LA ROSIERE: Round-up

Official website here

Brilliant vistas of the Tarentaise.  A big ski area, with flattering runs on the French side and steeper reds over in Italy.  Big vertical descents on both sides.  La Rosiere is a bit of a hidden gem.

The defining point is the border on the Col du Petit St Bernard, which marks the watershed between the Mediterranean (Rhone) and Adriatic (Po).  Here's a weary cyclist arriving, buffeted by the ever-present wind.



And here's the Tour de France climbing the Col in 2009, prior to its arrival in arrival in Bourg-St-Maurice:



More (from this blog) on La Rosiere here, including a brief note on plans to expand the resort - something which is not going to go unchallenged.

For more on the rather excellent skiing, have a look at the We Love 2 Ski and Where to Ski and Snowboard guides.  And during the season you can keep in touch with what's happening on Twitter via my namesake @SimonAtkinson66 - aka the Brit who runs the local ESF.

TIGNES: Round-up

Click here for English language website

Tignes needs little introduction to regular skiers.  It may not be beautiful, but for me has much more character than Val d'Isere.  If you're day-tripping, park at Les Brevieres. There is also a snowy car park at Les Boisses, although make sure you have chains or good tyres if you park here.  Les Boisses is the site of the giant Tignes dam, which feeds the power station at Bourg St Maurice (and the electricity needs of some 350,000 people).


Some links from this blog:

Tignes in the 2007 Tour de France

6 good things about Tignes


Other links:

ESF at the Lac de Tignes.  One of the rare ski schools to offer collective off-piste ("grand ski") lessons

The We Love 2 Ski guide to Tignes

The Where to Ski and Snowboard guide

Le lac webcam via www.tignes.co.uk


Tignes has really made an effort with its various events, with the X-Games really growing in stature in recent years:

THE HISTORY OF LES ARCS: The Documentary

The history of Les Arcs takes a bit of piecing together - the pages here try to provide something of a guide.

To add to the excitement, here are two new sources of information...

The first is a video from a great series of documentaries about grands travaux.  You can find it on the Daily Motion site here.  (There's also an account of the building of the Tignes dam as part of the project to meet France's post-war electricity needs).

It covers quite a bit of ground, including:

- the mountain before Les Arcs - very little activity
- the compulsory purchase of properties by the developers (Blanc, Godino et al.  Roger Godino is interviewed at 7')
- the design of the apartments at Arc 1600, which looked to avoid "vis-a-vis" in terms of the flats being overlooked etc (11'45)
- a tour with some of the original proprieteres at Arc 1800 (14')
- the story of Radio Les Arcs (17')
- an interview with Bernard Jafe, one of the original commercants, who runs the photo shop next to Chez Boubou at Arc 1800 (19')
- archive shots of a family in one of the Perriand-designed interiors at Arc 1800 (22')
- "Le Disneyworld" at Arc 1950 (24')
- the Les Arcs pistes today: some 250,000 skiers a year

The prefabricated bathroom/kitchen units
designed by Charlotte Perriand helped meet the
target of getting the Arc 1800apartments
built between May1 and November 20

The second exhibit, from the www.alpissime.com site, pays homage to the early proprieteres of Les Arcs.

Pierra Menta, Arc 1800

Some headlines:

- many of the early buyers bought the flats off-plan
- the personal touch of Robert Blanc played a role in some cases, for example bringing some of the people he met in Courchevel over to invest in Les Arcs
- Arc 1600 remains 80% proprietere-owned
- the early lifts included the now-dismantled Gollet lift at 1600, as well as a steep drag following the course of the current Comborciere chair
- helicopters used to drop off off-piste skiers at the Altiport, these being the days before the ban on heli-skiing