L'ARMEE ET LA VALLEE: The Chasseurs Alpins Leave Town

This summer sees one of the bedrocks of Bourg St Maurice leaving town.  The 7th Brigade of the Chasseurs Alpins (7e BCA) are moving to the Grenoble area.  They are the French army's elite mountain troops, with many currently in Afghanistan.

The departure of the BCA caused quite a stir when first announced - the impact on the local community and economy of several hundred families moving on, the loss of an emergency service in case of disasters, etc.  And it remains high up the list of concerns at the start of 2012 - they are one of the anchors of the local economy, and with the ski industry flat, there is much to think about.  The French government have sweetened the pill slightly by awarding the new national advanced ski training centre to Bourg St Maurice rather than Chamonix, but it certainly makes initiatives like Bourg St Maurice 2020 all the more relevant.

So this will be the last season you will see the chasseurs on the local pistes.  They have guarded my hire car at Les Ecudets (below La Rosiere), and at Les Brevieres (below Tignes).  And they have scared me, with their "we do not stop for civilians" armoured car convoys on the Cormet de Roselend.  You will still see them training - for example on the Les Granges piste below Arc 1800:

Here's the local news coverage where they talk about the departure from BSM:

More on the background, history etc in the Wikipedia entries, in English and (with much more detail) in French.

THE BUSINESS OF SKIING: The Season So Far

It's true that many of the ski instructors we see are actually farmers, plumbers, shopkeepers etc in the local villages.  The second part of this video gives you a "day in the life" of Les Arcs.  But, aside from the small resorts with a drag lift or two, the lift systems need investment, and therefore are serious business propositions.

The bulk of the French Premier League resorts are owned by the Compagnie des Alpes: La Rosiere, Les Menuires, Meribel, Chamonix, Avoriaz, Les 2 Alpes, Valmorel, Val d'Isere, Tignes, Serre Chevalier, La Plagne, Les Arcs....

Arc 2000

They are also into theme parks: the portfolio includes four "Parcs Walibis" (whatever they are), Parc Asterix and (scene of various Tour de France stages), Futuroscope.

The story of the season so far, announced in CdA's latest results, is a bit mixed, really:

• Late snowfall which meant everyone was on edge until the second week into December
• Having Xmas Day and New Year's Day on a Sunday
• The heavy snowfalls in the first week of Jan (see below, en direct from Bourg St Maurice...)

The result: skier numbers are down 1% on last year.  The CdA pronounces itself "satisfied", at least for the moment.  If this is how well the big reports are doing in these uncertain times, one wonders how the smaller ones are faring.  Certainly the news from small resorts in the Pyrenees hasn't been great.  The Crystal Ski Report 2011 reported a 5% fall last year in the number of Brit skiers, on top of 13% and 11% falls in previous years, but claimed the market was "set to rebound".   It will be interesting to see if the record snowfalls do prompt some "floating skiers" to go, or indeed whether it's the economy, rather than the snow, which plays the upper hand.  We'll see.

On the other hand, all is good for the theme parks: revenues up 13%, and lots of plans for the future.  Onwards and upwards!

LES ARCS IN PICTURES: The Architecture (Part 2)

The architecture of Les Arcs is much maligned.  At least that's my view.... There was a vision, an overarching idea, which the founding fathers took very seriously.  More on the background here.

Arc 1800 formed stage 2 of the development.  Like the much smaller Arc 1600, there was an emphasis on the design, and Charlotte Perriand took the lead on the interiors.  But this chantier was on a much larger scale. Here's the plan for the Charvet site:

The blocks were built during a tight building window.  Everything had to fit within a seven month timetable.  The emphasis was on large numbers of studio apartments.  Here's the design for Pierra Menta.  These apartments are 30m sq.  They follow the slope of the hill, so that, from above, there is no hint of the scale of the immeubles that lie below.

Here's the inside of the Belles Challes block, in Charvet.  This links directly with the Lauzieres building, which is slightly up-hill (and slightly up-market).  

Although the blocks are large, great importance was placed on two factors.  First, having an integrated kitchen/living area (not sure there is much option given the size of the studios).  And second, ensuring that there is no "vis-a-vis" - ie the flats open straight onto views of the valley.

The final third of the following video includes interviews with some of the architects, and a Grand-Designs style overview of the construction of the blocks, including the pre-fabricated bathroom/kitchen unit produced off-site and loaded into place using a crane:

More on the background at the Charlotte Perriand Pompidou Centre exhbition from a few years back, as well as in the Carnet de Montagne book, available in resort.  The tourist office do guided tours during the season, if you're in Les Arcs and want to know more.....