followed by Arc1800 in 1974. The complex construction of Arc 2000, which was to the be 'jewel in the crown' of Les Arcs and France's 2nd highest resort opened in 1979. The final piece in the jigsaw was the opening in 1980 of the enormous 'Club Med' at Arc 2000, in the sweeping upward-curved building that imitates the wild contours of the mountains around it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arc 2000 today</td></tr>
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Robert was extremely active in the new resort, as 'Director of Skiing' as well as training the Les Arcs Ski Club (nurturing the next generation of <i>Arcadien</i> ski instructors) and working as an international consultant in places far from Les Arcs as Chile, Argentina, China and the Soviet Union. He was a very 'hands-on' boss, aware that many of the resort first workers where his school friends, neighbours and of course, his brothers.<br />
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So it was no surprise that on the last day of his life, Robert chose to lead a team to search the road between Arc 1600 and 2000 after two Belgian girls booked into the new Club Med had failed to arrive as expected.<br />
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The weather had been appalling for weeks, a mixture of heavy snow, rain and wind. Virtually all the lifts were closed because avalanche danger. The previous night the barrier at been lowered across the road near where UCPA is today, indicating that it was closed. However, on the morning of the fateful day it was discovered that the barrier had been raised, and there appeared to be traces of tyre-marks in the snow. Fearing that the Belgians might have become stuck or even avalanched, Robert's team inched it's way along the road, eventually reaching the safety of the <i>Belliou Fumé </i>restuarant at Pré St Espirit without finding anything. Before heading back, Robert's brother Yvon passed round a bottle of Eau de Vie, saying "Have a drop of this, it might be the last time we drink together!". "You can save all that for another day", replied Robert, ominously.<br />
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Robert died a few minutes later at <i> Les Chavonnes</i>, a notoriously avalanche-prone spot, ironically just beyond the recently-constructed <i>paravalanche </i>tunnel. He was the only one in the group buried by the 'liquid concrete', and died instantly from a broken neck. Today a plaque marks the spot. They carried his body back to Arc 1600, where one of the new studio apartments served as a 'chapel of rest'. His funeral in Hauteville-Gondon was attended by over 3000 people. The Belgian girls were found safe and comfortable in the Cachette Hotel, and it was never found out who raised the barrier on the Arc 2000 road, or why. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MdW999sGhVkbnXPMDJ2rehs9xbLhoGdH6lUGSB0D1gOg0LFJfZ37ej0rz7MSD3Q-O_kEZ4UYIi2lz1qpV-Q1W2rOn1w3iddpsG2awifWgjoVXNrF8wrvHZVKqzb6TxFOtGGAGgtbDTE9/s1600/rev+de+bergers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Reve de Bergers" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3MdW999sGhVkbnXPMDJ2rehs9xbLhoGdH6lUGSB0D1gOg0LFJfZ37ej0rz7MSD3Q-O_kEZ4UYIi2lz1qpV-Q1W2rOn1w3iddpsG2awifWgjoVXNrF8wrvHZVKqzb6TxFOtGGAGgtbDTE9/s1600/rev+de+bergers.jpg" title="Reve de Bergers" width="131" /></a>Blanc's death marked the 'end of the beginning' for Les Arcs, which was soon after to find itself in a dark place: financial and political crises were compounded by the natural catastrophe of the<i> La Ravoire</i> landslide in 1981, resulting in the virtual bankruptcy of the resort which could have lead to its abandonment. However perhaps it was the inspiration of Robert Blanc, his vision and determination that has continued to drive Les Arcs to new heights. I'm sure he would be proud of today's Paradiski and all that has been achieved here in the last 34 years.<br />
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I'm indebted to Robert's daughter Claudie's book '<a href="http://www.amazon.fr/R%C3%AAve-bergers-Robert-laventure-cr%C3%A9ation/dp/2907984322" target="_blank">Reve de Bergers</a>'. It's wonderful and encyclopedic portrait of Robert Blanc, his brothers and the history of Les Arcs (in French, but I've started translating it).<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-76113538469238870312014-01-29T11:29:00.002+01:002014-01-29T14:32:01.342+01:00RN90 Project - road to nowhere?<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whether you make your way to Les Arcs by road or rail you will probably notice a great deal of heavy construction work going on just after Moutiers, as the RN 90 and the railway beside it begin their tortuous ascent through the narrowing <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">Isère </span>gorges to Aime, Bourg and eventually Val d'<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">Isère</span> at the head of the Haute Tarentaise valley. A reader emailed me to ask me if I knew what was going on there, so here goes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The 46 million euro scheme is called the <i><a href="http://www.rhone-alpes.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Lettre-RN90-No1_cle2b6219.pdf" target="_blank">Deviation de la RN90 á Montgalgan</a></i>, and involves diverting the road to the other side of the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">Isère </span>river, below the site of the now disused Loyettaz Quarry, over a distance of 1.75km. A second viaduct will take it back to its original trace at St Marcel, just before the Tunnel de Siaix. It's a massive project that's going to take 4 years to complete. The end result will be a four-lane dual-carriageway and the widening of the bed of the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">Isère </span>river to 18m (now 12m) by scrapping part of the 'old' road. The old quarry, which really is a scar on the landscape, will be 'naturalised' and re-planted with indigenous forest trees that were destroyed in 1898 with the rush for industrialisation in the Tarentaise valley. Rubbish and pollutants will be removed from the bed of the <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 16.1200008392334px;">Isère </span>to encourage it back to its natural state, and by making it wider possible future flooding will be avoided (remember global warming?).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">JCB buried by falling rocks in April 2013</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All this ecological virtue is fine, but it's hardly the main reason for undertaking such a huge scheme. What's really behind it are increasing problems of rock falls and landslides onto the road from the geologically-unstable Montgalgan cliff, visible in the top right of the picture above. At the start of the project there was a huge <i>eboulement </i>that effectively buried a large JCB excavator, thankfully without any casualties. Anyone who uses the RN90 as regularly as I do will be used to seeing piles of rock at the side of the road, and while stuck in the frequent Saturday traffic jams find plenty of time to admire the complex spider-web of netting, ropes and fences erected over the years to protect the railway and road.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCVdyTVrj5ZVz3BIevp3VWGZSQrvWFCTrNgKG2vTgo8sWn2XVAeHQQbsbi6oRdEw6zKtx0F2lf74LqGEz__3FLOvRWIIqkWfro9BW4ZAmUbuPIlZsNlbod_n0FEDPgOzg3K19IQORE4lB/s1600/viaduct+de+centron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCVdyTVrj5ZVz3BIevp3VWGZSQrvWFCTrNgKG2vTgo8sWn2XVAeHQQbsbi6oRdEw6zKtx0F2lf74LqGEz__3FLOvRWIIqkWfro9BW4ZAmUbuPIlZsNlbod_n0FEDPgOzg3K19IQORE4lB/s1600/viaduct+de+centron.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Viaduct de Centron during construction in 2005</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The RN90 carries up to 45,000 vehicles on a typical busy Saturday during the winter school holidays Many of the world's most famous and popular ski resorts are served by this road, and apart from the railway there's no other way into the valley. In 2005 a similar project was undertaken at Centron, a few kilometres up the valley, with the construction of the imposing viaduct at the end the other end of Siaix Tunnel sweeping the RN90 to the right bank for exactly the same reasons as the Montgalgan project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The new road is going to give a better view of the rambling '<a href="http://www.metauxspeciaux.fr/" target="_blank">Metaux Speciaux</a>' works at St Marcel, where chlorine, vandium and various nasty-sounding 'alkaline metals' are made for the nuclear power industry. The plant takes full advantage of the adjacent railway line, dispatching its products in huge rail-tankers during the passenger-free hours of the night. Many of these large industrial complexes were established in the early 20th Century in order to take advantage of the possibilities of hydro-electric power.to produce the huge amount of energy required to turn rocks into gas. Metaux Speciaux managed to produce so much electricity from its own hydro-power plants that for a time the excess was used the power the Lyon city trams!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But is the <a href="http://www.rhone-alpes.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Lettre-RN90-No1_cle2b6219.pdf" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Deviation de la RN90 á Montgalgan</a> all a huge waste of time and money? Certainly the environmental pressure group <a href="http://www.vivrentarentaise.fr/tourisme-et-amenagements" target="_blank">Vivre en Tarentaise</a> think so. From the congested 2-lane giratory system around Moutiers one will be able to speed toward the inevitable traffic jam that will occur when the wonderful new stretch of road funnels into one lane in the Tunnel de Saix, before joining the next <i>embouteillage </i>as the two lanes of the Centron viaduct converge at the tricky corner above the narrow Gorge de Centron. And then it's solid all the way to Bourg St Maurice and beyond....</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbggN5qonwDwkoPXpo9ioTzMc7V-_Zs2qML2Q6zx8SD2cG3C06eQ6YFrgDMYU8-2YUtFrP0qT83_5pOaRudxnKrCvdLDczjLdEsXD-vZFWTGwRHdyt1oY7Z4gkpsazqFAyyxUtJ6CwBSlk/s1600/boucle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbggN5qonwDwkoPXpo9ioTzMc7V-_Zs2qML2Q6zx8SD2cG3C06eQ6YFrgDMYU8-2YUtFrP0qT83_5pOaRudxnKrCvdLDczjLdEsXD-vZFWTGwRHdyt1oY7Z4gkpsazqFAyyxUtJ6CwBSlk/s1600/boucle.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Vivre en Tarentaise</i> raises the question again of why not spend this money on the railway instead? The official answer is the the hundred-year old railway is already 'saturated' at peak times, with no more space for any more trains. Most of it is single track and in tunnels. Deep inside the mountain adjacent the Montgalgan scheme is the extraordinary railway '<i>boucle</i>', a <a href="http://www.actumontagne.com/moutiers-tres-ferroviphile-en-2013-article_1419.html" target="_blank">long spiral tunnel </a>by which the line rises from <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">480 à 520 m over a short distance. Like the <i>deviation</i>, it took 4 years to build in 1913. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizCqgOdwtBC2q5dRxiedankyzEqtUd_aCsgT6gMGzp0o9M4C0eCt-yprLT_0X43gyD_JS11Gn17JmdS74K-u39C8ndsHXhS-u-LeeoLdPraV0HFS4FwT4pojmCNm6ZbdlqemSht8yxzjfP/s1600/boris-cable-cars-london.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizCqgOdwtBC2q5dRxiedankyzEqtUd_aCsgT6gMGzp0o9M4C0eCt-yprLT_0X43gyD_JS11Gn17JmdS74K-u39C8ndsHXhS-u-LeeoLdPraV0HFS4FwT4pojmCNm6ZbdlqemSht8yxzjfP/s1600/boris-cable-cars-london.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Boris enjoying the London cable car</span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Perhaps engineers and politicians today should try and emulate the ingenuity and determination of those earlier road and rail builders - if expanding the road or railway isn't going provide a solution to the problem of access why not look for a more radical solution? 60 years ago a massive telepherique was built to ferry concrete from railway trucks arriving at Bourg St Maurice station 23km up the valley to site of the Tignes hydro-electric dam at the Lac de Chevril (you can still see the footing of one of the pylons by the allotments in the park next to the funicular). Cable transport is taking off round the world as a cheap, safe way of moving people - there's even now a cable car across the Thames in London. So why not a huge cable car system with stops at all the main resorts/towns from Moutiers to Val D'Isere to transport people and their luggage silently up the valley. Just think of the view and how much CO2 could be saved.... something to dream about while stuck in those inevitable traffic jams of the future.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">More information (in french): <a href="http://www.rn90montgalgan.fr/">www.rn90montgalgan.fr</a></span></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3033188567444788700.post-35278735725870289832014-01-15T18:29:00.000+01:002014-01-15T18:35:19.196+01:00Smoking boars, hunting lodges and graffiti - new places to eat on the mountainWith things finally settling down snow-wise both on the mountain (a good few centimetres last night and more on the way) and in the chalets (staff problems resolved, I hope!) I hope I can get back to some regular blog writing again.<br />
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Les Arcs has been criticised in the past for its lack of mountain restaurants. It is certainly true that in comparison to La Plagne they are rather few and far between, with only a handful actually located 'on the piste' rather than awkwardly placed within the resorts. So it's good news that two new establishments have spring up this season, plus the long awaited opening of the new<b> <a href="http://aguille%20grive%20hotel%20-%20what%27s%20happened/?" target="_blank">Aguille Grive</a></b> restaurant and hotel at Arc 1800 (it never managed to open last season because of problems with the EDF over the electricity supply, apparently).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaS_QpuXKZFIGfHSzwb90TWSmBg_7bgzm7Yvnj1l1Vy6qUPqsXg8uG9rHDfrBL40pjxFCRuGv5A6myhPn4nB8ab_HaEpVx_ZpC75ffoWVszei2VH8IFoMjtyBSw5yhPFN0YD1dzy7jxfMT/s1600/grillette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaS_QpuXKZFIGfHSzwb90TWSmBg_7bgzm7Yvnj1l1Vy6qUPqsXg8uG9rHDfrBL40pjxFCRuGv5A6myhPn4nB8ab_HaEpVx_ZpC75ffoWVszei2VH8IFoMjtyBSw5yhPFN0YD1dzy7jxfMT/s320/grillette.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chalet Grillette interior</td></tr>
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The<b> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/chalet.grillette" target="_blank">Chalet Grillette </a> </b>is also above 1800, beside the Grand Melezes piste and right under the Transarc lift. It's a reasonably attractive stone-and-wood chalet-style building, but it's a shame however it doesn't reflect the <i>Arcadien </i>architectural radicalism that is gleefully demonstrated in the new Aguille Grive constructions. The inside is more interesting, with graffiti-style murals by the local artist Pierre Grellon, who describes himself as a '<a href="http://www.lalunart.fr/" target="_blank">self-taught tagger</a>'. Grellon's art-deco style alpine depictions have also been used for Paradiski publicity and he also did the mural inside the tunnel leading to the Snow Park. More on the food when I've found a guest to take me there for lunch!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5MsZApeOGGbfwGY7n5TImGPcWA0o7rsNA-gpTjEdorX95uIXvFMukgZUE0IXcBTNFkNscW1oorXBpMGsxuyOBALKzhUlmaq_2k_UrEFGZLx6iF8XtdEG4ru0whUvMgu9uTnDKhjhMLQR/s1600/sanglier+qui+fume.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5MsZApeOGGbfwGY7n5TImGPcWA0o7rsNA-gpTjEdorX95uIXvFMukgZUE0IXcBTNFkNscW1oorXBpMGsxuyOBALKzhUlmaq_2k_UrEFGZLx6iF8XtdEG4ru0whUvMgu9uTnDKhjhMLQR/s320/sanglier+qui+fume.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Le sanglier qui fume</td></tr>
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Local skills and <i>metiers </i>are also much in evidence at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lesanglierquifume1600?ref=stream" target="_blank"><b>Le Sanglier qui Fume</b></a> (The Smoking Boar) at Arc 1600, just below the Chalet Beguin and under the Mont Blanc lift (access from Cachette or Mont Blanc piste). The restaurant has been built by a local firm, Charpentier Bute, using traditional techniques and materials. The menu looks really interesting, featuring of course boar sausages as well as home-made foie gras and a 'smoking boar burger'. Again, I can't wait to try it once I've saved up (cheapest thing on the menu is about €15 euros). The whole place has a bit of an unfinished look about it (there's not even a proper sign yet), but the huge south facing balcony ought to become a popular place to watch the sun descend below <i>Le Cheval Blanc.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh56tqskXbi4AkYImGG6fvPR3eGvX1ixMsBQ_y8zaRC9FUiPFCxUvIm__p9QoBkoqYiv60oHN4X6c63y2I8S4HWu2ACUDwS2xb9_zfcPpAx3zmMHPlhNPFGvNT20x5vTu8fduBiXC0_qLgb/s1600/381915_291420454225164_1052661927_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh56tqskXbi4AkYImGG6fvPR3eGvX1ixMsBQ_y8zaRC9FUiPFCxUvIm__p9QoBkoqYiv60oHN4X6c63y2I8S4HWu2ACUDwS2xb9_zfcPpAx3zmMHPlhNPFGvNT20x5vTu8fduBiXC0_qLgb/s320/381915_291420454225164_1052661927_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Hotel Beguin in about 1965, with the old Biollet drag lift</td></tr>
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The newest restaurant at Arc 1600 is located a few metres down hill from the oldest, the <b><a href="http://www.location-appartement-les-arcs.com/chalet-hotel-eng/chalet-hotel-beguin-uk.php" target="_blank">Chalet Beguin</a>, </b>one of the few facilities pre-dating Les Arcs that is still going. It was once a small hunting-lodge, owned by the Montrigon-based Beguin family for generations. When the first lifts were constructed to form the 'Courbaton 1750' ski area in 1961 (see <a href="http://grangedalice.blogspot.fr/2013/01/courbaton-war-peace-and-power.html" target="_blank">previous blogs</a> about this) Louis Beguin constructed a small drag lift himself, called Le Biollet, and refurbished the hunting lodge to provide 'shelter and nourishment' for skiers. As one of only three eating place within the Courbaton 1750 area it quickly became successful, and in 1965 Beguin further enlarged the establishment to create a 30 bed hotel, bar and restaurant.<br />
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The Les Arcs revolution was then beginning, but Beguin was a skeptic, believing, along with others, that the development of Courbaton 1750 would be a better plan than Blanc and Godino's radical scheme for Les Arcs. Perhaps because he was an influential municipal councillor he managed to avoid compulsory purchase (almost every existing building within the new Arcs domain was bought out, sometimes forcibly, in line with the Godino's 'total ski' management concept). With the success of the ski area and his hotel-restaurant Beguin was able to quit his hated job as an engineer and became a full-time hotelier. The Chalet Beguin still has the feel of a hunting lodge, and the 1960s about it: it's also a nice place to step back in time, sit and watch the sunset.<br />
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<br />Ski Adventureshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13938016181944663805noreply@blogger.com0